The “New” NAACP Engages in Political Nonsense
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has issued a travel warning against Black folks visiting Florida. It is nothing less than a nonsensical political public relations stunt. In terms of public relations, it did get them a lot of publicity – but that may not be good. Now a lot of people are learning how misguided the once premier civil rights group has become.
Make no mistake about it. The travel warning was issued to help President Biden and the Democrats in the upcoming 2024 election. It was crafted as an attack ad on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — Biden’s strongest potential opponent – at least according to recent polls.
Apparently, the travel advisory gimmick has replaced protests and sit-ins for the NAACP. They issued an advisory in 2017 for Missouri based on a “danger to civil rights.” Then again in 2018 for Georgia for “racist attacks, intimidation and threats” against blacks.
In this Advisory, the NAACP claims that Governor Ron DeSantis has “engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights and free speech, while simultaneously embracing a culture of fear, bullying, and intimidation by public officials.” Whew! The whole Democrat script in one communique. The scope of the complaints clearly establishes the politically partisan nature of the “advisory.”
The Advisory for Florida is even more ridiculous and meaningless than the NAACP’s previous publicity-seeking advisories. Florida is a very diverse state. In fact, almost half the population are people-of-color, as the left likes to call them. Blacks represent 14 percent of the population, which tracks closely to the national number. Florida is the preferred location for Haitian– and other “island Blacks.”
That is about the same percentage as Illinois and Michigan, with a high concentration of Blacks in the segregated cities of Chicago and Detroit. The Black population in Florida is far more integrated.
That brings up a question. Anyone who has had deep ties to the Black community in America knows that there is a significant schism between island Blacks and those referred to as African Blacks. The NAACP is headed by those with a traditional African ancestry and perspective. They have never embraced the more conservative Haitian and island Blacks as “brothers.” Is that why the NAACP ignores the presence of a large Black community?
The current president of the NAACP, Derrick Johnson, has said that he wants to guide “the Association through a period of re-envisioning and reinvigoration.” Those goals reflect the realization that the organization has lost influence in recent years and that it will move in a different direction. It appears that means greater participation in partisan politics and a broadening of its mission to include non-Black interest groups.
The NAACP does not endorse presidential candidates – at least not officially. In 2020, Johnson said, “We don’t endorse candidates or political parties. I’m going to embrace the need to increase voter turnout in the Black community. Then we allow the voters to make a determination of the options on the ballot, which of the two they’re going to select.”
In reality, Johnson repeatedly criticized President Trump in 2020 and praised his opponent, then-former Vice President Biden. The NAACP underscored his position by hosting a friendly town hall meeting for Biden.
Florida is a great place for Blacks to live and visit. Black citizens are not oppressed by the systemic de facto racism plagues residents trapped in segregated ghettoes in all those Democrat-controlled cities.
It is peculiar and very telling that the NAACP doesn’t issue travel advisories for those cities in which black people are being murdered on the streets every day. My hometown of Chicago is far more dangerous for Black residents and visitors than Florida. If the NAACP wants to address endangerment to Black folks, they will warn against travel or taking up residency in places such as Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles, New York, etc., etc., etc.
I have always had a high regard for the NAACP as an organization devoted to civil rights – as a bridge between Republicans and Democrats – conservatives and liberals. It was a safe harbor for folks sincerely interested in pursuing equality and justice for Black Americans without being diverted by partisan politics. Sadly, that is no longer the case. Under Johnson, the NAACP has become just another Democratic Party shill operation.
So, there ‘tis.
Seems like bans and boycotts are all the conservative rage right now and this is just an advisory, not a boycott request.
Many other rankers rate Florida very high, top ten, for Blacks. That’s generally for living, for business, but not necessarily for racism and equality. And each one tends to pick a different city, not the State. Jacksonville, now with a Democrat for mayor, is one of them putting a hole in Larry’s all Dem cities done bad theory. Probably someone else can ferret out what that means but obviously, it’s easy to take exception to my conclusions which are: Florida ain’t nirvana for Blacks. And it’s getting worse so the advisory seems well intended, based on the facts.
FL outlawed high schoolers from taking AP courses stopping them from the study of AP level Black history because FL deemed the course as lacking “educational value and historical accuracy,” and therefore allegedly violating Florida law.
FL had been part of the review process but decided to pull this shit instead of proactively working to make the changes that were made after this shit but to no avail. damage done which now extends beyond the AP course. Many teachers have dropped Black studies altogether for fear of DeSanctimonious backlash. Collateral damage I guess.
FL has passed laws recently, under DeSanctimonious, against accurate Black history portrayals, voting rights that disproportionally affect Blacks, wage war on members of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters, some of which are Black, kidnap immigrants under false premises to be dropped in liberal areas for show, control, limit, or end women’s reproductive rights that affect Blacks, and even laws that curtail free speech.
They have banned books written by leading Black authors and poets. Fight back? FL has passed a law, awaiting appeal not, that criminalizes protests.
In a world where conservatives boycott Bud, Jack Daniels, Hamburger Mary’s, Target and now conservatives violently attack Target stores while berating workers for protecting gayware at Target Stores, I think a Florida travel advisory is OK.
Frankly, Larry, if you cared about Florida you might decide if exclusion is really better than inclusion as a way of life. You just lost $1B in Disney with 2,000 jobs at $120K average adding a revenue stream loss of $240M a year being mostly spent on goods and services in FL and about 7% of that spending in Sales Tax. You are a service economy supported by tight-wad old folks and some very low median incomes which had been on the rise until the culture war started.
All things considered, if you were an employee looking for the sun, wouldn’t you think about minimizing the risks of the next DeSanctimonious move in his culture war? If you were a prospective college student, sexually active as in normal, female, might you choose a state that offers the reproductive rights women have had for half a century? If you were a business, I guarantee you would avoid that risk and other States are already offering lucrative alternative deals. Even Austin looks less risky. Albuquerque looks great, except for the airport. Even Nicky Halley laughs at you and offers Disney a free ride.
I expect you will lose a number of your above median wage workers in the future. Immigrants, migrant workers, all will think twice. Florida has targeted many enemies in this culture war. Why would someone with a target on their back, or the real prospect of putting one there just by living, choose Florida?
Blacks — you say “Florida is a great place for Blacks to live and visit. Black citizens are not oppressed by the systemic de facto racism plagues residents trapped in segregated ghettoes in all those Democrat-controlled cities” and wax poetic on how dangerous Chicago is. You really should check all your urban legends before you park them in your prose. Yes, Chicago has a lot a crime. So do cities in Florida. The following is from Sperlings Best Places, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reports and uses a 0 – 100 scale:
Violent crime/property crime
Chicago: 50/46
Daytona: 63/86
Miami: 49/63
Tampa: 36/33
Jacksonville: 36/62
The rest are better or smaller.
Larry waxes poetic how egalitarian Florida is, how inclusive for Blacks. Truth is Blacks are often segregated to urban areas where all the pitfalls of Chicago, from schools to crime, are bestowed upon them. Florida has a very weak or non-existent public transit system making inner city poverty even harder to escape from. In the 1950’s, in Florida, you could be arrested for swimming while Black if found not at an “all Black” beach.
“August 1, 1945, the county opened Virginia Key Beach as a segregated park “for the exclusive use of Negroes.” The new beach featured amenities including a bathhouse, concession stand, and amusement rides. It became a hub for Black South Florida’s social, cultural, and political life.” WWII was over but Nazi’s still seem to exist in Florida. Blacks could die for the nation, but can’t swim at the nation’s beaches in Florida.
Oh yeah, and at the Key Beach, the dangerous currents that killed more that a few Blacks. But for long term disease, the whites putr the dump and waste treatment plant right next door…..They closed this Black beach in the 1980’s. Yeah, 80’s, not 60’s.
School desegregation took until 1970 to complete. New Jersey, 1947….
I can drone on…..but it’s not the black nirvana, far from it.
US News and World Reports rank Florida as 22nd for equality: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings/opportunity/equality