By Dr. Adora Obi Nweze President of the NAACP Florida State Conference of Branches
Since taking office, Gov. Ron DeSantis has waged a calculated assault on the rights of Black Floridians. If our community doesn’t fight back with the “fierce urgency of now” invoked by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., our children and grandchildren will likely face a bleak future in this state.
Before he was even elected Ron DeSantis signaled his intentions when he used a racial slur against his Black gubernatorial opponent. His actions in office have only reinforced his bias against Black Floridians. He strong-armed the Legislature into racially gerrymandering the state’s congressional districts, directly resulting in reduced Black representation in Congress. He imposed numerous changes to election laws to suppress turnout, and gutted a constitutional amendment, overwhelmingly approved by voters, restoring voting rights to more than a million Floridians, many of them Black. In a transparent attempt to intimidate Black voters, he created a taxpayer-funded state agency that has abused its power by charging Floridians, mostly Black, with scurrilous voter fraud charges.
This governor’s assault on Black Floridians doesn’t stop at voting rights. He has sought to undermine school diversity, equity and inclusion programs, restricted lessons on Black history, and launched an epidemic of book banning in Florida schools. All these actions illustrate clearly the threat posed by DeSantis and his allies.
With so much at stake, it’s fair to say Florida stands at the crossroads of America’s future and we, as Black Floridians, are on the front lines. It’s time to fight back and defend our freedoms in the so-called “Free State of Florida.” We can’t afford to sit idly by and hope someone else stands up for us. We must be the change we want to see in Florida.
In recent years we’ve seen escalating rhetoric against so-called “woke” Floridians – DeSantis’ not-so-subtle code for Blackness, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, or anyone else who disagrees with him. These attacks are meant to distract and divide Floridians, solely to serve Ron DeSantis’ aspiration to be president.
These attacks increasingly jeopardize public safety, particularly for ours and other marginalized communities. Last month, as state lawmakers rammed through more anti-Black education legislation, the NAACP Florida State Conference of Branches membership voted unanimously to request a travel advisory from our National Board of Directors warning fellow Black Americans to be cautious about travel to Florida. They will make a decision when they meet in May.
During the height of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Florida’s current political landscape is a stark reminder that the arc doesn’t bend without all of us working together.
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