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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
David Smith in Washington

DeSantis’s corporate donors under fire for ‘hypocrisy’ over Black History Month

Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks during his 2022 U.S. midterm elections night party in Tampa, Florida.
Florida’s controversial rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, sought reelection in 2022. Many expect him to face Donald Trump in 2024. Photograph: Marco Bello/Reuters

Political activists in Florida have condemned the “hypocrisy” of large corporations that use Black History Month to denounce racism while donating hundreds of thousands dollars to the state’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis.

Amazon, AT&T, Comcast, Disney and Walmart are among the companies that publicly proclaim their commitment to anti-racist values, especially after the 2020 police murder of George Floyd, an African American man in Minneapolis.

But research by the Center for Political Accountability, a non-profit organisation that tracks corporate political spending, shows that these same businesses donated directly and indirectly to the 2022 re-election campaign of DeSantis, who has imposed limits on how race and racism can be taught in Florida schools.

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