The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has issued a travel advisory for the state of Florida, calling the state “actively hostile” to minorities as Florida’s conservative government limits diversity efforts in schools.
In a Saturday press release, the civil rights organization better known as the NAACP said the travel warning comes as Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, “attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools”.
“Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” the advisory said.
Under DeSantis, Florida’s department of education has restricted classroom material covering race, gender, sexuality and other identities. The state’s education department has also prohibited mathematics textbooks and other material for a range of reasons, including alleged inclusion of critical race theory.
DeSantis last week signed legislation banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in public colleges and universities.
In January, Florida rejected an advanced placement (AP) course in African American studies by the College Board, the company that oversees AP classes that can be used for college credit and standardized testing in the US. DeSantis said the proposed course violated Florida’s ban on “critical race theory”, signed by DeSantis last year, and “lacked educational value”.
Critics say that such laws supported by DeSantis are discriminatory and a threat to democracy.
“Let me be clear – failing to teach an accurate representation of the horrors and inequalities that Black Americans have faced and continue to face is a disservice to students and a dereliction of duty to all,” the NAACP’s president, Derrick Johnson, said in the advisory.
Prof Kimberlé Crenshaw is a leading voice and scholar of critical race theory, which explores systemic racism within US legal institutions. Crenshaw was one of several authors and academics edited out of the College Board’s AP African American studies course amid Florida’s rejection of the course.
Crenshaw told the Guardian in a March interview that laws against Black history in Florida and elsewhere were the “tip of the iceberg” of conservative efforts to roll back progressivism and push the US towards authoritarianism.
“Are [schools] on the side of the neo-segregationist faction? Or are [they] going to stick with the commitments that we’ve all celebrated for the last 50, 60 years?” asked Crenshaw, referring to progress made on equal opportunities since the 1960s.
“The College Board fiasco, I think, is just the tip of the iceberg. There are a lot of interests that have to make this decision,” she said.
Other groups have also warned against travel to Florida. Equality Florida, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, issued a travel advisory in April because of laws targeting LGBTQ+ rights, the Washington Post reported.
In a separate advisory, the Florida Immigrant Coalition said “traveling to Florida is dangerous”, warning that people of color, international travelers and those with an accent faced a higher risk of racial profiling and harassment.
The NAACP previously issued travel warnings in 2017 for Missouri over the death of a Black man in a jail and racist threats going unchecked on college campuses in that state, Time reported. Black drivers in Missouri were also stopped 75% more than white drivers, according to a 2016 report from the state attorney general’s office that the advisory referenced.
The Guardian could not reach a DeSantis spokesperson for immediate comment.
But DeSantis’s press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, responded to the NAACP travel advisory announcement on Twitter, the Post reported.
Redfern replied to the announcement with a gif of DeSantis saying: “This is a stunt. If you want to waste your time on a stunt, that’s fine. But I’m not wasting my time on your stunts. OK?”
