NAACP and Florida

So the NAACP has warned black Americans not to travel to Florida because the state is hostile to them.  Two points in opposition can be made.

First, the head of the NAACP lives in Tampa:

NAACP board of directors chairman Leon W. Russell pushed back against criticism for his organization's travel advisory for Black people in the state of Florida while he himself lives in the Tampa Bay area...

Florida Republican Party chairman Christian Ziegler pointed out that Russell’s Twitter account shows that he currently lives in the Tampa Bay area.

Ziegler commented on the apparent hypocrisy and offered to pay for Russell to leave the state:

"The CHAIRMAN of the @NAACP lives in Tampa, FLORIDA! True leadership is being willing to do what you ask others to do… time to step up and MOVE. If you think our state is so bad, the @FloridaGOP will help with moving costs."

I like the cut of this Ziegler fellow's jib.

Second, Florida has the 2nd highest number of black-owned businesses in the country:

Despite Florida being one of the best states for black business owners, the NAACP has decided the state is irredeemably racist, and has issued a travel advisory against it.

The NAACP points to several of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s policies — including recent legislation to prohibit colleges from spending public funds on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts — and the state’s “seeming quest to silence African-American voices” as examples of “the hostility towards African Americans in Florida.”

Donna Jackson, the director of membership development for the Project 21 black leadership network, is having none of this.  She says:

While the NAACP claims to represent the interest of black and brown people, it certainly doesn’t consider the financial interest of these same Americans.

The NAACP issued a travel advisory claiming the new DeSantis law is racist and harms black Americans. However, it failed to mention in its statement that Florida ranks number two for black-owned businesses.

That being the case, I think the NAACP is more concerned with its elite white liberal donors than it is with the financial prosperity of African Americans who will be negatively impacted the most by its travel ban.

According to the Florida Chamber of Commerce, there are more than 250,000 black-owned businesses in Florida which collectively employ 77,136 Floridians and represent an annual payroll of $2.63 billion. That ranks it as the state with the second-most black-owned businesses in the country.

Follow the money.  Ms. Jackson could not be more correct.

And there's plenty of other commentary at the link.