'Our governor is racist': Miami Black Affairs Board slams Ron DeSantis during intense meeting

02 February 2023

Although far-right Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a major rock star in the Republican Party and the MAGA movement, the former Donald Trump protégé turned Trump rival is an incredibly polarizing figure — a fact that was evident when he received the Union League of Philadelphia’s gold metal award in late January and was greeted by a crowd of angry protesters that included African-American clergy members as well as prominent Philly Democrats like Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Hughes and City Councilman Kenyatta Johnson. DeSantis’ Philadelphia critics, gathering outside the Union League on Broad Street, argued that in a city that is around 41 percent Black, an award that first went to President Abraham Lincoln back in 1863 shouldn’t go to someone who recently banned an advance-placement course on African-American studies from Florida high schools.

Philly is by no means the only place where DeSantis’ detractors are accusing him of being anti-Black. In South Florida, according to Miami Herald reporter Douglas Hanks, members of the Miami Black Affairs Board are denouncing DeSantis as overtly hostile to their interests.

During a Wednesday, February 1 meeting, according to Hanks, the Miami Black Affairs Board unanimously voted to send DeSantis a letter condemning his positions on diversity spending in Florida schools and the advanced-placement African-American studies course he blocked.

Miami-based attorney Stephen Hunter Johnson, one of the Board members, said of DeSantis, “Our governor is racist. He is using Black America and Black Floridians as a political football.”

Phyllis Sloan-Simpkins, a Board member and retired Miami-Dade firefighter, was also vehemently critical of DeSantis at the February 1 meeting.

Sloan-Simpkins told others on the Board, “If you want to start playing with taking our history away from us, then give us back our tax dollars. Because our tax dollars are supposed to help educate our children.”

DeSantis criticized the advanced-placement studies course that he banned for, among other things, including some discussion of Black gay history. The Florida governor argued, “Who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids.”

But in fact, gays have played an important role in African-American history, from author James Baldwin to poet Langston Hughes to jazz composer Billy Strayhorn (who spent decades collaborating with the iconic swing bandleader/composer Duke Ellington).

Read the Miami Herald’s full report at this link (subscription required).

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