Democratic Party strategist Aisha C. Mills said on Monday that Florida under GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis was “about to be a terrorist state” for black and LGBTQ people — though in the same interview she admitted traveling to the Sunshine State recently for spring break.
Mills made the comment after she was invited to Nicolle Wallace’s “Deadline” talk show to discuss the NAACP’s travel advisory which warned that the Sunshine State was “openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.”
Praising the NAACP’s advisory as “extremely clever,” Mills revealed that she and her family traveled to Florida for spring break.
“You know, I just took my family to spring break in Florida recently and I think about all of the folks who travel there for sun and joy and peace and restoration,” she said.
Her comments were reported by the news site Mediaite.
“Certainly as a lesbian, as a black woman, I don’t want to have anything to do with the place,” she continued.
“And I think about all the other people who don’t want to travel there either.”
Mills added: “So I think it was very clever on behalf of the NAACP. I thank them for issuing this broad guidance.”
She said the advisory also turned a “lens on the United States and highlights how bigotry and bias and ignorance do as much harm as we accuse other countries of doing to people that they suppress.”
The NAACP this past weekend joined two other civil rights groups — League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), a Latino civil rights organization, and Equality Florida, a gay rights advocacy group — to warn would-be tourists about recent laws signed by DeSantis, who is considered a possible contender for the GOP nomination for the presidency.
A recent flurry of legislation that was enacted in Florida has angered Democrats and their supporters.
The DeSantis administration rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course.
DeSantis and Republican lawmakers also have pressed forward with measures that ban state colleges from having programs on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as critical race theory, and also passed the Stop WOKE Act that restricts certain race-based conversations and analysis in schools and businesses.
Jeremy Redfern, DeSantis’ press secretary, tweeted in response to Mills: “She literally said she came to Florida for spring break.”
He added a “laughing hysterically” emoji.
In the next sentence of the tweet, he wrote: “There are not serious people.”
The warning approved Saturday by the NAACP’s board of directors tells tourists that, before traveling to Florida, they should understand the state of Florida “devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color.”
The travel advisory was blasted by Republicans, including Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.).
“I don’t even know what the NAACP is talking about,” Donalds, who is black, told Fox News on Monday.
“This is silly, and it’s dumb. It’s political.”
“It makes no sense,” Donalds continued.
“We should be focused on making sure people actually have the opportunity to achieve, which Florida is actually doing and thriving in way better than other states, let’s say New York or California or Washington State.”
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