A black Florida businessman has ridiculed the NAACP’s ‘travel advisory’ issued last week against his state, accusing the organization of wanting to fundraise by jumping on the ‘BLM gravy train’.
The NAACP on May 20 warned that Florida, under its Republican governor and presidential candidate, Ron DeSantis, was ‘openly hostile to African Americans’.
The backlash was immediate, with many pointing out that senior NAACP leadership, including their chairman, live in the state.
On Friday, financier Mike Hill, who is also part of an initiative promoting black Americans called Project 21, said the NAACP warning was absurd, and a brazen publicity stunt.
‘I would tell black people who have seen this advisory to not come to Florida to simply ignore it,’ said Hill, owner of an independent insurance and financial services agency in Pensacola.
Hill told Fox News: ‘I believe that they see the amount of tens of millions of dollars that Black Lives Matter has been able to raise from the leftist agenda, and so they want a part of that gravy train.
‘I believe it was more a publicity stunt. It was an attempt to fundraise more than anything else.’
Mike Hill, who owns an insurance and financial firm in Pensacola, Florida, said he thought the NAACP advisory would backfire, showing the organization to be ‘irrelevant’
Nikki Whiting, the press secretary for Florida’s Department of Health, responded to the NAACP’s advisory by reminding the organization that Joseph Ladapo, the state’s Surgeon General, is black
The NAACP issued this travel advisory warning African Americans against traveling to Florida, which it claims is ‘hostile’
Florida Republicans are leading the backlash against the warning, which was issued despite the fact the civil rights group’s own chairman lives there and members of the board frequent its beaches on vacation.
Leon W. Russell, 73, has lived in Florida for his adult life after growing up in Virginia.
Today, he lives in a two-bedroom home in north Tampa.
Karen B. Towns, the NAACP co-chair and a member of the board, also enjoys vacationing in Clearwater.
Despite their connections to the sunshine state, they joined the organization in warning other African Americans against traveling there.
Russell however joined calls for African Americans to boycott the state.
Christian Ziegler, chairman of the Florida Republican Party, is now offering to help Russell move to a different 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 Florida GOP will help with moving costs.’
Leon Russell, the chair of the NAACP, lives in Tampa, Florida
Karen B. Towns, the NAACP co-chair and a member of the board, enjoys vacationing in Clearwater
Leon W. Russell, 73, has lived in Florida for his entire adult life after growing up in Virginia. Today, he lives in a two-bedroom home in north Tampa
Hill said Russell and his team’s position was ridiculous, singling out Russell for particular opprobrium.
‘The irony that he has lived here most of his adult life, has actually witnessed the fact that a thousand people a day move to Florida for the opportunity that’s here – and that he would still issue out a statement saying don’t come here because of the racist attitudes that exist in Florida,’ Hill said.
And he said he thought the NAACP advisory would backfire, showing the organization to be ‘irrelevant’.
‘I don’t think is going to deter anyone from coming to Florida,’ he said.
‘If anything, I think this is going to backfire on the NAACP and show just how irrelevant they’ve become as an organization.’
The travel advisory claims DeSantis is trying to ‘erase’ black history by eradicating CRT from schools.
DeSantis said it was ludicrous, calling it on Wednesday night a ‘political stunt’.
‘Claiming that Florida is unsafe is a total farce,’ he told Elon Musk, during his campaign launch.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk