Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) slammed the NAACP’s Florida travel advisory for African Americans as “silly” and “dumb” in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
Over the weekend, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida, warning that the state has become “openly hostile toward African Americans” under Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
The NAACP said Florida has “engaged in an all-out attack on Black Americans, accurate Black history, voting rights, members of the LGBTQ+community, immigrants, women’s reproductive rights, and free speech.”
“On a seeming quest to silence African-American voices, the Governor and the State of Florida have shown that African Americans are not welcome in the State of Florida,” the advisory says. “Due to this sustained, blatant, relentless and systemic attack on democracy and civil rights, the NAACP hereby issues a travel advisory to African Americans, and other people of color regarding the hostility towards African Americans in Florida.”
Asked why the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida, Donalds told Fox & Friends: “I don’t even know what the NAACP is talking about. This is silly, and it’s dumb. It’s political. It makes no sense. 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.”
Donalds, who is Black, says he never felt any hostility in Florida because of his race.
“The only hostility I feel is this inflation hit in my pocketbook, I’ll tell you that,” he said. “Because that inflation hitting everybody, that is hostile. You know, when the price of food is up, when the price of gas, which is still up, and the fact that fentanyl is coming into every community in our country because of Joe Biden, maybe the NAACP should be focused on that, because I know that’s hostile.”
