NAACP Tells Student-Athletes to Avoid Florida’s Colleges After State Bans DEI Programs

“To all current and prospective college student-athletes—the NAACP urges you to reconsider any potential decision to attend and compete at a predominantly white institution in the state of Florida,” said the letter signed by NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Leon W. Russell and NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson.

“This is not about politics. It’s about the protection of our community, the progression of our culture, and most of all, it’s about your education and your future.”

Florida removed DEI from UF and its other state public colleges and universities after the state Board of Education adopted a new rule on Jan. 17 to ban the use of state or federal funds for programs that “categorize individuals based on race or sex for the purpose of differential or preferential treatment,” including DEI.

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The NAACP targeted Mr. DeSantis and his administration’s policies in its March 11 letter, saying the governor has “waged war on Black America” by eliminating DEI from state colleges.

“While the University of Florida may be the first, they will not be the last,” the letter said.

The statement continued, calling the NAACP’s recommendation its “latest political stunt.”

“What Florida refuses to do, however—and what prompted this latest political stunt—is have Florida taxpayers pay for political indoctrination or state-sanctioned discrimination as part of our higher education system; that’s why we’ve eliminated DEI,” the governor’s office said.

The State University System of Florida (SUSF) also responded to the NAACP in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“The NAACP has again targeted Florida with another political attack. The NAACP mischaracterizes Florida statutes and ignores that the DEI prohibited expenditures statute does not apply to student-led organizations nor student speech.”

SUSF says the state’s school system is “among the most diverse in the nation.”

“Florida has achieved this diversity without affirmative action or quotas. While the national average of public undergraduate students who identify as black or Hispanic is 29 percent, here in Florida, that number is 13 points higher at 42 percent,” SUSF said.

The organization said the state’s education success is achieved “when the focus is on students and a quality education rather than indoctrination.”

“We are proud of our Florida institutions and the work they do on behalf of our more than 430,000 students. Florida’s legislature and [Mr.] DeSantis continue to invest in resources that allow us to remain committed to academic excellence and freedom,” said SUSF Chancellor Ray Rodrigues in a statement.

The Epoch Times reached out to the NAACP but did not receive a response prior to publication.

NAACP’s Florida ‘Travel Advisory’

This is not the first time the organization has protested the state of Florida, Mr. DeSantis, and his administration’s policies.

“Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals. Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans and other communities of color,” said the NAACP advisory.

The bills deemed discriminatory by the NAACP include the “Combatting Violence, Disorder, and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act,” the “Stop Wrongs against Our Kids and Employees Act” (“Stop WOKE Act”), and the “Constitutional Carry Act” gun bill.

“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, the state of Florida has become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals that our union was founded upon,” Mr. Johnson said regarding the advisory.

Mr. DeSantis said the NAACP’s claims that Florida is “unsafe” are a “total farce” when he announced his presidential campaign run on X, formerly Twitter.

“If you look at cities like Baltimore and Chicago, you got kids more likely to get shot than to receive a first-class education,” he said.

“Yet I don’t see the NAACP batting an eye about all the outrage and the carnage that’s happening in those areas.”

Like the NAACP’s protest of Florida’s college DEI policy, Mr. DeSantis called the May 2023 travel advisory a “political stunt,” adding that “Black students in Florida perform much higher than black students in most other states.”

“We ranked number three in fourth-grade reading and number two in fourth-grade math amongst our black student population,” the governor said.

For the NAACP and Mr. Johnson, DEI is “paramount [to] ensuring equitable and effective educational outcomes.”

“The value Black and other college athletes bring to large universities is unmatched. If these institutions are unable to completely invest in those athletes, it’s time they take their talents elsewhere,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement on March 11.