Last Saturday, three black people were tragically killed at a Dollar General in Jacksonville, Florida, located near Edward Waters University, a historically black college. The suspect, who, according to the local sheriff, "hated black people," killed himself. The reaction from many on the left has been to blame Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), with Professor T Anansi Wilson being particularly hellbent to do so in her column for The Guardian published on Tuesday, "Ron DeSantis’s Florida is a dangerous and hostile place for Black Americans."
When it comes to blaming DeSantis for the tragic deaths, Wilson makes reference to "the culmination of a dog-whistle politics hellbent on using public policy, social disorder and white racial grievance to terrorize, subordinate and eliminate Black people from public and political life," also making reference to the governor, as she does throughout the column.
Wilson admits that DeSantis "was not on hand for the murders," but still boldly claims claims he "and his innovative anti-Black dog whistles should be understood as unindicted co-conspirators." The charges are steep, as he has, according to Wilson, "successfully attempted to criminalize or eradicate the rights and experiences of Black folks, sowing fear and stigmatizing the community as criminal, dangerous and unworthy of citizenship."
Examples include a racist robocall from 2018, when DeSantis beat Democratic nominee Andrew Gillum by particularly narrow margins. Even though Wilson herself notes "DeSantis condemned the robocall, whose provenance was never determined," she still finds it necessary to bring it up.
When it comes to policies that Wilson takes issue with, she goes after how he "gutted" Amendment 4 that restored voting rights for felons; redistricting; and the anti-riot bill, which she saw fit to tie to January 6, while failing to mention the billions in damage caused by the Black Lives Matter protests.
Then there's the Stop Woke Act and the Parental Rights in Education Act, which has actually been expanded, though Wilson doesn't refer to the law by its actual name, probably because it doesn't fit her narrative. And, like so many other leftists have done, she claims Florida state curriculum teaches blacks benefited from slavery:
In 2021 DeSantis also proposed and signed a so-called anti-riot bill. This bill – which was passed after the violent, mostly white, January 6 riot at the US Capitol, but was framed as a reaction to the Black Lives Matter protests – criminalized much of what is commonly understood as protected first amendment speech and protest. The bill made petty vandalism of a flag, plaque or painting a second-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment. It also created felonious penalties for people who organize protests that happen to turn violent, thereby creating a chilling effect on public criticism of anti-Black police violence.
This was followed, in 2022, by the Stop Woke Act and the separate law that critics call the “don’t say gay” bill. With this legislation, DeSantis banned or sharply limited classroom discussion of gender identity and workplace trainings on race and ethnicity. He also revised Florida’s history curriculum to require, among other things, that students are taught about how some enslaved people benefited from slavery. (He later said that the intent was to teach that they “developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery”.)
Perhaps the biggest purveyor of that narrative is Vice President Kamala Harris, whom DeSantis had invited to come to Florida so as to have a discussion and set the record straight about the standards last month, though she declined.
What Wilson fails to mention is that one of the people integral for putting the curriculum together was Dr. William Allen, who is black and descended from slaves. The standards are also quite similar to the College Board's curriculum for AP African American History courses, a course which leftists vehemently defended when there was a conflict with Florida state law and the curriculum.
Towards her closing, Wilson not only claims DeSantis is "partly responsible" for the shooting, but also seeks to get into DeSantis' head when it comes to his beliefs:
It seems that DeSantis would have us believe – and perhaps it is his deeply held belief – that enslavement, subordination and state violence against Black people have long been beneficial to us, and to the various governments of this nation. It is this explicit pattern and practice of affirming anti-Black violence that marks him as partly responsible for this weekend’s violence.
In DeSantis’s America, Blackness and Black people are inherently furtive, rendered both in and outside of law – inside, in so far as we are reachable by the law’s disciplinary arm, but outside, as we are beyond the bounds of constitutional protections.
While this may be a particularly out there example, one which was featured in the RealClearPolitics Wednesday morning edition, it's only one of them.
Guy covered how the Associated Press went for a "vile" take when it comes to mentioning how DeSantis "scoffed at" an NAACP travel warning issued in May as the opening for his article on the shooting in Jacksonville. Brad Slager called such a take "slanderous" when referencing it for Tuesday's edition of "Riffed From the Headlines."
Ron DeSantis scoffed when the NAACP issued a travel advisory this spring warning Black people to use “extreme care” if traveling to Florida.
— Steve Peoples (@sppeoples) August 29, 2023
Just three months later, DeSantis is leading his state through the aftermath of a racist attack that left three African Americans dead.…
Though he is also running for president, DeSantis is currently not on the campaign trail, but rather is in Florida as the state faces Hurricane Idalia. He also gave remarks on Sunday. Except it looked like DeSantis was not moving quickly or decisively enough, for CNN, given that one of their reporters misled about what she had actually asked the governor's press secretary, Jeremy Redfern, when reporting Redfern had said "Will let you know."
And by “specifically” she meant to say “that’s not what I asked at all.”
— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) August 27, 2023
Seeing as @RosalesReport decided to lie about the context of our conversation, I’m going to do something that I wouldn’t normally do and put our conversation on the internet.
Here is our brief exchange: https://t.co/TyN6r7gSRH pic.twitter.com/A8aUkgJfDR
Even those who acknowledge that DeSantis condemned the murders take issue with the governor. He's consistently referred to the suspect as a "scumbag," certainly no compliment. As NewsBusters highlighted, though, MSNBC's Trymaine Lee took issue with term when discussing the shooting and the governor's response on "Andrea Mitchell Reports."
Lee's reaction was just one of the many that NewsBusters highlighted when it comes to blaming the governor, as was the case with NBC News' Gabe Gutierrez, in addition to "CNN Tonight," and MSNBC's "The 11th Hour."
If you're upset DeSantis isn't smearing the entire country as a hotbed of white supremacy, that says more about you than it does about him | @MSNBC Attacks DeSantis For Labeling Racist Shooter a 'Scumbag' https://t.co/PcyZ6anKFT
— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) August 29, 2023
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