Coco Gauff, the reigning U.S. Open champion who’s considered a favorite at the French Open tournament that begins this weekend, told The Associated Press in an interview that right now is “a crazy time to be a Floridian, especially a Black one at that.”
The 20-year-old tennis superstar, who used her interview to encourage people to vote, said, “We aren’t happy with the current state of our government in Florida.”
As a state senator who represents Miami Gardens, Florida’s largest majority-Black city, I applaud Gauff for standing up and speaking out against the state’s open hostility toward Black Americans. In Ron DeSantis’ Florida, Black people (and people of color, more generally) are absolutely less safe. So much so that the NAACP last summer issued an official travel advisory noting the state’s targeted animosity toward Black people and advising Black people not to visit our state.
“Please be advised,” the NAACP advisory read, “that 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 minorities.”
Months after the NAACP’s travel advisory, Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation’s oldest historically Black college fraternity, and of which I am a member, announced that it was pulling its 2025 general convention out of Florida.
A spokesperson for DeSantis immediately dismissed NAACP’s advisory as “nothing more than a stunt.” When his office was asked for a response to Gauff’s comment that it’s a bad time to be Black and in Florida, the governor’s office declined to address it directly and said, instead, that Florida is “thriving.”
I respectfully disagree. How are we thriving when people who have lived here for decades are being priced out? How are we thriving when parents are forced to work three or four jobs just to put food on the table? Are we really thriving when countless residents are unjustly targeted based on their identity?
DeSantis and the members of his administration ought to find it deeply distressing to hear statements rightfully pointing out concerns for safety from such prominent individuals and organizations. But rather than sparing a moment for introspection, they ignore the situation of their own creation and claim no such issue exists.
DeSantis ought to find it deeply distressing to hear statements rightfully pointing out concerns for safety from such prominent individuals and organizations.
Gauff and the NAACP aren’t the only ones who have sounded the alarm on Florida. Travel advisories similar to the one the NAACP released have been issued by groups that include the Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for LGBTQ people, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Equality Florida and the Florida Immigrant Coalition. Retired Miami Heat champion Dwyane Wade and his wife, acclaimed actress Gabrielle Union, are raising a trans daughter, and they, quite understandably, left our state after DeSantis’ attacks on the LGBTQ community. Wade said they left for California “for a lot of reasons,” but, “one of our decisions was what was going to be the safest and best community for our daughter, Zaya.”
He loves Miami, Wade said last year, “but the last couple of years, the laws, the politics, you know, has really become this big conversation, right? It’s unsafe conversation, and it’s unsafe for my daughter, it’s unsafe for the young kids and the youth and adults, the elder in the trans community. And so for us, as much as I love that city, as much as I’m always going to be a part of it, for the safety of my family, that’s what it was. I couldn’t move back.” DeSantis said nothing in response.
DeSantis needs to own the fact that he’s the reason why prominent athletes, companies, civil rights organizations, current residents and visitors alike are declaring our state as unsafe and hostile to millions of Americans. Over the last five years, he and the Legislature he controls have led an aggressive assault on civil liberties and rights — putting Black Americans, the LGBTQ community, immigrants and women in the crosshairs.
Everyone ought to be able to visit and exist in our state, but fewer people are willing to do so thanks to the governor’s hate-driven agenda. From voter suppression to discriminatory laws that block Floridians from accessing health care to an intentionally cruel abortion ban, it’s clear that the governor’s end goal is a complete devaluation and oppression of the state’s most vulnerable people.
It’s troubling that DeSantis seems to care more about his clout with fringe, right-wing extremists than he does delivering for people and doing the job he was elected to do. His dangerous agenda not only hurts people in our communities but also harms our state’s economy, tourism and local small businesses. When we have major employers pulling events and development out of the state in response to DeSantis’ embrace of right-wing authoritarianism, that hurts all of us.
Everyone ought to be able to visit and exist in our state, but fewer people are willing to do so thanks to the governor’s hate-driven agenda.
This moment in our history demands that each of us keep standing up, speaking out, and using our voice any way that we can. We have a responsibility to keep fighting — against censorship, against racial discrimination, and for equal rights.
Not only is Gauff a phenom at the top of her sport, but she’s also an advocate who actively gives back to her community. I know I speak for many when I say Florida is and ought to be proud to call her our own.
But if things stay the way they are in Florida, how much longer will we be able to do so?
