How DeSantis Helped Make the Jacksonville Massacre Possible

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ words, actions and policies directly connect to the white supremacist massacre in Jacksonville. In his attempt to “out-Trump” Trump, DeSantis has embraced an aggressive white supremacist ideology that has specifically targeted Black Floridians.

After championing its development through the Florida legislature, Gov. DeSantis signed the “Stop WOKE Act” into law on April 22, 2022, meant to limit in-depth analysis and discussion about race and racism in the state’s schools and workplaces. The intentionally broadly written law makes it a crime for a Florida teacher to teach students that white slave owners were less moral than the Blacks they enslaved because the statute prohibits teaching that “members of one race, color, national origin, or sex are morally superior to members of another race, color, national origin, or sex.”

His attack on AP African American Studies contributed to Florida’s approval of lesson plans that include the idea that enslaved people “benefited” from slavery because they acquired new skills within an institution that legalized their enforced labor, murder, rape and other forms of physical assault.

When Florida’s most powerful leader supports criminalizing complex explorations of Black history and current Black experiences, he sends a powerful message to fellow white Floridians: Black humanity is not valuable.

This was the message received by fellow Floridan Ryan Christopher Palmeter.

Gov. DeSantis didn’t make the 21-year-old Palmeter drive from Orange Park to Jacksonville’s primarily-Black neighborhood of New Town with an AR-15 covered in swastikas and open fire on Black Floridians — on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. However, DeSantis’ white supremacist actions and policies helped to create an environment where white supremacy is normalized because it’s sanctioned by the state’s highest office.

Poet and cultural critic Conney Williams told Truthdig that DeSantis’ anti-Black policies reinforce the idea that white supremacy is so inherent in American institutions that “America is akin to Mars because the white supremacists have created an atmosphere where only the white people can breathe.”

DeSantis’ Florida is so toxic an environment that, in May, the NAACP issued an extraordinary travel advisory as a “direct response” to the governor’s “aggressive attempts to erase Black history.” The NAACP Board of Directors’ warning, which was initially proposed by concerned members of the NAACP’s Florida State Conference, stated, “Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans … Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced by African Americans.”

Unfortunately, warnings to Black folk about traveling to DeSantis’ Florida can’t help African Americans who live within its dangerous anti-Black borders. It is a sentiment shared by the families of Ryan Palmeter’s massacre victims: Angela Michelle Carr, 52; Anolt Joseph “AJ” Laguerre Jr., 19; and Jerrald Gallion, 29 — three Black Floridians who can’t breathe in the white supremacist atmosphere that DeSantis helped to create.

This may explain why DeSantis was booed from the microphone by some Black attendees before finally getting in a few words at the Sunday prayer vigil for the massacre victims murdered on his anti-Black gubernatorial watch. 

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, Florida’s 24th district representative and chairwoman of the federal Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, released a statement Sunday with words that stood in stark contrast to the governor’s.

“White supremacy is a poison that continues to permeate our society,” Wilson said. “This is the painful truth: racism plagues our state, and it’s time to confront it head-on. We can’t shy away from this harsh reality.”

In the painful context of this horrific tragedy, the cruel irony of Rep. Wilson’s necessary statement is that under the broadly written Stop WOKE Act, a Florida teacher could be charged with a crime for repeating Wilson’s words in a Florida classroom lesson designed to help Black students make sense of why white Floridians want to kill them because they are Black.

According to Jackson Sheriff T.K. Waters, Palmeter left behind three separate manifestos filled with anti-Black racial slurs and white supremacist ideology. He wanted Florida to know that he purposefully targeted Black Floridians. Echoing the NAACP’s warning about traveling in DeSantis’ Florida, Palmeter wanted to be clear that he was a white Floridian who was hostile to African Americans and that he was a white Floridian who devalued Black humanity.

In his initial public comments on the day of the white supremacist murders, DeSantis said that Palmeter didn’t “accept responsibility for his actions so he took the coward’s way out.” The fact that DeSantis has not accepted responsibility and accountability for how his anti-Black actions have helped to create a Florida atmosphere where white supremacy is normalized — and Black people are dehumanized — makes DeSantis a coward, too.

A powerful coward.

Who needs to be held accountable.

Because Black people have reached a white supremacy breaking point. 

In a reference that seemingly linked DeSantis to Palmeter, Rep. Wilson ended her Jacksonville statement, saying, “The dehumanization of Black people has hit a breaking point. We must declare an emergency and demand accountability. When those in power peddle hate, we must respond. Divisive rhetoric ignites hatred and empowers those with violent intent.”