Ron DeSantis Somehow Not Very Popular At Vigil For Jacksonville Shooting Victims
Literally booed off the stage.
Boy, is it ever an awkward time to be a Florida governor who has spent the last several years fretting over the impact that discussing the existence of racism might have on the self-esteem of white students.
Ron DeSantis, who recently fought for an educational curriculum focused on teaching students about the sunny side of slavery, was, shockingly enough, not the most popular guy at the vigil for the three Black people who were shot dead at a Dollar General by a violent racist this weekend. Who would have thought?
In fact, before he could even get to the part in his speech about how this is a very tragic event that Florida students should never, ever learn anything about lest the white ones feel badly for two seconds, he and his wife were booed off the stage.
It wasn’t a particularly forceful or loud booing, but DeSantis ran away all the same.
Jacksonville City Councilwoman Ju’Coby Pittman briefly chastised the audience by saying, “It ain’t about parties today … A bullet don’t know a party.”
Granted, I don’t know that people were booing so much because DeSantis is a Republican as over the fact that, again, he has spent literally his whole time in office insisting that racism is a thing Black people and the Left at large invented to destroy the personal self-esteem of white children, but she tried.
He also literally erased a majority Black congressional district in Jacksonville, reducing Black political power in the state. When Rep. A.C. Hastings died in April 2021, DeSantis didn’t hold a special election for his replacement until January 2022, denying the majority Black district representation for months.
DeSantis continued speaking, focusing his words on a plan to secure funds for security at Edward Waters University, the HBCU the shooter initially targeted and also how there is no tolerance for racism in the state of Florida.
“What he did is totally unacceptable in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said. “We are not going to let people be targeted based on their race.”
But he sure is going to let people who have been arrested in domestic violence incidents and put on 72-hour mental health holds go out and buy a Glock handgun and an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and carry them around town, no problem.
He is also, very likely, going to continue pushing the notion that white, heterosexual, cisgender men are under attack — the core sentiment that animates and inspires the vast majority of our nation’s domestic terrorists. That should definitely work out well.
Despite the city councilwoman's good intentions, I was put off by her use of the word "gifts", in reference to DeSantis promising some action. That word furthers an already ingrained notion that Black folks are the recipients of some sort of unmerited noblesse oblige rather than simply being treated with the basic dignity of regular citizens.
Right up to the end, Casey DeSantis wears a perky smile as if this vigil is just one more campaign event to appear at. Which I'm sure is how the two of them see it--merely another opportunity to garner votes.