The Orlando Magic’s decision to make a $50,000 contribution in support of the presidential bid of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, sends a clear message to all of their Black players, employees and fans. This message is a U-turn from the one in the summer of 2020 when the entire country was in an uproar over the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, the shooting of Jacob Blake and countless other victims of police brutality. Allegedly standing in solidarity, the Magic issued this statement through CEO Alex Martins:
“We stand with our neighbors and the nation in condemning the horrific and senseless death of George Floyd. There have been far too many victims of racial bias and abuses of power, particularly in the Black community. As an organization, we remain deeply committed to providing an environment where all feel welcomed, valued and appreciated, where all are treated with dignity and respect.”
But their decision to throw their support (and money) behind the campaign of DeSantis is the antithesis is everything the Magic claimed to support less than three years ago.
Let me be clear. I am in no way, shape or form suggesting that the Magic and their owners, the DeVos family, don’t have the right to support whichever candidate they choose, just as NBA players have the right to support whichever candidate they choose. My book, We Matter: Athletes And Activism, encouraged and pushed for current athletes to continue the rich tradition of athletes using their voices and their platforms to take a stand on issues that affect our communities.
So it would be hypocritical for me to now say that the Magic didn’t have that same right. Of course they do. However, I also have the right to point out the hypocrisy of claiming to be “deeply committed” to equality, and dedicated to rooting out “racial bias and abuses of power particularly in the Black Community”, then offering financial support to a person like DeSantis, the Republican governor who has exhibited his dedication to the very ideals the Magic claimed to oppose.
Ironically, after the summer of 2020, the Orlando Magic were also a part of the group of NBA governors which formed the Social Justice Coalition to further display their alleged commitment to actively tackling many of the issues addressed as protests were happening all over the country. The coalition’s concerns over issues such as police brutality, police accountability, voting rights, criminal justice reform, the education system, dismantling racism, bias, discrimination all remain areas that disproportionately affect Black people in particular.
But in the state of Florida, one of the main people in direct opposition to Black people as a whole is none other than DeSantis, whose policies have made a full embrace of racism, bias and bigotry.
Here are a couple of examples:
• DeSantis backed a slew of new laws passed by the state legislature that are focused on removing what he termed as “woke indoctrination” in an effort to “empower” white parents of Florida. The laws ban the teaching of critical race theory, an intellectual movement that examines the way policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism. He also forbid teachers from teaching any material that makes white students “feel guilt” because of actions committed by white people of the past.
• He mandated Asian-American history but banned courses on systemic racism.
• He signed legislation to keep Floridians from learning about discrimination and what he called “woke indoctrination”.
• The NAACP issued a travel warning to Black people because of DeSantis’ “openly hostility” toward Black people in the state of Florida.
• DeSantis actually created a special police force under the guise of maintaining election integrity which has disproportionately targeted Black people in Democrat-leaning districts.
• DeSantis’ administration recently approved new curriculum rules through the Board Of Education requiring schools to teach that there were “upsides to being enslaved” and that slaves developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.” (I can’t even wrap my mind around how any decent human being could even suggest that slavery was a benefit to the people actually enslaved. The mere thought is beyond the pale, but to enact curriculum to teach that to children is evil.)
I remember as a teenager asking my Grandmother about a book she was reading called Roots by Alex Haley and her telling me through tears stories that were passed down to her by her grandmother of the horrors of slavery. It was nowhere near the white washed version Governor DeSantis gave his approval to, it was more of an actual horror movie. Torture, rape, public floggings, castrations, lynchings, beatings, mutilation, ripping families apart, working both men and women in the field from “can’t see in the morning until can’t see at night”, I remember her saying “they didn’t view us as human beings”
There are no positive takeaways from Slavery or silver linings. It was literally hell on earth.
I couldn’t imagine playing for an organization that would support the disrespectful, white washing, watering down of my ancestor’s tragic history in this country.
It would be like asking a Jewish person to work for a Holocaust denier or someone who contributed their funds and support to a governing body who wanted to enter into school curriculum that the Holocaust never happened or that there were some benefits and it wasn’t all bad. That would be absolutely insulting right ?
Here is the bottom line: DeSantis is running his entire campaign on racism. The goal of his slogan “Florida is where woke goes to die” is crystal clear. He is Trump 2.0. His dog whistles aren’t even discreet; they are obvious hate-filled declarations. But in addition to his words, his actual policies are patterned after white supremacy segregationists of the 1950s and 1960s. He is channeling the Jim Crow south not only in his language, which would be dangerous enough, but in his actual laws.
So for the Orlando Magic to make a contribution to him, and in support of his whistling-Dixie, confederate, Jim Crow aspirations, they are choosing the antithesis of freedom, justice and equality. The direct opposition to “creating an environment where all feel welcomed, valued, appreciated and are all are treated with dignity and respect”.
The Orlando Magic with their donation to Ron DeSantis made the conscious decision to support white supremacy, and it’s a spit in the face to every Black player on that Orlando Magic team.
