A decade ago, America was embroiled in the beginnings of what would become an almost decade-long civil rights movement. The murder of Trayvon Martin incensed America, serving as a rallying cry for many Black Americans — to many, it served as yet another testimony to the disposable treatment Black life receives in America, yet another example of an unarmed Black man killed by a scared armed White racist.
Back in 2012, then-Governor Rick Scott called for “true due process” for George Zimmerman, ultimately a jury of five white women and one biracial woman would acquit him. Calls for justice rose up from across the country. Some people called for a boycott of Florida.
The goal of the boycott was to seek to change Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law – the law upon which Zimmerman relied to kill Trayvon. After Governor Scott persisted with the law, the summer of 2013 saw increased calls for boycotting Florida. Facebook groups sprung up. Stevie Wonder vowed never to perform in Florida until the law was repealed (that one didn’t even last until the end of the Obama administration).
From the very beginning, stories began to run about why a boycott wouldn’t be feasible, or why it wouldn’t achieve the desired effect, or why Americans would rather have Disney than justice:
In addition to needing widespread support, a boycott would have to offer consumers easy alternatives.
For example, can Americans easily cancel their family vacation to Orlando’s Disney World? Can they easily find a substitute for their favorite Florida orange juice brand, especially when growers say they had nothing to do with the jury’s acquittal of Zimmerman?
“For a boycott to be successful, we have to ask people to do things against their economic interests,” said Maurice Schweitzer, a professor at the Wharton School of Business. “People are going to visit Disney or not. They are going to visit Grandma or not.”
CNN, 2013
G-d forbid someone cancel a vacation to Disney world!
In 2014, the SCLC warned of an “international boycott” of Florida because of “Stand Your Ground”. Reggae awards ceremonies boycotted the state. By 2015, “flakka” was becoming the drug scourge of Florida and as America was learning about the horrible origins of some fast food vegetables, calls for the Stand Your Ground boycott began to fade.
2016 would see Florida take on its new role as White House South with the election of Donald Trump, who had his own calls for boycotts and people denouncing his properties. Boycotting Florida became even more of an afterthought, if not downright counterproductive, considering that Mar-A-Lago gave one a personal audience with one of the most powerful humans on Earth.
Of course, Trump’s election would change our country’s discourse for the worse. Spring of 2017 would see Charlottesville and the death of Heather Heyer, and this would play out in Florida, where white nationalists were given speaking gigs at state universities by the fall. Calls for a boycott of Florida were all but forgotten – America had a rising white supremacist movement to contend with.
The following year, America would be rocked by the school shooting in Parkland, and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High student David Hogg, who would go on to become a face for youth-led gun control activism, made his first call for a boycott of Florida that winter. The goal of the boycott was to force change on gun legislation in Florida and nationwide. Hogg called for people to change their Spring Break and other vacation destinations from Florida.
As in years past, right off the top came the articles skeptical of the boycott’s potential for success.
2018 (pdf) and 2019 would go on to be record-breaking years for Florida tourism.
Calls for boycotts of Florida echoed through 2020 and 2021, with Marco Rubio being moved to sponsor legislation to counteract “woke” businesses (by now this was part of the right-wing lexicon).
Today in 2023, Florida’s NAACP is calling on Black Americans to avoid visiting Florida due to DeSantis’ anti-Black policies. Florida NAACP chapters want the national organization to issue an official travel advisory against the state, citing recent actions against diversity and Black history as examples of DeSantis’ anti-Black agenda. The Washington Post ran a call for Major League Baseball to boycott Florida (an article which was lampooned by DeSantis’ fans) for both anti-Black and anti-gay reasons.
Why can’t we seem to pull it off?
For the past decade, Black Americans, queer Americans, Americans affected by gun violence, various heartfelt calls to boycott this state have fallen perennially on deaf ears. No organization seems to be able to get it off the ground. No organization seems to be able to motivate us enough to hit Florida where it hurts.
Is it really Disney? Is it really “Grandma”? What is it that makes America this unable to sever ties with the Florida Man? And while individuals may have reason to visit Florida, the fact that Florida keeps having record-setting years for tourism revenue shows that corporations and organizations aren’t rushing to boycott either. Why is this?
The past decade gave us protests, Black Lives Matter, the legalization of same-sex marriage, #MeToo, and Beyonce’s Lemonade — and not one cohesive boycott of Florida. In all the events and achievements of the past eleven years since Trayvon Martin’s death, not once has Black America come together with a unified voice to vote with our wallets, not once has the gay community finally been done with Key West.
I’m not pessimistic enough to think this is a lost cause, but Florida’s NAACP is epitomizing the definition of insanity — repeating actions while expecting different results — by even bringing up a boycott of Florida if there’s no plan of action for how this is to materialize. We’ve been talking about a boycott for over a decade now, but every year someone ends up on a beach south of Tallahassee. The Boycott Florida Facebook page never even surpassed 6,000 likes.
No matter which racist benefits, no matter which group gets oppressed, and no matter the extent of the oppression — it hasn’t been pulled off for the past eleven years. Today, many of the same calls for justice come from the same places, and America seemingly still isn’t listening. Why can’t we seem to quit Florida?
