I Was Arrested for Blockading Florida Gov Ron DeSantis’s Office

Last Thursday, I spent my night in Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office, singing and linking arms with to my fellow Floridians - who are Dream Defenders, members of Florida Rising, Showing Up for Racial Justice, and others- before police officers peeled us from each other and booked us into the local jail.

We were there as a sit-in against Ron DeSantis’s deluge of anti-democratic legislation that targets the most marginalized Floridians, attacking who they are, who they love and how and what they learn. Floridians’ ability to go to the hospital, vote, and speak honestly about their lives is reason enough to blockade a Governor’s office, but there’s even more at stake. Ron DeSantis will likely run for President and his policies have been replicated in state legislatures across the country. He’s shown he will dismantle democratic institutions quickly and behind closed doors. We should all be alarmed by now, because his authoritarian agenda will harm all of us.

It is time for bolder action, including from middle-aged white women like me, who haven’t always done as much as we should have. Ron DeSantis and politicians like him are explicitly trying to appeal to white people, to get us to side with him against our immigrant, neighbors, our Black and Brown neighbors, and blame them for low wages or insufficient public schools, instead of those at the top who are stealing money from workers, disinvested in our schools, and profiting off it all.

We’re in a white backlash to the racial justice uprisings of 2020 - a period when white politicians drum up anxiety among white people that has followed every major turning point for Black liberation in our country. They then pass laws - like “tough on crime laws” in the 1970’s and 80’s or Jim Crow Laws following Reconstruction - that harm Black people. Ron DeSantis signed a law banning education about structural racism after a worldwide conversation about structural racism changed people’s view.

White people are the single largest base of support for the far right’s heinous agenda. Right now, they’re coming for trans people, queer people like me, Black voters and immigrants, and children. Their long-term agenda is clearly set on destroying abortion access, Medicaid, Social Security, and what democratic institutions we have that work. I’m an alumni of New College of Florida, where I learned about Black liberation and how my life as a white person was better off fighting racism alongside communities of color. That’s why Ron DeSantis engineered a hostile takeover of the college.

Things are scary right now, but I’m calling on white people like me to join me identifying our clear shared interest in fighting racism and authoritarianism alongside communities of color. They’re trying to appeal to white people and our families to support their agenda, feel conflicted, or be frozen. We need to organize other white people and join our neighbors of color in deep, active solidarity. We need to make it clear to the Ron DeSantis near you that we will not comply.