Full article text:
Florida schools have embraced curriculum that shys away from discussing the evils of slavery
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis defended a hard-right school curriculum that went into effect in his state this week while on the campaign trail for the Republican presidential nomination.
At an event in Utah, Governor DeSantis defended how slavery will now be taught in Florida middle schools. Children will now be taught that enslaved persons picked up skills that they later “parlayed” into profitable crafts after slavery was abolished.
“They’re probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” DeSantis told reporters on Friday.
However at the same press conference, the GOP candidate also appeared to back away from the specific assertions of the teachings, saying of the curriculum: “I didn’t do it. I wasn’t involved in it.”
He went on to say that the curriculum was “rooted in whatever is factual”.
“It was not anything that was done politically,” he added.
The Florida governor’s hard-right record will likely be a key talking point on the 2024 campaign trail - potentially presenting both a boon for DeSantis in the GOP primary but also a challenge as he seeks to woo moderates in a general election.
Florida Department of Education’s social studies standards for the 2023-2024 school year provide lesson topics for teachers including a “benchmark clarification” which instructs educators to teach students that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”.
It isn’t clear what “their personal benefit” would be in this scenario.
The line is included as part of a broader lesson entitled: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).”
The majority of polling puts DeSantis second in the crowded GOP primary field, though he trails former president Donald Trump by a wide margin and faces a number of rivals closing in on his position including Vivek Ramaswamy and Nikki Haley.
It’s sad to see that this is something we are currently battling. We shouldn’t have to have another civil rights movement in order to stop people from white washing history.
It’s not another civil rights movement. It’s the same one. It’s been going since before the US was founded and has a long way to go.
Conservatives are obsessed with trying to pretend this is a new movement because it lets them claim the previous ones “finished” and the issues were all solved so now the stuff being asked for is new, different, and unreasonable. Because the alternative is acknowledging that they are the antagonists when it comes to civil liberties.
You make a very good point. Conservatives are absolutely trying to sell this as a separate movement implying that racism has been dealt with and no longer an issue when it is very clear that is not the case. It’s not only depressing we are going backwards but the fact that so many seem to be okay with discrimination is a terrifying.
Of course he does.
"Is it evil? Then I’m in. "
Goddam that man is a piece of shit, a deliberately detestable person. Seems that to be a Trump/MAGA wannabe, all you need to do is be as big a shitheel to vulnerable and minority people as much you can and use the hatred you generate to surf your way to victory at the polls.
The only thing worse than a MAGA is a NAZI, but it’s goddam hard to tell the difference.What bothers me most is all the millions of ‘reasonable’ Republicans that are going along with it and they know it’s wrong. Seems the old adage is correct, if you find 10 people sitting comfortably at a table with a Nazi, you have 11 Nazis.
Slaves most certainly did not. I think Ron is playing to the base.
