Florida governor Ron DeSantis is doubling down on a proposal on how educators in his state should represent America’s involvement in slavery.
At the core of the curriculum, the 2024 Republican presidential candidate is advocating a pedagogy that claims African people benefited from being enslaved, despite receiving pushback from major civil rights organizations, politicians, historians and academics.
CNN reporter Kit Maher questioned DeSantis about the curriculum during a July 21 press briefing, highlighting the portion that says, “instruction includes slaves developed skills that in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.”
The governor quickly retorted that although he wasn’t involved in crafting the bill shaping the state’s curriculum, he supports the scholars chosen by the Board of Education. He believes their historical version is fact-based and aligns with the Stop WOKE Act, a new law his administration is using to counter Black history supposedly being taught in K-12 schools through the lens of Critical Race Theory, which is a university-level discipline.
“I think that they’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed being a blacksmith into doing things later in life. But the reality is, all of that is rooted in whatever is factual,” DeSantis said, calling it “the most robust standards in African American history’ in the country.”
Vice President Kamala Harris was one of many voices that blasted DeSantis’ effort, as Politico reported.
“Come on — adults know what slavery really involved,” Harris said. “It involved rape. It involved…
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