Rep. Byron Donalds is on the outs with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after Donalds criticized the state’s new Board of Education curriculum regarding slavery.
Donalds, a Republican representing Florida’s 19th District, objected after DeSantis claimed that enslaved people benefited from slavery by learning important skills.
“The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate,” he wrote. “That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.”
Donalds also spoke about the needed adjustments to the curriculum during an interview with WINK News.
“Slavery was terrible in our country,” he said. “It was terrible for Black people coming to America, and it was just flat out wrong, no doubt about that.”
Donalds went on to say that the standards which state that “slaves developed skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit” needed “adjustments.”
“To me, yes, that section needs some adjustments. The talking point narrative around it, yeah, it sounds awful,” said Donalds. “Like nobody should be accepting of that, but when you read through the standards, they actually did a very good job in covering all aspects of Black history in the United States.”
Conservatives accused Donalds of jumping on the Kamala Harris bandwagon due to the vice president’s critique of Florida’s new Black history curriculum. Harris criticized the suggestion that anyone benefited amidst the “atrocities” and…
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