Florida’s Governor is 1,087 miles from Tallahassee, but he’s continuing to gin up controversy about the state’s teaching of the impacts of slavery.
During a Never Back Down town hall in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Ron DeSantis again upbraided Vice President Kamala Harris and unnamed “Republicans” for perpetuating a “hoax” regarding the state’s 216-page set of guidelines governing classroom instruction on Black history. The newly approved rules include teaching middle school students “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“They have this hoax that Kamala Harris is trying to do saying, you know, we had people, you know, because when we got rid of critical race theory, what they said was, ‘Oh, you don’t want to teach about any Black history,’” DeSantis claimed.
The Governor went on to misrepresent the Vice President’s words, delivered last week in a speech in Jacksonville.
“Harris says that somehow Florida is teaching that having chattel slavery was good. Nobody said that and the standard said just the opposite. But she runs with the lie and the media repeats the lie. And here’s the thing. Republicans need to fight back against these lies,” DeSantis said.
The Governor finds himself on the other side of the issue from two prominent Black conservatives, including a Senator from South Carolina who is also running for President.
“What slavery was really about was separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating,” U.S. Sen. Tim Scott said Thursday in Ankeny. “So I would hope that every person in our country — and certainly running for President — would appreciate that.”
“People have bad days,” Scott continued. “Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.”
DeSantis’ words Friday amount to a clarification of his position, at least.
Florida U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds also took issue with the standards claiming that Black people benefited from learning skills during slavery, an argument he took to national television Friday.
“This is a dumb story, and this is brought to us by the DeSantis campaign. They’re the ones who made this an issue. I’ve been very clear that the standards are robust; they are accurate. They are good,” Donalds said. “Students in Florida will learn Black history.”
“But my issue is with one sentence of the entire thing, one sentence of 200 pages,” Donalds continued. “And the DeSantis team wants to make a big issue out of it. That’s ridiculous.”
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