A.G. Gancarski
New curriculam standards from the state of Florida continues to draw fire from the Joe Biden administration and campaign.
The latest reaction to the state’s controversial Black History standards came from Biden campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond Saturday.
“Here’s what’d I say: I think Ron DeSantis needs another campaign reset already if he wants any shot at resonating with mainstream voters. His comments in support of the idea that slavery had its benefits for slaves are obviously disgusting but they’re also a symptom of the extremism that’s infected the Republican candidates running for president,” Richmond said.
On Friday in Utah, DeSantis contended that the Florida Board of Education “got a lot of scholars together to do a lot of standards and a lot of different things,” creating what he called “the most robust standards in African American history probably anywhere in the country.”
Describing the standards as “very thorough, very factual,” DeSantis even defended the inclusion of curriculum that claimed enslaved people benefited from slavery at one point.
“I think what they’re doing is I think that they’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,” DeSantis said.
Richmond rejects this line of thinking.
“There’s no debate over slavery. It was utterly evil with zero redeeming qualities. Not a single Republican candidate has condemned this effort to rewrite history. Not a single Republican candidate has any business running this country,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris was in Jacksonville, where she delivered a 25 minute speech Friday slamming the curriculum.
“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not have it,” Harris said.
DeSantis addressed those comments in Utah, accusing the VP of trying to “chirp” and “demagogue.”
28 comments
Bwj
July 22, 2023 at 4:37 pm
Are people really that stupid? What about Jim Crow and segregation? Where were the benefits to black people there?
PeterH
July 22, 2023 at 5:11 pm
To casual observers it would indeed appear that Ron DeSantis and his accomplices have “monkeyed this up!”
Never again should Americans allow DeSantis to reset his team’s deplorable prior behavior or his current Florida education policies that will ultimately be challenged in the courts.
Don't Say FLA
July 22, 2023 at 6:45 pm
Rhonda coulf push the reset button 1000 times but it won’t help.
What “Top Gov” (lol) needs to do is to pull the ejector seat’s rip cord.
My Take
July 22, 2023 at 8:05 pm
Racist Ronnie reels in the rednecks.
The Republican base.
For many decades, easy to catch.
If you use the right bait.
The black man.
Julia
July 22, 2023 at 10:08 pm
I think it is worth noting that in the 48 hours since these new standards were announced, both politicians and the press have gone bat-shit crazy over them, but not a single Florida historian at any level has publicly spoken out against them. Historians know how to read.
Google Marvin Dunn, a real live Florida historian
July 22, 2023 at 10:31 pm
Unsurprisingly, you are wrong: In a sarcastic tweet, Marvin Dunn—who specializes in Florida’s Black history—lamented that the new curriculum “requires the teaching of the benefits of enslavement for the slaves.” “It also has a section on the benefits of having cancer,” he sarcastically added. (Presumably you know that historians can be sarcastic as well.) See more at https://www.commondreams.org/news/florida-black-history
Julia
July 26, 2023 at 8:34 pm
Marvin Dunn may “specialize in Black history” but he is not a historian; he is a psyhologist, and not a very good one at that.
Dave From Boca
July 23, 2023 at 1:59 am
I think it’s worth noting you are a racist, card-carrying #GOPFascist Karen, and part of the “Conservative Virus” that has infected parts of America.
No worries though, Americans will take out the far-right radical religious nutjobs and politicians this November 2024. #GoJoeGo 👍🏼 #VoteDemocrat 🇺🇸
Tom
July 23, 2023 at 9:01 am
Forced internships – nothing wrong with that said no historian ever.
Lie Detector
July 23, 2023 at 12:06 pm
Marvin Dunn, a noted Black Florida historian from Miami, has promptly and strongly condemned the DeSantis-izing of slavery. Get your facts straight.
Ocean Joe
July 24, 2023 at 10:42 am
On Marvin Dunn, mentioned above, his book, ” History of Florida Through Black Eyes” ought to be required reading, along with MSD’s River of Grass.
Time for Floridians who remember a tolerant state where everybody was welcome to stand up to this little toad.
Julia
July 26, 2023 at 8:36 pm
Again, Marvin Dunn is not a historian; he’s a psychologist.
MH/Duuuval
July 23, 2023 at 12:09 pm
Yes, historians do know how to read. Here are just a few of the things missing from Ron’s version:
1) Florida had the highest per capita rate of lynchings;
2) The total of lynchings stands at about 4000 — these are 4000 Black folks who did not get an their day in court — regardless of what whites said they did;
3) It will be next to impossible to delineate the extent to which white law enforcement in the South was complicit in lynchings and other abuses — many police departments included were staffed with white men who were members of the KKK.
Julia
July 26, 2023 at 8:41 pm
Does anybody dispute this? Certainly not the new standards. All they say is that many blacks endured all this and managed to better themselves.
Silly Wabbit
July 23, 2023 at 12:30 pm
You kwazy.
c gee
July 23, 2023 at 8:38 pm
You are nutts. If you think slavery was so great…then be my slave for a few years and learn some “job skills”
Facts
July 24, 2023 at 6:21 pm
Here’s more: “Several critics argued that nearly half of the 16 historic figures highlighted by the state were never enslaved. Others, who did spend time in slavery, did not gain their skills from their servitude.“
Check out: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/critics-cite-historical-inaccuracies-florida-164125002.html#:~:text=Several%20critics%20argued%20that%20nearly,their%20skills%20from%20their%20servitude.
He’s a pathetic man thoroughly unsuited for office
July 22, 2023 at 10:19 pm
The blatant unAmericanism of this authoritarian attract literally no one with either morality or intelligence.
sandra mcdonald
July 22, 2023 at 10:33 pm
What ever happened to being president for all the people some on has put Ronnie on the wrong path
My Take
July 22, 2023 at 10:43 pm
When will we hear of some half-hidden benefits of the Holocaust from a GOPer pol running ìnterference for his neoNazi supporters?
Dave From Boca
July 23, 2023 at 2:03 am
Next Wednesday… ! Picking on Jews will be part of Ron DeNazi’s pivot from his sinking U-Boat campaign of bashing LGBTQIA+ folks and suing Bud Light 😉
Tom
July 23, 2023 at 8:46 am
Holocaust? It was a diet and exercise program /s
Hard to imagine just how stupid a wanna be politician can actually be but that’s Ronnie for you.
Tjb
July 22, 2023 at 10:45 pm
Perhaps Ron will sell his children into sex slavery so they can gain beneficial skills. I recognize that my comment is tasteless and insensitive but DeSantis’s views on American slavery are more shameful. Deplorable DeSantis is an embarrassment …
Dave From Boca
July 23, 2023 at 2:05 am
Your comment is spot on. 🎯 There is *nothing* the #GOPNazis will not do to remain in power.
Michael K
July 23, 2023 at 10:09 am
Ron is trying to be a successful version of George Wallace to initiate the second confederacy, destroying every institution within reach of his pudding fingers, beginning with public education at all levels. He is beholden to the large donors who landed on him as their useful idiot, until he is no long useful. But he will forever remain an idiot. A dangerous idiot.
M. Mouse
July 23, 2023 at 12:34 pm
Poor Governor Goofy, such a lost little man.
Squeak!
Dont Say FLA
July 23, 2023 at 2:26 pm
The problem with potentially gaining a skill through forced slavery is that you still don’t have the promise of a future that normally accompanies having some skill. Maybe somebody set up their blacksmith shop in Greenwood (Tulsa OK) or in what’s now Central Park, NYC. Where are those shops now? Where is the generational wealth that might have come from those shops? And therein lies the issue with potentially learning some “skill” yet still not being able to make a living from that skill to benefit yourself, your family, or your heirs.
Slave Rhonda
July 24, 2023 at 10:54 am
Rhonda and his “huge staff” (lol) needs to go be slaves at somebody’s successful political campaign and then maybe try again in 2028 (but please don’t)
Comments are closed.