Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting.
The description of slavery as beneficial is not the only grievance parents, teachers, education advocates and politicians had with the new standards. People speaking at the Wednesday meeting generally called out the diluting and omissions of history.
For example, instruction at the elementary school level is largely limited to identifying famous Black people, and high school teachers will talk about the “acts of violence perpetrated by African Americans” at the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, in which a white mob killed at least 30 Black people.
“Please table this rule and revise it to make sure that my history our history is being told factually and completely, and please do not, for the love of God, tell kids that slavery was beneficial because I guarantee you it most certainly was not,” said Kevin Parker, a community member.
Though the public testimony period lasted over an hour, most of the people objected to the adoption of the standard, with supporters of it waving from their seats. Paul Burns, the chancellor of K-12 public schools, defended the standards, denying that they referred to slavery as beneficial.
“Our standards are factual, objective standards that really teach the good, the bad and the ugly,” he said.
Board member Kelly Garcia upheld the standards and said that none of the backlash she read about them before the meeting pointed to specific concerns. A coalition of Black leaders and community groups — Florida Education Association, FL’s NAACP and The Black History Project, Inc. and Equal Ground — sent a letter to the board on Monday in opposition to the standards.
Whitewashing history
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, representing part of Orange County, and state House Democrat Anna Eskamani of Orlando showed up to speak out against the standards.
“When I see the standards, I’m very concerned,” Thompson said. “If I were still a professor, I would do what I did very infrequently; I’d have to give this a grade of ‘I’ for incomplete. It recognizes that we have made an effort, we’ve taken a step. However, this history needs to be comprehensive. It needs to be authentic, and it needs additional work.”
A 1994 Florida statute requires schools to teach African American history, but Gov. DeSantis has been chipping away at the legacy of the law. Last year, the Legislature passed HB 7, which restricted certain conversations about race and gender in schools and workplaces. Regarding race-related discussions in schools, the law says that students must not feel guilt over past actions of people of the same race.
At the beginning of the year, the governor’s rejection of the New York-based College Board’s AP African American History pilot course amassed nationwide backlash for trying to whitewash history.
“To be discussing African American history in this moment, with no one president who has felt the pain of the infliction of harm on African Americans. It’s overtly problematic,” said former state politician Dwight Bullard, pointing at the non-Black members of the board.
“Part of the reason the ’94 statute exists is because the state tried to cover up the Rosewood massacre. So, by the very admission of the state, the reason that we need a stronger statute that covers African American history, a broader statute is because of the necessity or the failures of your predecessors. So, I simply ask that you table this amendment until those closest to the pain have access to the power.”
–Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix
JimBob says
Free transportation from Africa and every man, woman and child was given a job. What’s not to celebrate?
anon says
“The description of slavery as beneficial is not the only grievance parents, teachers, education advocates and politicians had with the new standards. People speaking at the Wednesday meeting generally called out the diluting and omissions of history.”
I searched “slave” in the standards. The word came up 210 times. I think three times, if it was being repeated, the benefits to slaves came up as they learned a skill. The rest was very anti-slave. It even pointed out how the South tried to stop slavery. How it’s presented in a textbook is another matter. But if there are 3 mentions of benefits to slaves and 207 mentions of how negativity toward slavery, then this is much ado about nothing.
richard says
Please read A History of Florida Through Black Eyes by Dr Marvin Dunn. The adoption of whitewashed history of enslavement in America is yet another denial of historical events and facts and a deliberate attempt to stand history on its head. Slavery was beneficial to the enslaved? Really? They can say this with a straight face? Who made this curriculum, Nathan Bedford Forrest?Shame! The State of Florida remains a source of shame in our democracy even after slavery ended with the 13th Amendment.
Pogo says
@Is this fucking real — are you goddamn kidding
“…Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting…”
Jesus Christ’s posse, Walmart, ATT, and some other stooges are here to help — Sieg Heil!!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_Board_of_Education
And so it went.
Pierre Tristam says
The commenter, as anonymous as a hooded klansman, must not have actually read any of those 210 references to slavery in the standards. A quick perusal reveals to what extent the article above underplays the obscenity of the whitewashing, the justifying, the white-splaining. The standards aren’t just erasing Black history. They are an anthem to white supremacy and Christianity. Negative? I don’t think so. More like celebratory. Some examples from the top.
“Examine the Underground Railroad and how former slaves partnered with other free people and groups in assisting those escaping from slavery.” Translation: look what white people did for you.
“Examine key figures and events in abolitionist movements.” Translation: look what white people (and churches) did for you.
“Identify freedoms and rights secured for and by former slaves.” Translation: look what white people and the white (supremacist) Constitution did for you.
“Identify Afro-Eurasian trade routes and methods prior to the development of the Atlantic slave trade.” Translation: Don’t blame good ol’ whites, everyone else did it.
“Instruction includes how slavery was utilized in Asian, European and African cultures.” Translation: Don’t blame good ol’ whites, everyone else did it.
“Instruction includes the similarities and differences between serfdom and slavery.” Translation: At least they didn’t work for Putin’s ancestors.
“Describe the contact of European explorers with systematic slave trading in Africa.” Translation: Blame it on Africans. Blame the victims.
“Examine the evolution of the labor force in the use of indentured servitude contracts.” Translation: At least you got your teacher unions (which we’ll continue crushing at a later date.)
“Instruction includes the transition from an indentured to a slave-based economy.” Translation: Capitalism at its finest.
Finally, on tenth reference, we get: “Describe the history and evolution of slave codes.” That may lend itself to some historically accurate reflection of American terrorism, but in the hands of teachers scared shitless that the WOKE act will get them fired, I doubt it. And it’s not long before we’re back to this shit: “Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” Might as well sing the wonders of slavery as trade schools in the making.
Negative? Get real. These standards offend even the word standards.
JEK says
Florida sinks lower and lower every damn day!
Justbob says
Desantistan…where history, facts and decency go to die.
Eugene Lopes says
Finally, next year we can finally start teaching about how children forced into sex trafficking benefit by getting fed a couple of times a day. Then we can put to rest the myths about Native Americans not benefiting from being massacred and having their land taken away from them. I mean, we did let them open up a few casinos.
Ban the GOP says
Well people voted for rascist republicans what did you really expect?They will defund public schools in order to allow corporations to make tax dollar profits oh and theres no educational standard for private schools so they can go full Nazi propaganda and its totally legal.
Robin says
These standards are atrocious on every level. I wish the the state Board of Education had visited the Center for Equality and Justice in Montgomery AL before recommending these.
Stephen says
Why does Florida want to make up history? Senators will not let this happen.
JimBob says
In fact, Southerners opposed the importation of slaves because that drove the price down. Breeding one’s own was a more profitable undertaking without the “spoilage” inherent in the Atlantic slave trade. Then, too, the Second Amendment was rewritten specifically to provide a means to protect Southern slave breeders from any “uppity” malcontents who might think the Constitution applied to them.
Atwp says
JimBob are you serious. You sound like an uneducated white Trump, Desantis puppet. White America benefited from slavery. You sound like a white brainwashed uneducated person. You need mental help. I hope you are not a teacher. Are you a real person or a programmed Republican nonthinking robot?
Skibum says
This has got me wondering if the FL Dept of Education’s alternative facts that have been reimagined in their fantastical “standards” also include the fairytale that the Civil War had nothing to do with slavery, so kids here can be taught the KKK’s version that it was a merely a worthy and totally legitimate cause centered around “state’s rights” and a protest against federalism. I mean, after all, if you’re going to make up history, might as well go all in with the historical fakery. In the next FL legislative session, can we expect the good ole boys in Tallahassee to submit a bill to replace the state flag with the confederate flag?
richard says
Eugene Lopes, you are oh-so correct.
We can add a few more pluses about the “good points” of those who were murdered by human predators and their governments. Here’s one: Jews in the over 34,000 labor and concentration camps run by the Nazis and their henchmen throughout Europe learned new skills, too: Some became “barbers” and learned to shave the heads of incoming camp inmates. Others became dentists, serving in the Sonderkommando, pulling gold teeth from the corpses of people gassed to death in the Vernichtstunglager (death camps), and still others learned the garment business by sorting mounds and mounds of the clothing and other personal possessions of the incoming inmates, as well.
In sum, with a nod to Jonathan Swift and his “A Modest Proposal”, and in the selfsame generous spirit of those “good people” referenced in the article, those who affirmed by their vote on the new curriculum, gleefully affirming that enslaved blacks in America actually benefited by learning all sorts of useful skills during the ante-bellum era of chattel slavery in the US, should then let us ALL say with all good cheer and camaraderie that no good genocide is without its positive aspects?
What hath people wrought in the name of their God?
Deborah Coffey says
Bravo, Pierre!
Deborah Coffey says
Thank you. And, Nazi propaganda is exactly what this is. All that’s left is for DeSantis to blame the Jews for slavery in America.
Deborah Coffey says
The Florida Board of Education can’t read. Even if it could, it absolutely loves these standards and likely plans on enslaving all Blacks in Florida in the near future in order to provide them with “skills.”
JimBob says
Completely serious although a tad sarcastic. The idea that significant numbers of Southerners opposed slavery on moral grounds is patently absurd and the Second Amendment’s “militia” provision was the primary means of slavery’s enforcement. You miss my point completely!
Laurel says
Pierre: There were a lot of white people who tried to stop slavery and help the Africans. Many fought and died as Union soldiers, so that should not be forgotten.
That being said, I started reading the standard, and it starts out okay, positive, but as I read on, it got weirder and weirder. The pain and suffering that the slaves went through is something we will never be able to comprehend. The things humans can do to other humans is truly unexplainable, but the attempt should be made. If these kids are going to be taught this stuff, it should also be mandatory for these kids to watch the whole series of “Roots” in class to get a fuller picture of what went on.
Empathy should be a part of the standard. I remember reading “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and it left quite an impression on me. This young lady was a positive child who lived in the most horrid of circumstances. While writing about a situation that many, including herself and her family, did not survive, she still saw the good in people. Now, there’s a lesson!
Well, here at home in the Hammock, we get a publication sent to residents free called “Sun and Surf.” It’s about living in our area. I noticed there is not one black person anywhere in the whole magazine. Not in the articles, not in the ads, nowhere. That’s not Florida to me. We grew up in Florida so that’s not why we retired here, but it makes me wonder about this area’s draw.
JimBob says
You miss my point entirely!
richard says
That’s already been done, way back in the 1980s, actually.
But I am sure that Ronnie Dee and his hooded “posse comitatus”, ghosts of dead Confederate soldiers, will gladly ride that one again. After all, anti-Semitism, like all hate, NEVER goes out of style.
Atwp says
JimBob I did make miss the point. Being sarcastic about a bad past isn’t funny. Excuse my choice of words but I do get angry when people try to make a bad past positive. Excuse my choice of words, during my previous comment.
Jackson1955 says
No amount of historical revisionism can wash away the shame that slavery brought. The US would be better off if everyone had accepted this a long time ago.
Owning up to the mistakes of your ancestors is a source of true pride that denial will never be able to replicate.
Jackson1955 says
DeSatanist is ruining the chances of the youth of Florida to have a normal, well adjusted and prosperous life. Any school in Florida that hands out diplomas will be closely scrutinized by universities country and world wide. Once they find out it’s a kid that’s a product of the Flori-DUHH school system, it will be an automatic rejection letter for admission.
When we say “whitewashing”, this is what we mean.
Laurel says
Richard: Who made this? Big Brother DeSantis.
Laurel says
I think, and I’m not really joking, that DeSantis is trying to start a race riot, which makes him not much better than Charles Manson who also wanted a race riot for his own agenda. Who thinks African Americans are going to put up with this? Anyone who thinks so is flat out nuts. I think the man is sick, and is so focused on White Nationalism that he has tunnel vision.
Trump’s not much better. He took out full page ads, in New York papers, condemning the Central Park Five, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise who were all black teens when they were convicted of raping a Central Park jogger. The young men were later found innocent through DNA, and released. Trump has never apologized. Sick and selfish.