Florida Governor Ron DeSantis doesn’t want the chief narrative of his Board of Education’s curriculum changes to be about the now infamous line where slaves purportedly learned skills that could redound to their “personal benefit” later in life.
That kind of nitpicking, narrow focus represents “lies perpetrated by the left,” DeSantis says. But what DeSantis characterizes as lies — even if they are direct quotes from the curriculum — don’t only issue from Democrats like Vice President Kamala Harris, he says.
The lies about Florida and its education moves are so insidious, DeSantis asserts, that they get adopted even by D.C. Republicans, including far right — and also, notably, Black — lawmakers such as Byron Donalds and GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott.
[NOTE: Donalds and Scott, while largely supporting DeSantis’s tireless “anti-wokeness” efforts, objected to the “slaves benefitted” aspect of the Florida’s new history agenda.]
DeSantis says that “part of the reason our country has struggled is because D.C. Republicans all too often accept false narratives.”
Asked specifically about Tim Scott’s opinion, DeSantis — in the video below — describes a susceptibility to Democrats’ influence as causing Black Republicans like Donalds and Scott to spread “false accusations and lies.”
It’s against such “lies” that DeSantis vows to “defend Florida.” (Donalds, of course, is a U.S. Congressman from Florida.)
After Tim Scott joined Byron Donalds as the second prominent black Republican to criticize his slavery curriculum, Desantis fires back saying their comments are “false accusations and lies.” pic.twitter.com/GNdcbbjE71
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 28, 2023
DeSantis himself hasn’t completely disavowed the notion that slaves took skills with them upon emancipation — he more usually points out that the controversial skills assertion is only a small part of the bigger history of slavery Florida children will learn. See his comment below about blacksmithing, of all trades he might have chosen.
WATCH >> Ron DeSantis defends new curriculum that will teach children how slaves *benefited* from slavery.
— Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) July 22, 2023
"They're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into, into doing things later in life." pic.twitter.com/Ls1wyk3tr4
“These were scholars who put that together,” DeSantis said, talking about the curriculum. “All of it is rooted in whatever is factual.”
