Florida Governor and GOP Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis demurred at first, but then elaborated on a particularly controversial change in the narrative about American slavery that will be taught to Florida students after the Florida Department of Education reconfigured its curriculum to ostensibly rid it of “wokeism.”
The changes, which have drawn sharp criticism for diminishing the role of race in American history, drew exceptionally widespread rebuke for allegedly presenting the idea that slaves “benefitted” in some way during their time in captivity — by developing certain skills.
The new narrative sparked outrage in high places, with Vice President Kamala Harris accusing the Florida Board of Education of “trying to gaslight us.”
To suggest that enslaved people somehow benefited from slavery is not only misleading, it is false. This is revisionist history. pic.twitter.com/2j0sPWP5O8
— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) July 21, 2023
DeSantis, who denied having contributed anything specific himself to the controversial curriculum changes, advised a reporter to take up the inquiry with the Education Department.
“These were scholars who put that together,” DeSantis said. “All of it is rooted in whatever is factual,” he added.
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
But the Governor did offer his idea of what the new narrative meant, as he understood it: “They’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”
