Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in West Columbia, S.C. July 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
Slavery was actually a positive experience for Black people–or at least that’s what the new school curriculum in Florida would have students believe.
The Sunshine State‘s new Black history curriculum for 2023 says “slaves developed skills” that could be used for “personal benefit,” CBS News reported.
The curriculum will be taught to sixth through eighth-grade students, according to state standards. The lessons will include teachings on understanding the “causes, courses and consequences of the slave trade in the colonies.”
In a statement to CBS News, two members of the workgroup who established the curriculum standards said they “proudly stand behind” the language of the lessons.
“The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted. This is factual and well documented,” said Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, members of the group. They used the life of ex-slave turned educator Booker T. Washington as an example.
The pair added, “Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage, and resiliency during a difficult time in American history. Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants.”
They addressed the backlash by saying, “It is disappointing, but nevertheless unsurprising, that critics would reduce months of work to create Florida’s first ever stand-alone strand of African American History Standards to a few isolated expressions without context.”
Earlier this year, Florida rejected a proposed advanced placement course that would have focused on African American studies.
The new standards, backed unanimously by the state Board of Education, were in response to the “anti-woke” policies touted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Board members and state officials defended the new curriculum, claiming it touches on the “darkest” parts of U.S. history, Politico reported.
Of course, Black America had lots to say on Twitter.
Actor and activist Wendell Pierce seemed appalled, as he tweeted, “There is Blood on the Fields. Centuries of slavery now being reduced to ‘personal benefits’”’ for Black folks. Black women raped continuously. Black peopled tortured, branded, and murdered. Amputations. Mass graves of towns destroyed. Revisionist history that blasphemes genocide.”
American Descendants of Slavery co-founder Yvette Carnell tweeted that there were some who thrived after slavery, but this was not the norm, “There were slaves who were ingenious at using their skills to make extra coin. Some were trying to buy back family who’d been sold away. This in no way means that slavery itself was a benefit.”
Do-for-self advocate 19keys.eth, called out “fake outrage.” He tweeted in part, “There were slaves who were ingenious at using their skills to make extra coin. Some were trying to buy back family who’d been sold away. This in no way means that slavery itself was a benefit.”
He continued, “Yet we don’t support, champion and invest in the conscious culture of educators , scholars , historians , intellectuals or high level conversations so our people can get access the truth.”
An account that seems to belong to hip-hop veteran Nas, tweeted there is a strategy to get around this move. “I still believe that our best strategy was to insert more Black American History into American History classes as opposed to pushing CRT. With that said, you have to be evil & anti-Black to push this narrative of ‘personal benefit’ to slaves,” Nas tweeted.
Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference at the Celebrate Freedom Foundation Hangar in West Columbia, S.C. July 18, 2023. (AP Photo/Sean Rayford)
