Kamala Harris Approved in January of Standards She Now Thinks Are Racist
/Let’s travel back in time to January. The Florida Department of Education rejected the AP African American Studies course. Critics were furious and accused Governor Ron DeSantis of racism, conveniently leaving out that the AP course contained a section on Queer Theory (which has enormous roots in pedophilia). Vice President Kamala Harris even released a statement, calling the leaders in Florida “extremists.” White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was “incomprehensible” that Florida would block the AP course.
Florida rejected the course for several reasons, including the fact it contained critical race theory. But state law also makes it a requirement to learn about African American History.
Fast-forward to today, Harris has a new crusade against Florida for their African American History curriculum. In a speech given to Sigma Theta Inc., Harris said, “They decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.”
Harris then flew to Jacksonville to push this lie.
In reality, the extensive curriculum teaches about the lives of slaves, the slave trade beyond the United States, key figures in the abolitionist movement, the Underground Railroad, slave revolts, the sacrifice of black patriots during the Revolutionary Era, describing the conditions of slaves during their passage to America, the harsh conditions of the plantations, and so on. The section Harris is livid about is: “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills, which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
If you were forced to be a tailor, a blacksmith, a carpenter, etc., and you became free afterward and used those skills to make money for yourself and your family, that isn’t racist. That’s just what happened. They are not making the case that slaves needed to be enslaved to earn those skills or that slavery was a benefit to those slaves.
But this particular objection made by Harris was familiar to Jeremy Redfern, press secretary to Governor DeSantis. It was “essential knowledge” in the AP standards Harris wanted to be taught in Florida back in January. “In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, American Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.” Yes, there’s a typo, but the point is Harris had no outrage or disapproval of the African American History course admitting slaves went on to use their skills to their advantage when the lesson plans were peppered with intersectionality training from communists, lessons on the BLM movement, and feminist literature.
The Biden machine and the media worked hand-in-hand to make DeSantis look like a racist for rejecting the course in January, and now their goal is to make him look like a racist for pushing “revisionist history.” It’s all manufactured political outrage.
When Republicans pushed back against teaching critical race theory, Democrats would push back with two very big lies. They would say it’s not being taught in schools and that CRT is about teaching “honest history.” Well, it’s certainly in schools, and it’s blatantly not about teaching “honest history.” CRT isn’t about learning dates, times, and events. It’s a lens to view the world. It enforces a particular narrative to achieve a particular goal.
But if Democrats want children to learn “honest history,” they could start by being honest in the present about their political games. As Dr. William B. Allen, one of the members of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup stated, “It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans. What was said, and anyone who reads this will see this with clarity, it is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient, and adaptive and were able to develop skills and aptitudes which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslavement.” When Dr. Allen was asked if the wording should be amended, he said, “No, I think it would be effectively to erase people’s history.”
