Florida: Students will learn that not everything about slavery was bad

It wasn’t all bad back then: Some slaves, for example, only acquired skills through their situation “that they could use to their personal advantage in some cases”. This is how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis explains the new teaching standards for students in his state. From the 5th grade, he wants them to “learn all aspects of Afro-American history: the good, the bad, and the ugly.” And that apparently also includes recognizing supposed bright spots in one of the darkest chapters in the United States.

“Not Just Misleading, It’s Wrong”

The new sound in the classrooms is a direct result of the “anti-woke” course of Florida’s right-wing leaders. Unsurprisingly, reactions to the relativization of slavery have been extremely harsh. US Vice President Kamala Harris, daughter of an Indian mother and a Jamaican father, traveled to the Sunshine State immediately after the curriculum was published and said in a speech: “How can anyone claim that in the midst of these horrors there has been any benefit from being subjected to such dehumanization?”. And: “It’s not just misleading, it’s false and propaganda.”

There is also opposition to the new curriculum from within her own party. “Slavery was not a job program that gave you additional skills. It was dehumanizing in the truest sense and reduced people to mere property, without rights and freedoms,” , who recently entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Fentrice Driskell, a Democratic representative from Florida, even speaks of an “attack on black history”.

And DeSantis does it again

Ron DeSantis, who has hopes of becoming the Republican nominee for the US president, does not dispute the criticism. On the contrary, in a speech to an almost exclusively white audience, he added: “These new curricula will probably make it clear that some people were ultimately able to capitalize on having worked as a blacksmith or something like that,” said the Republican about the supposedly good sides of slavery. He himself, DeSantis asserts, was not involved in the creation. A number of “scholars” have set the “most reliable standards for African American history in the country”.

His reference to the exemplary nature of the curriculum for the entire United States is not only boasting, but also sober campaigning. DeSantis has been pursuing a kind of “Make America Florida” strategy for some time. Based on Donald Trump’s permanent motto “Make America great again”, the governor wants to make the entire United States like “his” Florida. Because the Caribbean peninsula has now become a model state for conservative minds: taxes are low, abortion is almost banned, the government stays out of many areas of life, only getting nasty when it comes to illegal immigration.

Florida is a red bastion

DeSantis, deliberately provocative, put dozens of undocumented immigrants on a plane and flown them to Martha’s Vineyard — a posh celebrity island in liberal Massachusetts — ahead of last fall’s election. At least in his home country, the malicious deportation was well received. Almost 60 percent of voters put their cross behind his name. The Republicans have made a red bastion out of the former “swing state”, where sometimes the Democrats, sometimes the Republicans are ahead – red is the party color of the conservatives.

In doing so, he also benefits from the omnipresent culture war between “left” and “right”, between liberalism and conservatism, which is also a struggle between urban and rural America. The left-wing liberals, the “Woken”, according to Ron DeSantis, would use their political correctness to dictate to people what they have to say, think and how – for example in schools, which in turn indoctrinates the children. To prevent or reverse this, the governor signed the “Stop Woke Act” last spring.

Travel warning for Florida

The new curriculum, which plays down slavery, is only one consequence of the law. The ban on talking about sexual orientation and gender identities in lessons for younger children has also become known. In March, the governor passed a new regulation “for the rights of parents in school education” – better known as the “don’t say gay” law. Books with “inappropriate content” are now also being banned from school libraries. Including queer authors, as well as those with black skin. Also affected is the famous poem “The Hill We Climb,” written by poet Amanda Gorman for Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The President of the US civil rights organization NAACP, Derrick Johnson, recently issued a “travel warning” for Florida. Ron DeSantis created a state “hostile to blacks and in direct conflict with the democratic ideals on which our country was built.” Experts doubt whether the pro-slavery tones from the mouth of the governor will benefit his reputation. According to Marvin Dunn, professor emeritus at Florida International University, the notion that slavery had its good points is “so vile that people will reject it.”

DeSantis nationwide without a chance

Whether the ultra-right course will resonate with voters and Republicans outside of Florida remains to be seen. In any case, Ron DeSantis, who is the number two possible candidate, has been losing ground again for a few weeks in the national polls. Not even 20 percent of conservatives see him as a suitable candidate for the White House. .

Sources: “”, “”, RealClearPolitics, “”, , “”