DeSantis Invites Kamala Harris to Florida to Settle ‘Benefits of Slavery’ Drama By Caroline Downey
Florida governor Ron DeSantis on Tuesday invited vice president Kamala Harris to Florida to debate her claims that the Sunshine State’s history curriculum endorses slavery.
“Over the past several weeks, the Biden administration has repeatedly disparaged our state and misinformed Americans about our education system,” the 2024 GOP candidate wrote in the letter.
Harris and other Democratic politicians have accused Florida’s African American history curriculum of teaching that “enslaved people benefited from slavery.” Teachers’ union, the Florida Education Association, and the NAACP branded the standards “an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected.”
The curriculum includes 191 lessons emphasizing the punitive nature of slave codes, the economic undercurrents of the slave trade, as well as the post-abolition era of segregation and racism. Behind progressives’ hysteria, however, is one item instructing junior-high-school classrooms to “examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).” An appended “Clarification” adds that students should consider “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Harris tweeted last week that “extremists” in Florida erased African-American history. She then announced she’d visit Jacksonville, where she delivered remarks blasting the standards. DeSantis asked her to come back for another visit to settle the misunderstandings around the curriculum.
“In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues,” the letter read. “And you clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice. So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American history standards.”
Dr. William Allen, a black professor and political scientist in Florida who helped develop the standards, will be asked to join the conversation, DeSantis said. The governor also said Harris is free to have someone who shares her views, such as American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, accompany her.
“What an example we could set for the nation – a serious conversation on the substance of an important issue!” DeSantis added. “I hope you’re feeling up to it.”
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