Florida Schools Will Teach How Slavery Brought ‘Personal Benefit’ to Black People
The Florida Board of Education has approved shocking new standards for African American history, despite overwhelming backlash from the public.
At a certain point, eventually, the voters in Florida have to say enough is enough, right?
Can a state be majority racist, homophobic, anti woman and pro ignorance forever? Is that what 51% of Floridians really want?
It's what 40% of them want...they can buy the other 11%.
FL is literally filled with huge amount of morons from all over the country as a retirement haven. Rotten scumbags from all the other states.
DeSantis' approval rating has fallen off a cliff, and is continuing to fall, albeit more slowly.
So likely yes, they'll say enough is enough eventually, and I think we've already passed that point. Stuck with him for a while longer though.
DeSantis won by less than 20k votes. There is no way this shitshow doesn't prompt a big turnout yo oust him. Then we can expect more stolen election claim bullshit.
It might be worth noting that Florida has consecutive term limits for their governor (for now, anyway.) Desantis can't run again this next election. (He can for the one after that, though.)
Um...no. DeSantis won reelection by the largest margin in Florida in 40 years. He's wildly popular, or at least was as of a couple years ago.
Not sure how you got 20k when he won by more than 1.5 million
Oh my sweet summer child...
It takes effort to educate yourself. Far too many people are happy to be comfortably dumb.
Universities in other states need to loudly proclaim they will not accept Florida high school graduates fed this horseshit. "Does not meet prerequisites for higher education." You want to be Confederate Jesusland? Fine, but there's a cost. Employers need to do the same thing.
That's only going to hurt the kids who want out of that shithole state. They didn't choose to grow up there. And even if it's comparable to a hyper religious private school education, colleges aren't blanket denying students from those, same with homeschool kids. It may be necessary to offer remedial classes, but colleges are already doing that for math.
The kids will already be hurt … It’s a question of acknowledgment or if other institutions decide to ignore their deficiencies. (And, in admitting them, risk others students being subjected to their brainwashed viewpoints)
That sort of happens anyway. Kids taught creationism get laughed out of Biology 101 and have to spend some semesters passing Bio for Boneheads, where they unlearn all the creation myths and get a truth bath of evolution.
US History is important for poly sci majors and law majors, so yeah some might have to make sure they can pass exams or explain how we were late among western nations to end slavery (and use truck systems, exploitation of new immigrants and child labor to keep the ill-gotten flavor in our gains.)
And we need to make that process of getting kids who need it that basic foundational education as easy and cheap as possible. I would say the best thing we could do is make sure they have the opportunity to be de-programmed as soon as they are adults.
This is actually a terrifying prospect that would only make the situation worse. The kids stuck there and being educated in this propaganda are the ones who will need higher education the most! It is not their fault their parents are living there. And while some parents may have a choice in the matter, many do not as relocating in the U.S. is very expensive and impractical for some families.
I actually feel like the opposite is needed - that public universities go out of their way to accept kids who were educated in Florida in the hopes of actually being able to educate them and break the cycle that is currently feeding this wave of fascism.
We have a while before we have to worry about those kids actually getting to college. What needs to happen now is the colleges proclaiming this. Make a big stink about it. Talk about remedial education requirements for Florida graduates. Across lots of states. Embarrass the hell out of the state. Set requirements that Florida public school graduates have to take an entire years worth of remedial education in college. Suddenly mom and dad looking at that bill will start to flip out.
Look at what happened to North Carolina when they tried to pass their bathroom bill, way before all the current crop of anti-trans laws. Stuff got cancelled. Events pulled out. Businesses proclaimed their objections, made public grumblings about risking expansion in the state. There was actual damage and cost, and North Carolina nixed the whole thing. Look at what's happening in the culture wars now. Nothing. It's become noise. Next week Wisconsin will declare an open hunting season on Muslims or something, and everybody will yawn. They've successfully numbed us to this shit, and until large entities start pushing back, until there are real tangible costs to the states pulling this shit, it will keep happening.
Or at the very least require a bunch of remedial training classes
I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. These high school graduates from Florida didn't choose to live in Florida. They didn't choose to be educated this way. So not letting them into universities is discrimination and will only make things worse. If they were let into universities, they could see how Florida taught them wrongly.
Beleaf systems like that are almost desigmed to screw people over.
Edit: Thats too brief of an explanation, im tires and will bed.
Edit: lol, beleaf
I was ignorant enough to support this kind of crap when I was younger. It's never too late to turn your life around; please stop voting for these people.
Conservatives rant about the left "indoctrinating" kids to be gay or trans, but this shit is literal indoctrination. It's fucking alarming. Like, normally I'd say stay the fuck outta places like Florida or Texas but at this point we need more liberals sent out to even out these psychos.
It worries me to see others encouraging people to gtfo of those states because of these crazy laws, but I think that’s exactly what these politicians want. That way they will guarantee certain states to always be red during elections. But at the same time, how could you blame anyone for wanting to leave? It’s fucked up.
My dumbass moved to Florida last year and I'm sure as shit going to try and do my best to push back against these Nazis.
Why is this being allowed to happen?
There's a secret competition between government officials to see who can set up the most difficult material for a game of "Real news or Onion story?" that's really getting out of hand. Southern states have comfortably secured their continuing dominance of the leaderboard and are mostly fighting among themselves for the coveted #1 spot.
It seems like they push this kind of stuff to normalize it, so when they do less overt fucked up shit, no one bats an eye.
Among the malicious actors, there's "regular" people caught up in this, and this sort of behavior is all they know, and anything else is shunned, woke, liberal crap.. That's sad to me, how much of a product of environment we can be, and how that trait of ours is abused by POS people like the ones in power. I guess it's self fulfilling. Can't fight something(racism bigotry etc) when it's all you know.
It's surreal that this kind of stuff is happening, and becoming more obviously malicious.
Republicans control their legislature.
Because despite appearances that are put on, the main bulk of republicans and democrats are really not very far apart. A show is created around culture war which is really not particularly cared about by either of them while the core interests that they both share - exploiting the people and maintaining the class war in favour of the bankers, hedgefunds and financial elite - are ultimately kept secure.
Until the well-meaning liberals that continually give the benefit of the doubt to democrats wise up to this and radicalise into something further left the lack of opposition to the right will continue. Meanwhile the few dedicated and ideologically motivated actual-fascists that do get power, such as in Florida, will get to wield that power however the fuck they want as long as it isn't affecting the economic interests of the previously mentioned groups belonging to the wealthy ruling class.
An enormous amount of power exists to prevent or oppose all the things that have been happening lately. The issue is ultimately an unwillingness to do it.
This is nonsense. There's a massive difference between Republicans and Democrats.
The main issue is that Republicans are, more often than not, pieces of shit who never argue in good faith, while Democrats try to act with the higher morale ground, when they really should be pushing harder against the Republican bullshit.
Just look at their goals and agendas. What do Republicans even stand for besides bending over for money and being against "woke" culture? Sure, there are Democrats who are money removed too, but compare the two groups overall.
How is critical race theory banned, but this shit is allowed?
This is a rhetorical question. I know the answer...
Critical Race Theory is a requirement to get a law degree at most colleges. It was never taught below that level. What conservatives called CRT was actually American History.
wooooo slavery 2 : the sequel /s
What the actual fuck??? Seriously, Florida?
On brand for Conservatives
Jesus fucking christ. Glad my family moved from that shit hole when I was a child.
Ahh yes Florida, please teach me how slavery was such a beneficial thing for my race.
I’m sure the millions of slaves that were forced to work in fields without pay, murdered, raped, and were threatened just for wanting equal rights would agree with you.
Obvious /s
Sounds like someone isn't graduating.
Florida GOP
For those who don't know:
"The Southern Argument for Slavery"
Here: https://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp
Defenders of slavery argued that by comparison with the poor of Europe and the workers in the Northern states, that slaves were better cared for. They said that their owners would protect and assist them when they were sick and aged, unlike those who, once fired from their work, were left to fend helplessly for themselves.
NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/1859/01/19/archives/the-abolition-of-slavery.html
The "personal benefit" is a type of welfarist argument. As in the slave owners "gave them good lives" and that made it all OK.
Some folks really need to read and discuss George Orwell's book, 1984, and such things as double-speak.
Critical thinking has long departed.
Bold of you to assume the types of people actually, seriously in support of Florida GOP can read half a book without falling in a pit of rage and despair
Next year: "Y'know. We don't say nearly enough about all of good things Hitler did."
We really don't talk enough about his art. Or his literary works. Or his dreams.
We should all be thankful we've made it this far without anyone pushing for genocide against all their non-supporters tbh
It sounds like white Floridians should volunteer to be enslaved.
Sign up for personal benefit!
They don't need saving, silly person.
I think they are now calling it, “non-optionally upskilled “
They should make sure anyone teaching this shit is enslaved for several years for some on the job personal enrichment training before they start.
Let's start by enslaving anyone supporting this policy and ask them after 5 years how beneficial they think it is.
5 years
50 years, and the enslavement of their children and grandchildren - that's my minimum for an experiential evaluation.
Florida is a cursed state that has been lost to Republican and Far-Right whimsy, wow
I was a little suspect of the NAACP memo about it being unsafe for Black people but man this just seals the deal
When they elect their leaders, they aren’t sending their best. They’re sending the racist hateful assholes. The dredges of society.
Scary thought: What if this is the best they can muster? After all, there are plenty on the right who are actively calling for a race war and a Christian, white supremacist theocracy with anyone who isn't white, straight, cisgender, Christian, and male as second class citizens (if those in charge are feeling generous).
My teachers were pretty cool and they made sure to refute any positive spins people tried to attribute to slavery. Some kids came in thinking slave owners treated their slaves just like family, and the teachers shut that right down.
I'm worried about the education system. I bet those same teachers would have gotten into trouble for saying that now, being that it is apparently against the curriculum. I always thought that outside media was misleading and that education was supposed to be the truth. Now it seems like education is misleading, and it is a scary scary thing that outside media might be leaned on to learn the truth.
Honestly some of them did. That doesn't mean it's a good thing. I mean have you seen how some people treat their family? But plenty of them were raped abused etc at the hands of their "owners". US founding Fathers. I'm looking at you.
Next thing you tell me, Florida is going to have a sponsored showings of Songs of the South.
Is he going after Disney cause they put Sambo in the vault instead of building a statue at the park entrance?
I was taught the standard American Exceptionalism package in the 1970s-1980s which included full throated endorsement of American Imperialism spreading of freedom to undeveloped nations in exchange for sweet deals on their labor and resources.
In the 90s I started figuring out they were lying to me all this time, when I was a credulous child.
And now I hold a bit of a grudge.
So maybe we can expect the next generation of Floridians to emerge knowing their own society gives them not a single fuck.
I was a victim of the central Florida school system up to 8th grade in 96...I'm glad I finished school in the Mid-Atlantic region. Florida FUCKING sucks, and I have to say I'm kind of impressed at how terrible it continues to be.
As someone who knows several teachers in Florida, the kids do not give a single fuck either. Wonder where they learned that from
Guys, they weren't slaves. They were just unpaid interns receiving exposure and experience. Promise.
About 15 years ago, I attended a friend's wedding in South Carolina. It was held on a former plantation. The grounds were beautiful and I decided to join a tour of the area.
I quickly noticed that they never referred to "slaves" (and definitely not the more up to date phrase "enslaved people"). Instead, they always talked about "the workers." It was like they wanted you to picture a bunch of employees, voluntarily choosing to work there and being treated with the common decency that employees would be treated with.
Obviously, these weren't "workers." They were slaves. The plantation was trying to whitewash its history to make it seem not as bad as it really was. DeSantis' latest "educational reform" is from the same playbook. Slaves weren't tortured, abused, raped, and sold like property. No, they were just employed individuals who learned valuable life skills from their kind hearted employers! Next lesson: The Tulsa Riot and why the black people of Tulsa were equally responsible for the deaths. (I wish I was joking. That's part of the curriculum also.)
They were just unpaid interns receiving exposure and experience.
Not only that, but all their children would be guaranteed employment, housing, and care. What's not to love (aside from the hard work, beatings, rapes, and total lack of freedom)?
Sure! Tons of exposure. Exposure to the sun, the outside elements, vicious corpal punishment. The list goes on and on!
When is the Desantis Youth being formed?
Not surprising. I had some cousins in Florida who were taught in school that the south "technically" won the war. They never could quite explain it, but absolutely believed it.
The South kinda did win in many ways. The North basically gave up on Reconstruction.
Even today, our Union basically gives outsized political power to the South and former Slave states.
Yes the one state known for its very respectable public education in the US. I do feel bad for the students who without their knowledge, are being indoctrinated into fascist beliefs without even knowing. Let's talk about it. Let's not frame it like genocide is ever acceptable. Let's talk about how humans were tortured and killed out of curiosity and especially hate. Dehumanized animals subjected to things torturers would love to try themselves. To those people who want to keep doing it, you're on the chopping block too
Florida should just be removed from the rest of the US and continue to exist as an isolated island for assholes.
Desantis is a cunt.
At least cunts can be useful, good-looking and they may bring joy to those who interact with them. The nicest thing I can say about DeSantis is that there's plenty of horrible stuff he hasn't done yet as far as we know.
As the old saying goes, he lacks the depth and warmth.
Florida is rough man. People really enjoy waking up being hateful and ignorant here. I'm glad my parents took the time to teach me Black history outside of school hours.
My hope is that because this is such an obvious, stupid lie, it'll inspire kids to question all of the other stuff in their history books too; even blue-state schools teach ridiculous lies about American history, my kids got all sorts of upbeat hokum about Columbus I had to correct them on.
I've met many shall I call them hopeful "job creators" that think by paying minimum wage it brings people out of poverty. They can be convinced of anything.
I'm not American but I've been reading up on American history. This is reminiscent of the propaganda that said slavery taught black people to be hardworking and discouraged laziness, which was in line with Christian values at the time. Is that correct?
It sounds about right. (That it lines up with the propaganda, I mean. Not the propaganda itself.) Republicans hate the truth of history that white people owned black people as slaves and treated them horribly. They don't hate it because it was a travesty, though. They hate it because they are racist and see teaching proper history as an attempt to make them "feel bad for being white."
So they push back with their own version of history where all slave owners were kind hearted fellows who helped those poor black folks that didn't have any jobs. Republicans want to twist history to make heroes out of the white slave owners.
Of course Florida would do this, they're part of the "Mark of Cain" south.
That is: Southern Preachers maintained the horrific canon that black slaves would only survive as subservient to their white masters, because god had marked them. This is a big part of all the separations of churches during the civil war.
This neo-confederate approach to education and public policy needs to be ended swiftly.
At least a decade too late for that.
Next: being a literal corporate slave benefits you with a hovel, scraps, and beating to maintain character!
This clown has been in the news for a lot of stupid shit recently, but this is going too far. What the fucking fuck is happening? This isn’t even funny, it’s like a few steps away from trying bring back human slavery (which I’m sure the supreme court would have no problem with)
And the sad part is that DeSantis has no chance of getting elected as president. Nobody likes him and his hideous white boots. He’s probably doing stuff like this out of spite/malice.
it’s like a few steps away from trying bring back human slavery (which I’m sure the supreme court would have no problem with)
Undoubtedly, since slavery is still allowed in the constitution.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
Emphasis mine.
And both parties in America's government have representatives who profit off carceral slavery via holding stock in private prisons. Lost the paperwork that named and shamed them; but I'm pretty sure it was high-profile, water-cooler-and-dining-room-table names on that list.
Yeah the next logical step for Desatan is getting rid of prisons and opening work camps, with indentured servants.
If at some point Trump gets charges that keep him from being the GOP headrunner, we'll likely see Fox news turn to pushing Desantis in the other 49 states. He very quickly could turn into being liked by many Republicans
Need people from the GOP to start calling him out in hopes we can get people to hate him enough that even if Trump bows out neither are there
Wow that is seriously messed up.
A co-worker went on a rant about how nobody talks about how it's just heritage and the war wasn't just about slavery. Also complaining that the customers complained about the confederate flag on his pickup so he had to take it down to avoid drama.
Even if his argument was in any way accurate, that flag clearly does not currently mean what he's defending. I grew up in the south, went to college in the south, etc... If you want southern pride all over the place (I don't see why you would be proud of that with how awful it's going) then just fly your state flag. Certain parts have beautiful nature and culture that is absolutely great. The stars and bars have nothing to do with it. It's not even accurate as a Confederate flag. A swastica on a flag is so outside of this "southern flag" idea that it should mean an immediate investigation of the people flying it.
There aren’t really any good examples provided of what the article alleges, but I 100% believe this. I am dumbfounded that the people flinging “snowflake” as an insult has done all this to make sure their kids never feel bad for actions perpetrated by white US citizens. Of course, like anything else, it has nothing to do with their kids and everything to do with their own discomfort at facing reality or blatant racism. Frustrating stuff.
If you follow the links in the article, you can get to the actual curriculum itself. Scroll for a while and you'll find this...
SS.68.AA.2.3 - Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation).
Benchmark Clarifications:
Clarification 1: Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.
And frankly, it's not inaccurate. Slaves who worked as artisans were sometimes able to make money independently and even buy their own freedom from masters who allowed it. The absolute atrocity of the triangle trade and chattel slavery is not diminished by a lucky few, of course. The benefit of the skilled craftsmanship of enslaved people overwhelmingly went to their masters.
Florida is a shithole state. There will never be enough tax breaks to offset the Taliban-like human rights suppression that Republicans apparently require.
I thought it's r/nottheonion sub.
He knows "Meatball" wasn't intended as aspirational, right?
Is "meatball" a reference to someone?
For a time DeSantis was called “Meatball Ron.”
Isn't that why Song of the South got banned?
??? Seriously
Is this in reference to one curriculum change about a 1920s massacre to include that there were blacks and whites killing blacks instead of whites killing blacks?
And then the benefit thing, is that an extrapolation from that change?
Article was a bit shit.
They put it in quotes, as if they were quoting something. Yet there is no citation for it. Very strange.
Was it the whipping part? /s
Y'know what'd benefit white people? Especially the Floridian ones?
Go ahead, ask.
Somebody tell me there's additional context of some sort. This seems very odd.
Do they mean black African slave traders?
There is no additional context. Republicans don't want to stop being racist, and teaching children that slavery was bad makes them less likely to be tolerant of racism.
That's no additional context. This is a tiny step removed from "they weren't slaves, they were just employees" historical revisionism.
Another part of the curriculum says that teachers need to specify that, while some white people might have caused racially motivated massacres, black people were to blame as well. The Tulsa race riot? It wasn't the fault of the white people who slaughtered all those black people. No, according to Florida's new curriculum, the black people who were slaughtered were responsible also.
The context is that it's true, but only in a limited number of cases. Many African craftsmen were brought here, and many others were apprenticed to white craftsmen here. The vast majority saw the fruits of their labor stolen for the benefit of their masters, but a lucky few were able to make money and in rare cases even buy their own freedom.
Slavery is a complex subject and you have to remember the slaves were strong, smart individuals who would have been constantly trying to make the best of their situations. The fact that some of them had some success in forging their own paths doesn't mean the triangle trade & chattel slavery were any less horrific or criminal.
Frankly, the curriculum reported on is perfectly acceptable, and the reporting is disingenuous. Whether Florida schools will teach it in a balanced way is an entirely different question.
I suppose if we're being honest with ourselves, one benefit was getting to leave Africa and come to America. There seems to be a lot of people out here dying to illegally cross our borders.
Holy shit this is stupid. These people were forcibly taken from their homes, stacked like wood in the holds of ships where many of them died, then treated worse than animals when they got here. So no, that wasn't a benefit.
Sounds like you're from Florida though
No I'm just being provocative for the sake of conversation.
Overall I think their generational offspring's lives are likely "improved" compared to maybe the similar generations who remained in their homeland these days.
However, those that were slaves definitely suffered a very unjust and horrific existence that is inexcusable.
Funny difference here is though that slaves were kidnapped and sold, had no choice in the matter.
This benefit is akin to force someone into hard labour and then start selling getting calluses as a ‘benefit’. Your welcome. Absurd of course.
They were taken hostage by African Tribes, sold to the Dutch, put on ships, shipped to North and South America, and forced into slavery. I don't think you can compare that to migrants fleeing to Canada, who are trapped south of the United States border.
How is that a benefit? They were slaves taken from their homes not immigrants.
And even if they were immigrants, how is becoming a slave a good thing in any way?
Yeah it must have been really great to get kidnapped from your home and family and forcibly sold into slavery, shipped from one undeveloped country to another undeveloped country. Stop with this nonsense - there is nothing good about slavery. Period. Done. End of story. Absolutely sickening. Pure evil.
Yeah what luck! America in 1619, with its gleaming cities and endless opportunities - every African aspired to be a member of those huddled masses yearning to breathe enslaved!
How about this, what if the millions of black people that were brought over to the states, instead remained in Africa and built it to be a prominent and thriving nation.
If it wasn’t for black slaves building the U.S. one could argue that it wouldn’t be where it is today.
Yeah it's not like ruining a country, you know, ruins a country. Who would think that.
This is so vile I just gasped involuntarily. I hope someday you feel an ounce of shame, sheesh.
yeah, sure, getting colonized, stolen from five ways from sunday, and oppressed in what's mockingly called our 'liberty'. So beneficial. SO lucky.
The America they were forced to come to was vastly different from the one we live in today. How would that be better than where they already lived? How would someone benefit from being ripped from their family and support system and dropped in an undeveloped country to do forced labor?
Yeah I'm sure the thousands of people who died in the hulls of slave ships, chained in place in their own piss and shit and sick, hungry and afraid, really appreciated the chance to come to America where the streets are paved with gold. You fucking moron.
