Watered Down Slavery

If you haven’t looked at the new standards for teaching Black history in Florida, it is utterly ridiculous and insulting. Ben Crump said, “This irresponsible and disgraceful so-called black history curriculum is an insult to our ancestors.” I would also add the word disrespectful to the list.

History is history. You can’t water it down, change it, or act like it doesn’t exist. It happened. It is very insulting to hear that enslaved people learned skills that were “applied for their personal benefit,” according to Governor DeSantis. It’s almost as if Black people should be grateful to have been slaves because they learned something. I am beyond offended and insulted by this new curriculum standard. DeSantis and Abbott have been the two governors in the news over controversial decisions they have made. Will Texas follow suit?

A political science professor said in an interview responding to DeSantis’ comments stating, “There is no walking back this kind of policy or his comments and no reasonable person would think it’s anything but racist. This may be the nail in the coffin as this is not only creating a culture of racism, it’s weakening our educational standards by the very indoctrination DeSantis railed about.

This comment speaks truth as these standards are just not acceptable. The sad part is, I don’t know if these comments will strengthen his race for president or cripple him. We saw Trump say whatever he wanted during his campaign, his presidency, and even now, and has gotten away with a lot.

I really believe that when Obama took office, it really started a chain of racism that had been suppressed for years. Now historical cases are being overturned and we are seeing the past become the present. America is at a crossroads where we must decide what country do we want to be. Do we want to be a country that has a continued culture of racism, or do we want to be an example of what unity can look like if we would all simply just get along?

Photo Credit: Clement Eastwood