US Vice President Kamala Harris spoke out against what she called extremists in Florida who support new educational guidelines that promote what she termed revisionist history about slavery in the United States. This week, Florida’s board of education approved new guidelines that include a statement for middle school students, emphasizing how slaves developed skills that could be of benefit to them personally. Harris, the first Black and Asian-American woman to hold the position of vice president, traveled to Florida, a key political swing state, to deliver a powerful speech denouncing the new guidelines.
Harris denounced the suggestion that there were any benefits to be gained from the atrocities of slavery, highlighting the rape, torture, and separation of families that were inherent in the practice. She questioned how anyone could imply that people subjected to such dehumanization could find any positive aspects within their experience.
The Florida board of education approved the new teaching guidelines for students from kindergarten through high school on Wednesday. Florida’s education commissioner, Manny Diaz Jr., defended the guidelines during the board meeting, stating that they address the tougher subjects of slavery and racist violence in an age-appropriate manner.
However, critics argue that the new guidelines are misleading and amount to propaganda. William Allen and Frances Presley Rice, members of the working group that developed the guidelines, claim that the mention of slaves developing specialized skills aims to emphasize that they were not merely victims. Harris dismissed this perspective and called on educators not to bow to politicians’ pressure to teach…
