Black Leaders Denounce Florida's New Education Guidelines

Black leaders are condemning Florida for its new framework for how Black history will be taught in K-12 schools, including guidelines that slavery was beneficial to enslaved people, reports The Hill.

The Florida Board of Education approved changes to the social studies curriculum on Wednesday. Of those changes, the most criticized were the guidelines for middle school students, which state, "Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

"How is it that anyone could suggest in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?" Vice President Kamala Harris said during a speech Friday in Jacksonville, Florida, condemning the state.

David Johns, executive director of the National Black Justice Coalition, accused the state's Board of Education of continuing an "assault by Florida fascists under the leadership of lies led by Gov. DeSantis."

The board is "seeking to affirm white supremacy via instituting anti-Black, Black History standards," he added.

"This is nothing more than white nationalist, segregationist politicians rewriting history in Florida, pushing the country closer toward civil war, and teaching our kids fallacies such as enslavement providing kidnapped and exploited Africans with useful skills," said Johns.

NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson called Florida's education laws "an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected."

"It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history," he said in a statement. 

"We refuse to go back," Johnson added. "The NAACP has been fighting against malicious actors such as those within the DeSantis Administration for over a century, and we're prepared to continue that fight by any means necessary. Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for."

Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis in a tweet accused Harris and Democrats of lying " to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children."

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