Despite objections from one of the curriculum’s Black architects, the White House has repeated its assertion that Florida’s new history curriculum aims to modify the teaching of slavery in the United States.
Kamal Harris’s criticized comments from a speech she gave last week in Jacksonville, Florida, where she claimed that students would be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery, were echoed by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP) during Monday’s daily press briefing.
After a thorough rebuke of the charge that the Florida curriculum is teaching that enslaved people benefitted from their enslavement, KJP obnoxiously noted that people ‘shouldn’t forget’ that Florida and national politicians propagated historical misinformation.
She continued by saying that it prohibits an honest narrative, an honest portrayal of our nation’s past and that it is false, demeaning, and harmful. She told the Joe Biden and Kamala Harris government will fight against efforts to rewrite our history and other measures that will drive the nation apart and backward.
Dr. William B. Allen, a Black scholar, played a crucial role in developing the revised curriculum, which now includes lessons on how enslaved people acquired marketable talents. After her speech, this prompted several detractors to accuse Harris of deliberately deceiving the American people.
In an interview with ABC News, Allen responded vehemently to Harris’s criticism, saying that the assertion that “slavery was beneficial to Africans” was never mentioned in the curriculum.
Allen said that the vice president’s critique of the new curriculum was the only one they had heard and that it was wrong.
Some of Harris’s detractors have said that she blatantly lied.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president in Florida, attacked Harris before she spoke on Friday, saying she is too focused on the state of Florida and that the Biden administration is trying to brainwash its kids.
DeSantis stated in a social media post that Florida is an obstacle and that the state will continue to expose the group’s objectives and falsehoods.
