{"id":1329,"date":"2023-07-31T15:49:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-31T19:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1329"},"modified":"2023-08-12T15:51:26","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T19:51:26","slug":"ron-desantiss-slavery-was-a-good-thing-curriculum-weirdly-unpopular-among-gop-hopefuls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=1329","title":{"rendered":"Ron DeSantis\u2019s \u201cSlavery Was a Good Thing\u201d Curriculum Weirdly Unpopular Among GOP Hopefuls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cAnybody that is implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Bess Levin<\/a> July 31, 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A lot of crazy s–t has come out of Florida over the last number of years\u2014see: every headline that starts with \u201cFlorida Man\u2026\u201d\u2014but almost none of it compares to what the Sunshine State came up with earlier this month, when the Board of Education approved a new set of rules requiring teachers to tell students<\/a> that there were upsides to being enslaved<\/em>. Yes, really: The state literally requires instruction<\/a> on \u201chow slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Obviously, this is completely nuts, as is the fact that Florida governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis<\/strong> has repeatedly<\/a> defended<\/a> the new curriculum standards, saying its authors \u201cdid a good job\u201d and that it would be totally reasonable to \u201cshow that some of the folks\u2026eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.\u201d To be clear, \u201cthe folks\u201d the governor is talking about here are enslaved people, and he\u2019s suggesting that there were positive trade-offs to being human property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not surprisingly, a number of DeSantis\u2019s rivals for the GOP nomination have seized<\/a> on Florida\u2019s batshit new rules as well as DeSantis\u2019s decision to back them. On Sunday, appearing on NBC News\u2019 Meet the Press,<\/em> former GOP congressman Will Hurd<\/strong> said that \u201canybody that is implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane.\u201d (He also noted the obvious, which is that \u201cslavery is not a jobs program.\u201d) Hurd added: \u201cIt\u2019d be hard to make the case, if Ron DeSantis was the Republican nominee, that folks in Black and brown communities should support him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also on Sunday, former UN ambassador and 2024 hopeful Nikki Haley<\/strong> told<\/a> CBS News\u2019 Face the Nation:<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s the 21st century. And I think we can all agree that\u2026there were no positives that came out of slavery,\u201d adding that DeSantis should say as much. On CNN\u2019s State of the Union,<\/em> fellow 2024 candidate Vivek Ramaswamy<\/strong> said that \u201cobviously, we should be teaching kids about the awful legacy of slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Days earlier, Representative Tim Scott<\/strong>\u2014the sole Black Republican in the Senate\u2014told reporters at a campaign stop: \u201cAs a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery. There is no silver lining\u2026in slavery\u2026What slavery was really about [was] separating families, about mutilating humans, and even raping their wives. It was just devastating.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on Wednesday, Representative Byron Donalds<\/strong>\u2014the only Black GOP congressman representing Florida\u2014tweeted<\/a> that \u201cthe attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted.\u201d (In response, DeSantis\u2019s campaign picked a public fight<\/a> with the lawmaker.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, at this point, the fact that DeSantis would defend this curricular absurdity is not entirely surprising, given that, earlier this year, he backed<\/a> the Florida Department of Education\u2019s decision to ban the College Board\u2019s AP African American studies course, claiming it lacked \u201ceducational value.\u201d There\u2019s also the uncomfortable New York Times<\/em> reporting<\/a> around DeSantis\u2019s tenure as a private school teacher in Georgia, where he stuck out to students thanks to his unorthodox POV on the Civil War and slavery:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Danielle Pompey<\/strong>\u2026recalled Mr. DeSantis teaching Civil War history in a way that sounded to her like an attempt to justify slavery. \u201cLike in history class, he was trying to play devil\u2019s advocate that the South had good reason to fight that war, to kill other people, over owning people\u2014Black people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Gates] Minis,<\/strong> who is white and was in the same history class as Ms. Pompey, also remembers debating issues around the Civil War. Mr. DeSantis wasn\u2019t so much politically opinionated, she said, but, in her view, factually wrong. She remembers him claiming that every city in the South had burned, even though she knew her hometown, Savannah, had not and she called him out on it.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As the Times<\/em> reported, DeSantis\u2019s point of view on slavery was so well known that \u201dstudents made a satirical video about him\u201d in which a student meant to be DeSantis is heard saying, \u201cThe Civil War was not about slavery! It was about two competing economic systems. One was in the North\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to a request for comment from The Washington Post,<\/em> DeSantis\u2019s campaign forwarded a tweet<\/a> featuring a video from Friday in which the governor says he is \u201cdefending\u201d Florida \u201cagainst false accusations and against lies\u201d and will \u201ccontinue to speak the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bess Levin<\/a> is a politics correspondent at Vanity Fair.<\/em> An essential voice of our current tragicomedy, she is an incisive, hilarious daily narrator of the horrors that never seem to stop. If you need catharsis in these terrifying times\u2014or even if you don\u2019t!\u2014she is a must-read. You can follow her… Read more<\/a>See More By Bess Levin \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAnybody that is implying that there was an upside to slavery is insane.\u201d By Bess Levin July 31, 2023 A lot of crazy s–t has…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[21],"tags":[37,36],"class_list":["post-1329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-alternative-history","tag-reconstructed-historical-narrative-fake-history"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8VBh7-lr","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":651,"url":"https:\/\/www.gopplaybook.com\/?p=651","url_meta":{"origin":1329,"position":0},"title":"The Kochs have a message for Hispanics: Not all Republicans are like Trump","author":"Donnie","date":"March 17, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"OCTAVIAN CANTILLI FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE Camila Gomez, 27, from Colombia taught one of the advanced English classes at The Libre Institute in Orlando this month. 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