DeSantis Snorts at VP Kamala Harris Slam on Florida Black History ‘Lies’ — Explains Some ‘Parlayed’ Slave Work ‘Later In Life’
Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis snorted as a reporter asked about Vice President Kamala Harris slamming his state’s new Black history curriculum teaching the “benefits” of slavery to enslaved people, defending the standard by explaining some enslaved people “parlayed” the skills they learned “later in life.”
The Florida Board of Education voted Wednesday to approve a curriculum on Black history that includes teaching that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” and requires teaching “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”
Vice President Kamala Harris torched the new curriculum in two speeches on consecutive days, and on Friday DeSantis was asked to respond while at a press conference ahead of a campaign event in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He scoffed as the reporter read the VP’s criticism, but distanced himself from the policy when another reporter followed up by reading the passage in question to him — then still tried to defend it:
REPORTER: Vice President Harris saying your Board of Education’s revision of the school curriculum on slavery that quote if ” they want to replace history with lies.” (SNORT) What do you make of that (inaudible}
RON DESANTIS: I mean, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous. It’s totally outrageous. You guys can look on the website of the Florida Department of Education. You know, they got a lot of scholars together to do a lot of standards and a lot of different things. But these are the most robust standards in African-American history, probably anywhere in the country. Anyone who reads that will see that it’s very thorough, very factual. And for them to try to demagogue it, look, that may have worked in the past. Nobody’s buying their nonsense anymore. And so, you know, she’s going to come down to the state of Florida and try to chirp and try to, try to demagogue. All she’s doing is ignoring the responsibilities that the administration has to secure our border. They’re failing at that. They’re not developing enough domestic energy. They need to. They’re not doing what we need to do to counteract China in the Pacific and so on and on it goes. They’re dropping the ball. So it doesn’t surprise me that they’re trying to trying to do that. But, you know, this board, they got these people there and and they really were very thorough. So I would just encourage everyone to read it for yourself. Yes, ma’am.
REPORTER: Can I just get your clarification on one thing? It says “instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
RON DESANTIS: Well, you should talk to them about it. I mean, I didn’t do it and I wasn’t involved in it. But I think I think what they’re doing is I think that they’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into into doing things later, later in life. But the reality is all of that is rooted in whatever is factual. They listed everything out. And if you have any questions about it, just ask the Department of Education. You can talk about those folks. But I mean, these were scholars who put that together. It was not anything that was that was done politically.
The Tampa Bay Times published numerous examples debunking the claims of the board’s working group, and pointed out it is headed by the chair of the National Black Republican Association.
Watch above via KUTV.
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