‘There Is No Silver Lining To Slavery!’ Tim Scott Roasts DeSantis — Then Chalks It Up To ‘A Bad Day’

Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott (R-SC) gently roasted Florida governor and GOP rival Ron DeSantis on the campaign trail for his defense of a new Black History curriculum that includes teaching the “personal benefit” of skills learned under slavery.

DeSantis has been consistently defending the newly-approved Florida curriculum on Black history — which includes teaching that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit”  — and even offered the example of a hypothetical person “parlaying” their enslavement into a blacksmithing career “later in life.”

While campaigning in Iowa on Thursday, Senator Scott was asked about the history standards by a reporter from Politico, and made the obvious point that there’s “no silver lining” to slavery, but added that maybe DeSantis was having “a bad day”:

You know, it’s interesting, as a country founded upon freedom, the greatest deprivation of freedom was slavery. There’s no silver lining in freedom– in slavery. The truth is, even if you learn that any benefits that people suggest you had during slavery, you would have had as a free person. Slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans, and raping their wives. It was devastating.

So I would hope that every person in our country, and certainly running for president, would appreciate that.

Listen, people have bad days. Sometimes they regret what they say. And we should ask them again to clarify their positions.

Former congressman Will Hurd (R-TX) — another Black Republican running for president — jumped all over DeSantis earlier this week, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins “Slavery was not a jobs program”:

it is shocking to me, Kaitlan, that in 2023, I have to say this. There is no — there was no upside to slavery. Slavery was not a jobs program.

And also, Ron DeSantis showed his lack of leadership, by acting like it was somebody else’s fault and not something that was done, on his watch.

Here is the reality. If you’re going to talk about how African Americans, despite being treated, like property, despite having zero freedoms, or zero rights, that they still had a tremendous impact on our country, if you want to talk about that? That’s great. But to imply that there was an upside? It is unacceptable.

And what he should have done is say, “Listen? That was worded wrong. We’re going to fix that. There is no upside to slavery. We’re going to make sure that we talk about this, and that our kids in schools, get a proper understanding, of our history.”

Watch above via CBS News.

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