Not a Productive Path For You Guys

I have vigorously defended Florida’s new education standards and put them in their proper and whole context. It is absolutely true the left has lied about and distorted the standards on slavery.

In fact, they have fixated on one ancillary point and ignored the hundred plus others that require teachers to teach the awful brutality of slavery, how the cotton gin and capitalism made slavery every worse, how capitalism ultimately began helping places move past slavery but the South stubbornly held on to an institution that was cruel, inefficient, and outmoded, and how people in Europe, Africa, and the Americas all collaborated to perpetuate the slave trade.

It is a thorough and comprehensive study of slavery. But it suggests that teachers also note while slave masters kept their slaves illiterate and devoid of mathematical training, the slaves still learned skills they could use to their betterment, both to escape slavery and after the Civil War. Harriet Tubman, for example, developed a strong Christian faith while in slavery and also skills including the use of the North Star for navigation, which she then used both to escape slavery and rescue others.

The left and media together have spun this as Ron DeSantis trying to absolve white people of the guilt of slavery and trying to minimize slavery. As I have previously noted, nothing could be further from the truth and the guidelines were developed by black teachers.

However, four out of five black Republicans in Congress, including Tim Scott, have criticized the guidelines based on the inaccurate press reports. Scott has vocally claimed there is nothing redeeming about slavery.

In a presidential campaign, it is of course natural to look for openings against opponents and take them. I disagree with Scott, but I do not think he or the other black Republicans are woke. I think they have just taken the press reports and the accounts of their staff as true and their staff, opposed to DeSantis, have an incentive to not be fully transparent about the standards.

Likewise, I think this is a very online argument that most people will soon forget and very few will actually care about off Twitter. I see no reason to disparage several descendants of slavery who have criticized DeSantis for what they think is wrong.

While I disagree with them, I do also see their point of view, understand what has been said and misrepresented, and just disagree with them while understanding where they are coming from.

Characterizing Tim Scott and the others as woke is nonsense and the suggestion comes from those who need to touch grass more than be on Twitter.

Yes, I think they have amplified Kamala Harris’s false attacks and are actually helping Biden more than themselves. But it is also politics. I get it. I don’t intend to malign black Republicans who take issue with a poorly phrased line in an education code — and it could have been worded better.

I’m not going to declare them woke or progressive or not Republican or anything else.

This too shall pass and most people will never know or care. I don’t think it is a productive path to blast black Republicans for disagreeing with education standards in Florida. So move on to more important matters, please.