No, Florida is NOT saying slavery was beneficial

Here’s an unpleasant truth: During the Holocaust, in the Nazi death camps, some Jewish prisoners used their skills to escape extermination, even as their brethren  were marched into gas chambers.

Vice President Kamala Harris (left), has her facts wrong, says Dr. William Allen
One example were Jewish musicians who played music, including their own compositions, to maintain a false calm in the camps.

Other Jewish prisoners were recruited to be Sonderkommandos to dispose of gas chamber victims. Jews aiding Nazis. An unpleasant truth. 

Here is another unpleasant truth — “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” That is one line out of a 216-page report titled, “Florida’s State Academic Standards – Social Studies, 2023.”

Yes, this is the manufactured-by-progressives controversy du jour.

Because words matter, please note two qualifications in that statement:  in some instances, which is not a majority; and could be applied to their benefit, which means in some cases, but not all. It does not say that slavery was beneficial. Anyone who says that is either illiterate, or lying. 

As with the Jews in the death camp, some slaves benefitted, yes, but they certainly were not free to refuse. 

The “benefit” line is one small point in the document detailing  how slavery will be taught in Florida schools.

The new curriculum was condemned by some, including Vice President Kamala Harris, for preaching that slavery was a good thing for enslaved Black Americans.

“How is it that anyone could suggest that amidst these atrocities [of slavery], there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris asked. “Just yesterday in the state of Florida they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery.”

That is false. She ignored the qualifications I mentioned, because it was in her political interest to misrepresent what the plan says.

Read the first 21 pages that deal with slavery and you will see it does not in any way endorse, praise or excuse slavery. 

The slavery curriculum was developed by a 13-person task force, five or whom are African-American.

The Florida Department of Education  provided a statement from Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, who are members of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup. Each of them is Black.

The new standards were defended as “comprehensive and rigorous instruction on African American History. We proudly stand behind these African American History Standards,” the statement said.

“The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited. This is factual and well documented,” it added.

It’s “disappointing” that some detractors would devalue the research from the work group and reduce it to “a few isolated expressions without context,” the statement said.

In an interview with ABC, Dr. Allen said, “It never said slavery was beneficial to Africans.”

What the vice president said “was categorically false,” he said.

Dr. Allen is a descendent of American slaves, Vice President Harris is not.

The Left is going crazy with deranged statements and memes depicting Florida as celebrating slavery. 

Give it a moment’s thought and you know that can’t be true.

Really, it can’t. No rational person is going to claim slavery was good.

That is not what Florida plans to teach.

Some call slavery America’s original sin, and there is truth to that. It touches many people emotionally. But emotion can’t be allowed to overrule fact.

How to teach slavery can be vexing. How much of it can be honestly taught?

That some slave owners were sadists, murderers, and rapists? Without doubt, no controversy there.

That some owners allowed slaves to buy their freedom? Can we say that?

That some Blacks themselves owned slaves? That is an unpleasant truth.

That Black Africans were sold into slavery with the connivance of rival Black Africans?

That abolitionist John Brown was a treasonous insurrectionist. . .  or freedom fighter?  

History can be complicated, and more complex the deeper you delve into it.

There is rarely “one” truth, and it is impossible to tell everything about a subject in one sitting.

We have to be open to facts, even when they are unpleasant or challenge some of our most cherished beliefs.

And we must reject misrepresentations and lies.