Morning Wire XX
[0] Florida's new social studies curriculum approved by the state's board of education has been engulfed in a firestorm of controversy from the left.
[1] Democrat critics have drawn attention to one line, they say, minimizes the historical realities of slavery.
[2] Vice President Kamala Harris even traveled to Jacksonville last week to rally against the curriculum, and the Congressional Black Caucus is now pushing the White House and DOJ to investigate.
[3] Conservatives, meanwhile, are accusing the vice president and Democrats of lying.
[4] They say the line has been taken out of context and that Harris's remarks are deliberately and cynically misleading.
[5] For this episode of MorningWire, Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham digs into the debate to find out what exactly is in the curriculum and why the scholars behind it felt the controversial line was an important element to include.
[6] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[7] Thanks for waking up with us.
[8] It's July 30th, and this is your Sunday edition of Morning Wire.
[9] So, Megan, it's been a little surprising to see how much attention has gone to this one sentence in this history curriculum that runs about 216 pages.
[10] What is that one line and what's the surrounding context?
[11] So the line says that teacher instruction should include quoting here, how slaves developed skills, which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit.
[12] Those two words, personal benefit, are what are really creating this firestorm.
[13] Now, the immediate context of the instruction is to have students, again quoting, examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves.
[14] And it offers examples like agricultural work, carpentry, tailoring, blacksmithing, things like that.
[15] Well, that, as John noted, drew fierce criticism from Vice President Kamala Harris, who then traveled to Jacksonville last week to condemn it.
[16] They pushed forward revisionist history.
[17] Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery.
[18] They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it.
[19] And then perhaps somewhat coordinated messaging came from the White House.
[20] So press secretary Corinne Jean -Pierre then brought the issue up during the press briefing on Monday.
[21] Jean -Pierre was announcing that President Biden would be signing a proclamation to establish national monuments to honor Emmett Till.
[22] until, of course, was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after a white woman accused him of behaving flirtatiously with her.
[23] So here's how Jean -Pier framed that.
[24] It comes at an important moment.
[25] Let's not forget what we have seen these past several months as we witness extreme officials in Florida and across the country lie about American history.
[26] The most recent example, shamefully, shamefully promoting a lie that enslaved people actually benefited from slavery.
[27] It's inaccurate, insulting, it's hurtful, and prevents an honest account, an honest account of our nation's history.
[28] And along with that, there's been a lot of critical commentary in outlets like The Washington Post, MSNBC, The View.
[29] So the criticism basically is that the curriculum whitewashes history and minimizes the horrors of slavery.
[30] Right.
[31] That's basically what you're hearing.
[32] Now, I'll add that as I read through the curriculum, which, as you said, is extensive at more than 200 pages, it certainly does include a lot of that horror.
[33] It includes sections about the harsh conditions slaves faced on various types of plantations, including poor nutrition, cruel labor, disease.
[34] It goes into infant and child mortality rates also.
[35] Conditions during the passages from Africa and what slaves faced if they attempted to escape.
[36] And of course, that part is not coming in for criticism.
[37] There was one other section, though, that did raise some smaller complaints.
[38] It's centered on slavery in other countries.
[39] For example, it said this, how trading in slaves developed in African lands and how the Barbary pirates kidnapped Europeans to sell them into slavery in Muslim countries.
[40] But you're hearing a lot less about that part.
[41] So it does seem like most of the controversy is really centered on that line, asserting that in some instances, slaves develop skills that they were able to benefit from once free.
[42] Okay, so what was the intention behind that specific learning standard?
[43] How did the writers of the curriculum envision it being taught?
[44] Well, to give you a little background on all of this, African -American history has been a requirement in Florida's K -12 curriculum since 1994.
[45] Now, that's when the Florida legislature created the African History Task Force to write this kind of curriculum.
[46] We asked Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz about it, and he said this particular curriculum is actually an expansion on that earlier work.
[47] It's actually the first time that our state will have.
[48] have standalone standards for African -American history that are not just embedded in American history.
[49] And in fact, very few states have it.
[50] This is a work group of 13 scholars, including several African -Americans, that worked for months to make sure that they came to the most comprehensive standards.
[51] And these are individuals from different perspectives, different walks of life that came together to make sure that they arrived with the consensus of what these robust standards and comprehensive standards would be for African -American history.
[52] And so that's what they've created to tell the story of all of the ugliest periods, all the atrocities, all the realities of slavery, Jim Crow periods, reconstruction, civil rights movement, but also to tell the story of the individuals and what they were facing and their perseverance and resilience.
[53] So one of those African -American scholars was Dr. William Allen.
[54] He's a political science professor who has written several books on early American history, and he was the former chairman of the U .S. Commission on Civil Rights.
[55] He told Fox News that the vice president is lying and that this aspect of the curriculum is intended to accurately reflect history.
[56] This curriculum is devoted to telling the truth, whereas Kamala Harris has retailed a lie.
[57] Now, it may only have been a falsehood the first time she stated it, but when you repeat a falsehood, it becomes a lie.
[58] Now, as an example of that, he pointed to a passage from Frederick Douglass's autobiography.
[59] He described how the mistress of his slave owner began to teach him to read.
[60] She pulled back the curtain through which a glimmer of light shone before the master force started closing.
[61] But that glimmer of light was enough for Frederick Douglass to illumine a bright flame that he exploited to his benefit and his country's benefit thereafter.
[62] Such examples are numerous, and they're retail in the stories of people who suffered the indignity of slavery time and again.
[63] And quickly, permit me to say, what this curriculum is about is having people who live the experience, who live the history, tell their stories.
[64] And nothing is more important than that we never, ever erase the stories that the people who live the stories tell.
[65] And then one more little wrinkle here.
[66] Progressives were outraged when the board rejected some previous African -American history curriculum for containing critical race theory.
[67] But it included, well, I mean, really the exact same element.
[68] It said this.
[69] In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the north and south.
[70] Once free, African -Americans use these skills to provide for themselves and others.
[71] others.
[72] Well, I would also imagine there's a heightened sensitivity around the precise wording of the content, given the political moment we're in, and maybe specifically the fact that this is Florida.
[73] Yeah, absolutely.
[74] I do think there's, well, a lot going on under the surface here.
[75] So California Congressman Eric Swalwell tweeted in a dig at Governor Ron DeSantis, if you require schools to teach the personal benefits of slavery, you are pro -slavery.
[76] Now, DeSantis did not require the schools to teach that he wasn't involved in developing this curriculum.
[77] Again, that line was developed by the African -American history standards work group.
[78] So I don't think that we can discount that some Democrats may be viewing this as a political opening, maybe looking at an early opportunity to define DeSantis should he become the Republican presidential nominee.
[79] And then also more broadly, there's been quite a battle, as you say, raging over critical race theory for the last couple of years.
[80] And DeSantis has been at the forefront of that debate.
[81] Last April, he signed a bill known as the Stop Woke Act that banned the teaching of critical race theory in public classrooms.
[82] Now, that law prevents teachers from making students feel that they bear personal responsibility, guilt, anguish, or, quote, other forms of psychological distress for actions in the past committed by members of their own race.
[83] And it also blocks instruction that would suggest that anyone is either privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color.
[84] This was DeSantis addressing that bill last year.
[85] It violates Florida standards to scapegoat someone based on their race, to say that, you know, they're inherently racist, to say that they're an oppressor or oppressed or any of that.
[86] And that's good and that's important.
[87] But we also have to realize that we got to do more to make sure that that actually carries the day in the classrooms and in our society.
[88] So today, we are going to be introducing to the public and we have.
[89] legislators who are going to help us with this, a new piece of legislation for the upcoming legislative session called Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act, the Stop Woke Act.
[90] So some of the textbooks that were rejected as a result of that new law included an implicit bias test for high schoolers.
[91] And part of the answer key for that was that conservatives are more racially prejudiced than liberals.
[92] Critics of that bill said it would prevent teachers from fully covering the breadth of African -American history in schools.
[93] MSNBC host, Joy Reid, was one of those who made that argument.
[94] The law he refers to seems to be the Stopwop Act, which basically gives DeSantis the power to downplay the actual racial history of our country to appease those who look more like, well, Ron DeSantis.
[95] And then speaking of political openings, Chris Christie, DeSantis' opponent in the Republican primary also seems to be seizing the moment a little bit.
[96] But he said this on Face the Nation.
[97] You know, look, Governor DeSantis started this fire with the bill that he signed, and now he doesn't want to take responsibility for whatever is done in the aftermath of it.
[98] So there's really been a lot of eyes on this Florida curriculum with progressives, especially scrutinizing it very closely.
[99] But a lot of parents in Florida do like it.
[100] Kisha King is an African -American parent, and she went viral in 2021 for confronting her Florida school board over CRT in the classroom.
[101] Well, I caught up with her this week, and she is a defender of this new curriculum, and she says the Stop Woke Act was the right move.
[102] Children are literally being told that because you're black, you are oppressive.
[103] If you're white, you are an oppressor.
[104] They literally scheduled a segregated assembly.
[105] So, no, I am very happy that we're getting this stuff out because these kids are being bullied.
[106] White kids are being bullied just because they're white.
[107] everything around them is saying, you're white, so therefore you have this privilege, you're an oppressor, and then you have black kids who are feeling like I'm nothing because I'm black.
[108] I have no hope.
[109] There's no hope for me. I live in this, quote, unquote, oppressive land, and I look in the mirror every day, and there's no hope for me because I have, you know, high levels of melanin.
[110] She also said that that controversial line is historically accurate.
[111] In fact, as I was talking to her, she read me a passage from Booker T. Washington's autobiography up from slavery.
[112] The slave owner and his sons had mastered no special skill, no special industry.
[113] They unconsciously had imbibed the feeling that manual labor was not the proper thing for them.
[114] On the other hand, the slaves, in many cases, had mastered some handicraft and none were ashamed and few unwilling to labor.
[115] So when a kid can hear that like, oh my gosh, This is terrible, but they took that little piece of resilience, resourcefulness, hope, and turned it into something.
[116] That is the stuff that makes people change the world.
[117] Like, you look at your own life, you're like, my God, if they can go through that and, you know, do something great, then surely I can.
[118] So like Dr. Allen, she says this is the historical record and should not be controversial, but rather inspiring.
[119] Now, to play devil's advocate, though, even if it's not the.
[120] the intent of the curriculum, could individual teachers ostensibly use that a specific prompt that some slaves were able to personally benefit from skills they developed while they were enslaved to downplay the horror of slavery?
[121] Is that the main concern that that would happen?
[122] Well, you know, as with all standards, what happens in the classroom is ultimately going to come down to the teacher.
[123] But Diaz says that there is additional training that educators will receive to demonstrate that they understand the proper context for presenting this material.
[124] They're required to have professional development.
[125] What's going to happen now in the next month is it's going to be a gathering of all our teachers, social studies teachers, and there's going to be professional development of going through the benchmarks and the standards one by one so that they can have the discussion and absorb what's in there and to understand the intent of behind the benchmarks from the scholars because the standard alone doesn't just give you all of the details.
[126] It provides the topic.
[127] So do we have any indication yet of how Florida's Board of Education plans to address this?
[128] We do.
[129] Late Wednesday afternoon, Diaz issued a pretty forceful statement saying that the board couldn't be happier with the workgroup's results.
[130] And I'll just offer you kind of a lengthy quote here.
[131] We reaffirm that we will be moving forward with implementing Florida's new history standards.
[132] Despite the partisan and inaccurate criticism we have received, Florida's thorough standards promote the teaching of accurate, detailed, and nuanced history free from political sanitation or indoctrination.
[133] Let me be clear.
[134] Again, that's Diaz being clear, not me. We are not turning our backs on the great work of the African American History Work Group.
[135] We will implement these standards swiftly, transparently, and honestly, it will accrue to the benefit of our students.
[136] All right.
[137] Well, it'll be interesting to see if the White House has a response to that and if the scandal continues.
[138] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[139] Anytime.
[140] That was Daily Wire Culture reporter, Megan Basham.
[141] and this was a Sunday edition of Morningwire.