Thinking critically about distorted history

Florida recently made some changes to its Social Studies teaching standards, and politicians -- both Republicans and Democrats -- are criticizing them. I'm not surprised by the criticism from the left -- Florida is controlled by Republicans, and Ron Desantis is one of the leading contenders for the presidential nomination. But the criticism from fellow Republicans is interesting. [Tim Scott rebukes Ron Desantis]

The most salient points of criticism focus on two passages from the standards. [Source: Alachua Chronicle]

The first passage states that "slaves developed skills which, in come instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." [Source: Florida's State Academic Standards -- Social Studies, 2023. Page 6]. This kind of focus on the "silver lining" of slavery is in appropriate. You wouldn't tell someone who was sexually abused that "Oh, well you must be a stronger person now, right? I guess there's a silver lining to everything. Similarly, such a blithe apprachs has no place in a history class.

The second passage instructs teachers to teach about "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre." [page 17]. Again, the focus is wrong -- the violence perpetrated "by" African Americans doesn't even belong in the same sentence. Doing so implies a "moral equivalence" that is simply out of place.

Ron Desantis has deflected criticism by pointing out that the standards were written by a committee of historians and teachers, but the viewpoint represented in them dimply doesn't represent the majority of the committee. [Source] As members of the committee pointed out, these teaching points were pushed by two members of the committee: Dr. William Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice.

In a statement, the two defended their point of view. "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." [Source] The statement then goes on to list 16 examples.

However, there's a problem with these examples -- as this video clip points out, is that many of these examples are just plain false. And as Dr. Allen points out, when you knowingly repeat a falsehood, that makes it a lie.
I recently wrote about thinking critically. Let's apply that framework here.

First, some of what Florida is teaching is simply false. Second, even if there ever was someone who felt they "benefited from slavery," it was absolutely *not* the representative example. And third, it's clear why Florida Republicans are pushing this line of reasoning. It's because they want substitute patriotism for knowledge.

As Florida implements misleading videos featuring fantasy narratives into the classrooms , it's clear what their intent is. They want to replace the "woke" influence they imagine, (the law requiring such points of instruction were mandated in the Stop WOKE act), with their own form of indoctrination.