DeSantis' Black history plan fails the honesty test.

Whitewashing and "bad things were done on both sides-ism" mar an ambitious, but flawed attempt.

Ed. note: Trump’s indictment is taking up all the oxygen now. And I’ll certainly be watching my share of non-stop cable news. But if you have any questions, as I did, about what’s going on in Florida and Black history, you might find it beneficial to read on. There’s lots of researched information that explains (my view) of what’s disingenuous about the plan. Basically, it tries to minimize the truth about the Black experience. And a gauzy version of the truth isn’t going to help kids in Florida or anywhere else. — The Resistant Grandmother (trg)

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“Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see.”
 –Neil Postman, American educator

Against Black residents’ opposition, a new way of teaching Black history to Florida’s children will take effect as students return to school in the first two
weeks of August. 

And as the above quote suggests, the new curriculum for grades K-12 will most probably shape students’ understanding of a seminal chapter of American history well into the future unless it’s ever changed. 

The plan is thorough, with separate “strands” for social studies, history, economics, and geography that address Black history from the 1600s to the present.  But its attempt to place American slavery within a wider context of enslaved peoples in ancient and Medieval times, assertion that American slaves learned valuable skills they could monetize to their benefit after slavery, contention equivalent to “there were bad people on both sides” in describing the Tulsa, Ok. and Rosewood, Fla., etc. massacres, and refusal to address the state’s own violent history give critics ammunition to claim the Sunshine State is teaching Black history in a politically airbrushed and disingenuous way.

Sword of Damocles – the DeSantis weapon of choice
Politically, the Black history plan is an offshoot of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s “war on woke” – an alt-right term that dismisses people who promote progressive ideas on the teaching of race and identity.  Enacted last year, the “Stop Woke Act” (also known ironically as the “Individual Freedom Act”) regulates schools and companies' efforts to promote diversity in academic and company settings.  (A federal judge subsequently ruled portions of the Act that muzzles speech in corporations and public universities illegal, citing the opening sentence of George Orwell’s dystopian 
novel 1984: “It was a bright and sunny day, and the clocks were striking 13,” suggesting authorities in Florida should not be trusted.)

But for everyone else, the law gives broad powers to the State’s Attorney General to civilly prosecute offenders – such as teachers and librarians – who promote or teach the stories of Black people and other targeted minorities in ways that could offend or make non-Blacks feel uncomfortable.  In a six month period between July and December of 2022, an estimated 357 books have been removed from school district shelves based on calls by parents who object to books, without any furher “due process” discussions on behalf of the authors or their books https://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/education/2023-06-01/politifact-fl-desantis-said-not-a-single-book-was-banned-districts-have-removed-dozens

Those charged and found guilty of defying the law are subject to hefty fines of $10,000 “per incident.” They’re also liable for attorney's fees of the “prevailing party” in a court case, and possibly face dismissal from their library or school should the issue have gotten that far. 

The mystery of authorship
The plan was developed by a work group of about 13, including William B. Allen, its only reported black member, a retired Florida-born Michigan State professor.  Others were only described as a “group of educators” whose identities and backgrounds are still not clear at this point.  

The lack of clarity is compounded by reports the plan was also the brainchild of PragerU, whom the Pensacola News Journal describes as an organization that has produced videos on unfounded theories such as the need to continue the use of fossil fuels and not new climate change energy technologies. PragerU has also praised Confederate General Robert E. Lee for brutally crushing an attempted slave rebellion on his estate (https://www.pnj.com/story/news/education/2023/07/26/prageru-curriculum-florida-schools-explainer). 

The plan’s goals were to “focus on teaching true and accurate African American history,” tweeted Manny Diaz, Florida’s commissioner of education, and may be a test case for how other states determine how to teach the subject.  At least 18 states including Florida have placed restrictions on how to teach the subject of race in K-12 schools (education week 7.25.23). 

But what’s “true and accurate” in Diaz’s words has become a flashpoint for the plan’s critics, who charge it whitewashes key aspects of Florida's troubled and violent
racial history.

Minimizing Florida’s violent past 
For example, of all the Southern states, Florida was among the most violent during the critical period following Reconstruction in the late 1870s to the early 1950s, when federal courts began stepping in to protect African American rights. 

According to a report by the Equal Justice Initiative, there were 3,959 lynchings in the state, based on court records, newspaper accounts, local historians, and family records.  Pulitzer Prize-winning University of Florida professor Jack Davis has said that of the 25 southern counties with the most lynchings, Florida weighed in with six, almost a quarter of the deadly toll.  

But Florida’s violent past is not directly confronted in the new plan, earning “whitewashing” charges from critics.  Instead, its tactics and strategies put America’s racial violence in “context” – comparing it to other world-wide historical events and forces that have hurt people of all races.  Those educational head feints help to minimize Florida and America’s troubled past.

A statement made last week by Florida Department of Education spokesperson Alex Franconi claims Florida’s plan will burnish the state’s reputation as an honest broker in teaching Black history, saying:
“These standards will further cement Florida as a national leader in education, as we continue to provide true and accurate instruction in African American history.”

Yet high teacher vacancy rates (10,771 reported in the Florida Education Association tallies for the 2022-23 school term) and gaps filled with temporary and untrained instructors make the “national leader” description ring hollow, and adds to the state’s reputation for offering up political spin as a substitute for truth.  

Not all gaps link back to “Stop Woke” laws, as a Florida Education Association (FEA) report lists the state at near the bottom nationally (49/50) in teacher pay.  And FEA tables show a preponderance of unaccredited teachers apparently filling in the gaps, with Social Sciences being particularly hard hit https://feaweb.org/issues-action/teacher-and-staff-shortage/.

It’s also difficult for Florida officials to assert national leader status when three sections of the plan have generated widespread blowback since its debut.  These include those suggesting that 1) American slavery was just another blip on the radar screen, as white slavery was common in the ancient, Medieval, and late-Medieval eras 2) the terrifying Post World War I massacres of all-Black towns and urban areas featured violence “on both sides” when Blacks fought back to defend themselves against white marauders, and 3) (perhaps the most controversial) that slavery proved to be a boon for job-training, giving slaves a kind of economic leg up on the economic ladder once they were free (https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20653/urlt/6-4.pdf).

Similarities and differences; mostly, differences
Looking into the reliability of these assertions offers many counter-arguments Florida’s Black History curriculum overlooks or leaves to each (often unprepared and/or fearful) teacher to address.

Problem One:
The inference American slavery was an offshoot of widespread slavery in earlier times. (SS.68.AA.1.1, plan)

Although there are some similarities between American slavery and the kind that proliferated in the ancient and Medieval worlds, facts also reveal key differences having to do with slavery’s unique and brutal application to the Plantation economy of the American South.

But the differences are unlikely to be explored in Florida classrooms unless there's a pedagogical framework to do so. The Florida standards only call for a “comparison” of slavery in the ancient and medieval English worlds even for high schoolers, a lower-level learning skill not worthy of determining the real differences experienced by American slaves.  There’s no analysis called for — a higher-level learning skill key to the understanding of difficult topics. 

Similarities, first 
It’s true the world was awash in slavery in the ancient and Medieval eras, between Roman armies scooping up able-bodied men in conquered provinces to become soldiers, Vikings killing off men and taking women as wives and concubines throughout Europe, and Barbary Pirates from North Africa capturing men, women, and children and selling them into slavery in Asia Minor and throughout, what was called, the “Muslim world.”

Many were forced into grueling and dangerous forms of manual labor and sexual exploitation, with death and torture awaiting anyone caught trying to escape.  So far, this is not unlike the slaves captured in Africa and brought by force to work the cotton fields of southern America or sugar plantations of the Caribbean. 

There were differences, however, especially in the levels of freedom that could be afforded ancient slaves that in most cases eluded the American system. 

Many slaves in Ancient Greece and Rome were unfree in title only, holding respected jobs such as tutors, accountants, physicians, and advisors. They were not singled out as “different” by appearance, often looking identical, except maybe for the quality of their clothing, to their masters. Thus, the “otherness” imposed on Black American slaves could be eluded in Greek and Roman circles.  Because of this, some actually found their freedom by running away and merging in with the thousands of people who filled the streets of ancient Athens or Rome.  Spartacus and the Slave War 73–71 BC: A Gladiator Rebels against Rome. (Osprey 2009) p. 17–18.

Unlike America, if these highly revered slaves had children they would be able to keep and live with them as slaves merged into the larger “master families.” Traditionally, these enslaved but revered members of the Ancient Roman and Greek societies were customarily granted their freedom upon their master’s death, and their children were also declared free.  This tradition was also followed by some masters in the American colonies. But it was just as likely not to be the case.  

For example, although Founding Father Thomas Jefferson famously upon his death  freed his four living children with Sally Hemings, he did not afford the same courtesy to at least 110 slaves at Monticello and his other farm holdings who were sold for financial reasons (monticello.org).

A multi-layered English serfdom
According to British historian and popular history author Ian Mortimer, English serfdom differed greatly from other forms of bondage via its multi-layered structure, writing, “There were many grades of wealth and status among the peasantry.” Working the lord’s land offered varying amounts of freedom of movement and opportunities for rare-but-theoretically possible upward mobility based on merit and chance (Mortimer, The Time Traveler Guide/Medieval England. 48). 

On the bottom rung, serfs worked for lords on an estate, but were given land to farm on their own, and this could vary from a small plot to several acres.  The lord was given a “cut” of the yield, but serfs could use whatever was left over for their own
– to eat or sell.  

Freedom for some
Moreover, Mortimer reports these landed serfs, or “villeins,” worked only about three days a week for the lord, the other four days for himself. Neither serfs nor villeins were free unless (rare) a kindly lord freed him at death. Or by one other method: if a serf or villein ran away and managed to live for a year and a day without being captured, he could be declared legally free.

When working the land, it was also not unusual for villeins to hold positions of responsibility in the manor as reeves (overseers), carpenters, stable managers, etc.  Other villeins worked as shopkeepers or skilled workers in nearby towns (Mortimer 49-51).  This degree of personal and economic freedom was not commonly available to American Blacks.

Pestilence – the good news
The system lasted about three hundred years when everything changed for the worse, and better.  Beginning in the 1300s, the Black Plague began killing off a third to half of the British and European populations, but if you survived it also brought opportunity.  The pandemic killed both lords and servants, no exceptions. But any servants who outlived their masters and families could and did take over the manor as their own (worldhistory.org). 

Not keeping them down on the farm
Other serfs left the manor and sold their skills to the highest bidders, bringing a gradual but virtual end to serfdom and a blossoming of capitalism where once there was only a life on the land.

Problem two:
“Bad people on both sides” (S.S.912.AA.3.6, plan)
The second controversial section involves the “Describe the emergence, growth, destruction and rebuilding of black communities during Reconstruction and beyond. “ The standard requires students to study “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans … not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923
Rosewood Massacre.”

Here, Florida equates the violence perpetrated by white mobs – attacking black urban areas (like Greenwood in Tulsa) or towns (two in Florida – Rosewood and Ocoee) – killing residents, burning homes and businesses, and stealing from wealthy dwellings — with Black residents defending themselves and their property any way they could. Their self-defense sometimes included guns in response to the always familiar lynching threats that were more frequently than not carried out.

To blame Blacks for violence in the act of protecting themselves, homes, and businesses “is like blaming Jews for fighting back against the Nazis invading the Warsaw ghetto,” remarked morning MSNBC news host Joe Scarborough.  

To that point, the Holocaust section in the Florida standards shows about as much respect for Jewish resistance as shown to that of American Blacks. 

Important to teachers and students are the verbs used to describe the cognitive level expected of students when studying a unit.  “Describe” is the lowest level of expectation in the study of the destruction of Black areas by whites in the early 1900s; “identify” is the expectation when studying the armed resistance efforts against Nazis in the Holocaust section (SS.912.HE.2.5) – about the same level of rigor: i.e., not much.  

But then Florida gives both violence against Blacks and the Holocaust short shrift in comparison to the study of insurance in the Economics section.  Students are expected to use the highest cognitive skills, “analyze and evaluate,” when determining the “cost-effectiveness of supplemental insurance” (SS.912.FL.7.3).

Problem three: slavery as opportunity – not
(S.S.68.AA.2.3, plan)
The third and most controversial area in the Florida document (SS912.AA.2.8) suggests slavery could also have an upside, such as preparing enslaved workers for post-slavery jobs.

“Examine the range and variety of specialized roles performed by slaves,” reads the objective.  It’s followed by a description of the multiplicity of jobs available in the plantation society: “musicians, healers, blacksmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, weavers, tailors, sawyers, hostlers, silversmiths, cobblers, wheelwrights, wigmakers, milliners, painters, and coopers.”

In response to critics objecting to the implication that slavery could give its survivors an economic leg up at future job fairs, DeSantis defended the jobs section, saying evidence will prove how Black people “parlayed” being a “blacksmith into doing things later in life.”

Vice President Kamala Harris disagreed. She saw the plan’s sweeping assumption that slavery might not have been so bad after all as wrong and insensitive, saying:
“How is it that anyone could suggest that amidst these atrocities, there was any benefit to being subjugated to this level of dehumanization?”

“No ability to ‘parlay’ anything”
Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, whose great-great-grandfather was a slave in South Carolina and sold at least two times during his lifetime, objected to suggestions his relative benefited from being forced to be a blacksmith in any way. 

In a recent column, Robinson said:
“He had no ability to ‘parlay’ anything, because his time and labor were not his own … To say he ‘developed skills,’ as if he had signed up for some sort of apprenticeship program, is appallingly ahistorical. As was true for the millions of other enslaved African Americans, anything he achieved was in spite of his bondage” (https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/07/24/florida-curriculum-slavery-benefits-desantis-offensive).

Uphill
In summary, too-low expectations; a gauzy equivalency that overlooks the unique brand of American violence toward Blacks before and after Emancipation; and the plan’s creation in secret – suggestive of a “we don’t want your ideas” mindset, especially with only one known Black author – rank as at least three avoidable obstacles to the plan’s acceptance and rollout.  

Even harder – Florida schools open August 10, giving the state’s teachers – qualified, experienced, or not – hardly any time to understand the plan and create the lesson structure to teach it. 

The elephant in the classroom
Perhaps the biggest obstacle to teaching and learning Black history in Florida remains the DeSantis-created state authority apparatus to punish teachers.  The “Stop Woke”/”Individual Freedom Act’s” broad authority over the certification of teachers, librarians, and other professionals has cast a long shadow over Florida’s classrooms.  The threat of prosecution now hangs over the heads of even the best Florida teachers, driving increasing numbers to leave the state, quit, or remain there, but live in fear.

Toni Morrison – verboten
One who chose resignation was Janet Allen, a top-ranked Literature teacher at Venice High School in Sarasota.  Allen resigned on the first day of the academic year 2022-23 after teaching AP and Honors English there since 2015.

“I didn’t quit until the last day for any other reason other than hope…hope that something might change,” she said.

Allen began to lose hope with the anti-LGBTQ requirements of the DeSantis “Don’t Say Gay” bill passed in March just before the even more encompassing “Stop Woke” law was enacted in July 2022. 

After “Don’t Say Gay,” the Florida teacher detected changes to what at one point had been a supportive, dynamic school environment.  An advisor to a group for bullied gay students (because “Sometimes the only place a kid feels safe is at school”), she herself became a target.  Complaints and lies spread by anti-gay parents were accepted on face value.  Teachers were no longer given the courtesy of an investigation into parental disputes, casting a pall over teacher support for gay-related activities in
the school. 

Allen's final straw involved her choice of teaching diverse texts in her Literature classes – particularly, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” and Maya Angelou’s autobiography, “Now, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” Unlike prior years when teachers had room to personalize their curriculums, Allen was warned that anything that veered even slightly away from the state-prepared structure would “not be protected.”  After months of consideration, Allen decided her only option was to resign. “For me, it became, ‘How much can I take?’” (heraldtribune.com “Why I Quit” 9.9.2022). 

Colleges affected
A new statement from the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) suggests DeSantis’ education clampdowns are also driving out Florida’s
college-level teachers.

The AAUP publication Education reports that higher education instructors, too, are leaving because of DeSantis’ iron grip on educational freedom in the state.

University of North Florida Professor Dr. Hope Wilson chose to leave the Sunshine State with her family, having found a teaching job in Illinois – a state with no restrictions on academic freedom or threats based on political aims.

“As I watched our university give names of students who are trans to the board of governors, as I watched them give the names of faculty who had served on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) committees, I started to realize that we weren’t protected and that my job and livelihood were at risk.”

AAUP President Dr. Irene Mulvey describes the DeSantis attack on education as “unparalleled in U.S. History,” and added:

Scholars “have spent years getting advanced degrees, becoming experts in their field to teach their subjects. Who is going to want to teach in a state where if you violate an educational gag order, you’re liable to be reported to DeSantis’ secret police?”

Good from bad
Historian Doris Kearns Goodwin says the DeSantis approach of whitewashing and papering over the problems of the past will hurt Florida and America if the Florida approach metastasizes across other states. 

Unlike DeSantis who wants to sanitize history to avoid hurt feelings, Goodwin said recently on MSNBC that facing negative events is the only way to put them behind us.

At the end of a day, many of us “just want to erase the bad things that happened to us that day.  No — just the opposite.  The only way to grow as a person is by learning from the bad things.”

Goodwin cited the Civil Rights bills of 1964-65, set in motion by former president John F. Kennedy that followed Alabama Sheriff Bull Connor’s setting dogs on rioters, including children, and watched by many horrified Americans on their television sets. “We wouldn’t have had that legislation were it not for the bad things that happened.  That’s what history helps us do.”

Goodwin’s claim that history’s bad things can be turned into good seems a morality tale for Florida’s future.  

There, truth’s good is being silenced by Governor Ron DeSantis’ authoritarian power grab.  And that’s bad.

–trg