Florida Passes Ridiculous Standards Regarding the Teaching of Slavery

In Florida, they just passed a mandate that slavery be taught in the context that it benefits black people. I thought since this was done by way of public vote, through government officials, you should know who they are. Let's expose them. The State Board of Education chair is Ben Gibson is an attorney at law. Gibson believes that slavery should be taught to middle schoolers in particular as a "great benefit to black people in America". Ben has been active in this organization since 2017. He was appointed twice by the current governor and confirmed by the Florida Senate and also Vice-chair. Ryan Petty was appointed by Governor DeSantis "the Satan" excuse me, to the board in January 2020.

Gibson's bio on the Department of Education site says

"Growing up the son of two licensed Mental Health Counselors,

Ben is passionate about ensuring that the mental health needs of Florida

students are a top priority. He believes that every student should

have the same opportunity to learn and parents should have meaningful

educational choices and input regarding their child's education regardless

of where they live in Florida or their family's economic situation. He is a

strong advocate for empowering parents to make the best educational

choices for their children."

Certain ironies come up when considering those black parents and white parents, frankly, and all parents who oppose the new mandate. Why is it that their opposition to this new curriculum mandate is not heard? Why do they not get a choice here? Why are they not able to eliminate the curriculum like two white parents were able to do as it relates to African American studies? But there's more per Petty's bio on the Department of Education site. Ryan lost his daughter Elena in a tragic school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine's Day 2018. Elena was one of 17 students and teachers killed. Since the tragedy that took their daughter Ryan and his wife Kelly, been actively involved in the public policy arena as an advocate for improving school safety through early identification and intervention of potential threats.

The rest of the cast of characters who were appointed to the Florida Board of Education are Manisha T Brown, the director of public affairs and government relations for Walmart Incorporated, Esther Byrd is a legal assistant and Dr. Grazi Pazo Christie is a radiologist, Kelly Garcia is a school teacher, and Marilyn Magar, former GOP member and Speaker Pro Tem of the Florida House of Representative. Magar's stance on education is to support more accountability and choice in Florida's education system. All board members are in fact, parents. Esther Byrd stirred controversy when she tweeted about the January 6th Riot and terrorist attack on the U.S. Capitol a year before her appointment. The tweet read:

"in the coming civil wars we the People

versus the radical left and we the people cleaning

up the Republican Party team rosters are being

killed. Every elected official in D.C will pick one. There

are only two teams with us or against us".

This individual who was appointed to the Florida Board of Education has openly called for Civil War. She openly called for war against this very country. The only teacher on the board, Kelly Garcia was appointed to the State Board of Education by Governor "De Satan" in March of 2023 after serving On The Board of Trustees of the Florida Virtual School. She is in fact a Florida certified teacher from Tampa with a decade of experience teaching and chart of public and private schools. She has worked in education policy with Michelle Reese's organization "Students First" where she collaborated with the Urban League and Foundation for Florida's Future. Garcia has given all of those organizations a bad name and those that already had a bad name she just gave a worse one.

The new history standards approved Wednesday were aired on NBC South Florida who reported the updates to the African American history curriculum required by the controversial 2022 law DeSantis dubbed the "Stop Wrongs to our Kids and Employees Act" is now called the "Stop Woke Act". In short as I have said before, these individuals are not playing checkers they're playing chess. Democrats are still responding by and large as if this is one move and you make a counter move they make another move and you make a counter move. This is not the game they are playing. Democrats need to wake up.

They started on these laws in 2020 and 2021. These laws are stacked on top of each other allowing for the next law to be proposed. Without the previous law, the new law would not be possible. Let me explain. Without the 2022 stop woke act you do not have the legal framework to implement such a ridiculous mandate in public education. But with it, you provide the perfect framework to present such educational policy. It's really interesting how Ron DeSantis is more and more becoming the face of everything that's wrong with Florida and how since he's been in office he has moved at light speed to do everything that could possibly be unpopular.

Some of the historically incorrect points were "slavery taught African-Americans some skills and those were carried into new generations" or "there actually was a little bit of violence on the other side as well". Violence for what? To defend themselves or the rebellions to try to free themselves? It's just completely ridiculous for people who claim to not even want Critical Race Theory to be in school to go to this length to rewrite history, especially people who really don't know that much about what they're trying to get at. The thing about slavery is it's much bigger than the United States. it was an Inhuman Condition. It's part of what we do to one another which is why it's so important to be involved in the political process.

While we humans have very ugly and negative sides to us, we also have very beautiful and good sides. We have to keep ourselves in check but the more we learn about the history of slavery, how it functioned, and how it's built the world throughout time, the more we understand ourselves in the Human Condition. So pretending that slavery wasn't as gruesome as it was and always has been as if Google doesn't exist, is foolish. Like what are you going to stop people in Florida from getting on Google? How far are you really going to take this? One of the realities is that this will likely carry over to other states. They will look at the Florida model and implement similar models themselves. Remember this is to stop future problem solvers from knowing there is a problem to solve.