As an extreme liberal, I say this with love: You're an idiot if you believe Florida wants to teach that slavery was beneficial for enslaved people

Florida. The land all Good Liberals love to hate. It’s inhabited by the worst people. The most hate-filled people. People who are vile racists and who now want to teach their children that slavery was good. Right?

That’s what I learned from reading some of my liberal friends’ memes and posts. Even the New York Times said so. Kamala Harris is supposedly all worked up about it, because, you know: Democrats versus Republicans.

But look. However liberal you are, I’m probably at least as liberal as that. Seriously. We liberals have got to stop being idiots about this stuff if we care about real justice.

The social media algorithms, the algorithms that feast upon our righteous outrage to keep us engaged (and to keep earning money for the social media giants), have melted our brains.

First, analyze the claim and its plausibility.

Just stop and think for a minute. Think back to when you first read an outrage post that “OMG Florida wants to teach that slavery had benefits.” Remember that every story, including the Times’s, relied on the same single phrase¹ to support its claims.

Did that make you pause and reflect at all?

Did you wonder: “Is there anyone alive in 2023 — as opposed to 1823, when such views were in fact held by some — anyone who really believes that slavery was good for enslaved people?”

Did you stop to measure the claim by the yardstick of common sense? We might wonder, “Hm, does that sound like a view that even the most politically regressive American might truly hold? Have I ever heard such a wacky view from my most conservative uncle or from a drunken frat bro? Even in their most uninhibited moments when they think they’re safe among family and friends and can speak openly?”

If the answer is “no,” then ask yourself: Is it plausible that this idea, that “slavery benefitted slaves,” reflects the views of an entire decision-making body entrusted with the social studies curriculum in the state of Florida?

If you asked yourself questions like these, you might decide, before indulging in your outrage-orgasm, that “No, this is not a plausible claim. It’s not plausible that the decision-making body in the state of Florida believes that idea or intends to promote it. In fact, it’s not plausible that rational people alive today in America in 2023, even people with political views I completely disagree with, really think that.”

Second, look deeper than the “OMG, did you hear…?” and try to figure out what’s actually true.

Once you’ve managed to keep your wits about you and realize that it’s not a plausible claim, the next step is to satisfy your curiosity, so that you can be an informed member of the public: What did these new social studies standards actually say? Is there a problem I should try to act on?

You, as a good liberal — a real liberal who cares about the education of children, and not an outrage-huffing robot who gets high on your moral superiority to Those Bad People Over There — even if you understand that it’s not plausible that the new standards say “SlAvErY wAs AcTuAlLy GoOd!” you know that it’s still a good idea to read the standards and see if there’s anything left out or grossly inaccurate or poorly worded. Right?

Maybe, if you care about kids and their education instead of simply advertising to others that you’re a Good Person who doesn’t like slavery (because…that’s an especially praiseworthy view?), you can try to form a truly informed opinion.

If you ever attended an American social studies class, you probably learned that primary sources are a wonderful thing. Why rely on the New York Times or Kamala Harris to tell you what to think, when you can read the standards and decide for yourself?

Here are the new Florida social studies standards, where you can read what is being proposed. The information pertaining to black history is on pages 3-21 of the 216-page document. The subheadings refer to grade levels, starting with kindergarten (K), first grade (1), and so on.

It’s OK. I’ll wait for you to read it. It’s only 18 pages.

Third, now that you know the actual facts, you can form an opinion and share it with others, ideally in a constructive way that improves children’s education and doesn’t involve calling other people Evil.

You did read it, right? Great.

To summarize for those of you who didn’t read pages 3-21 of the document, but who want to have an opinion anyway:

Elementary School Curriculum

Grades K through 4 focus entirely on “Positive influences and contributions by African Americans.” Famous inventors. Famous artists. The African American oral tradition and folk tales (Anansi the spider, etc.). Patriotic and heroic American black people. Famous black Floridians.

Nice easy stuff for the little kids, right? That’s what one might expect from a group of well-intentioned people who are creating an age-appropriate curriculum without heavy or distressing content.

Some people with honest good intentions might disagree with that approach. Some people might think we need to make the black American experience all about slavery, racism, oppression, and white supremacy — i.e., some people might sincerely believe that it’s in the best interests of children if we lead with that from kindergarten onward, and make this the overarching theme whenever black Americans are mentioned — as fashionable liberals seem to have done since 2020 or so.²

I’m not black, nor am I the parent of a black child, but if I try to put myself in those shoes and think about what I might like my child to learn in the early grade levels, I think I’d like it to be about successful, thriving people “like me” who made positive contributions. There’s plenty of time, when the kids are a bit more cognitively and emotionally mature, to learn about slavery and the history of American racism.

Starting in grade 5, the content gets a little bit meatier, as you might expect. The theme for grade 5 is “Resiliency, contributions and influence of African Americans on the United States beginning in the colonial era through westward expansion.” The main points in fifth grade are:

• Examine the life of African Americans in the colonial era….Instruction includes what life was like for the earliest slaves and the emancipated in North America.

• Examine the Underground Railroad and how former slaves partnered with other free people and groups in assisting those escaping from slavery.

• Examine key figures and events in abolitionist movements.

• Identify freedoms and rights secured for and by former slaves….Instruction will include the Emancipation Proclamation, 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States.

• Examine the roles and contributions of significant African Americans during westward expansion (e.g., Benjamin “Pap” Singleton, James Beckwourth, Buffalo Soldiers, York [American explorer]).

• Examine the experiences and contributions of African Americans in early Florida….Instruction includes African American communities (e.g., Fort Mose, Angola Community, Black Seminoles, Fort Gadsden, Lincolnville, Eatonville).”

I’m not seeing anything objectionable here, honestly.

Middle School Curriculum

Next we come to the contentious middle school curriculum, lumped together as standards for grades 6-8. This is the part of the curriculum that caused a stir, so I’ll include all the standards as bullet points:

The first theme for middle school instruction is “Understand the causes, courses and consequences of the slave trade in the colonies.” (I’ve deleted the complex numbering system of the standards, but kept the content.)

• Identify Afro-Eurasian trade routes and methods prior to the development of the Atlantic slave trade….Instruction includes how slavery was utilized in Asian, European and African cultures….Instruction includes the similarities and differences between serfdom and slavery….

• Describe the contact of European explorers with systematic slave trading in Africa.

• Examine the evolution of the labor force in the use of indentured servitude contracts…. Instruction includes the comparative treatment of indentured servants of European and African extraction…. Instruction includes the transition from an indentured to a slave-based economy.

• Describe the history and evolution of slave codes….

• Analyze slave revolts that happened in early colonial America and how political leaders reacted (e.g., 1712 revolt in New York City, Stono Rebellion [1739]).

• Examine the service and sacrifice of African patriots during the Revolutionary Era (e.g., Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, James Armistead Lafayette, 1st Rhode Island Regiment).

The second theme is “Analyze events that involved or affected Africans from the founding of the nation through Reconstruction.”

• Explain early congressional actions regarding the institution of slavery (i.e., Northwest Ordinance of 1787, Three-Fifths Compromise, Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1808).

• Explain the effect of the cotton industry on the expansion of slavery due to Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin….

• Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation). [And here’s the offending part:] Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.

• Examine the Underground Railroad and its importance to those seeking freedom…. Instruction includes how collaboration of free blacks, whites, churches and organizations assisted in the Underground Railroad (e.g., Harriet Tubman, William Lambert, Levi Coffin, William Still). Instruction includes the use of “spirituals” and symbols as a form of communication, coordination, coding and expression.

• Identify political figures who strove to abolish the institution of slavery (e.g., Thaddeus Stevens, Abraham Lincoln, Zachariah Chandler).

• Evaluate various abolitionist movements that continuously pushed to end slavery….Instruction includes the Society of Friends (Quakers) and their efforts to end slavery throughout the United States…. Instruction includes writings by Africans living in the United States and their effect on the abolitionist movement (e.g., Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, David Walker, Martin Delaney).

• Examine how the status of slaves, those who had escaped slavery and free blacks affected their contributions to the Civil War effort.

• Describe significant contributions made by key figures during Reconstruction (e.g., President Ulysses S. Grant, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Lyman Trumbull).

High School Curriculum

To my knowledge, no one has complained about the high school curriculum, so here are the four main themes without the many pages of subpoints, but I encourage you to read the entire thing for yourselves:

• Examine the causes, courses and consequences of the slave trade in the colonies from 1609-1776.

• Analyze events that involved or affected African descendants and changed the American economic, political and social landscapes between 1776-1865.

• Identify significant events, figures and contributions that shaped African American life from 1865-1954.

• Analyze economic, political, legal and social advancements of African Americans and their contributions and sacrifices to American life from 1954 to present, including factors that influenced them.

Here’s My Take

When I read this in as open-minded a way as possible, I see three things:

1. This is similar to the content I learned as a kid. Even way back then, we learned unequivocally that “slavery is bad, duh” and learned absolutely nothing to the effect that “slavery is good.” But …

2. This is also better than the content I learned as a kid, because back then, there was more of an emphasis on white people being the main “saviors” of black people, with black people having little agency (except for the occasional special exception like Frederick Douglass). One example of the curriculum trying to display greater emphasis on black people’s own agency is “Examine the Underground Railroad and how former slaves partnered with other free people and groups in assisting those escaping from slavery.” The “former slaves” are depicted as the drivers of the effort, not the bit players. Another example is the standard about teaching about black Americans’ contributions to the Civil War, whereas when I was a kid, it was depicted more as if the good Northern white people went and saved the slaves. So, in conservative Florida in 2023, the curriculum makes improvements over what was standard “liberal” teaching in the late 20th century.

3. I absolutely see why the phrase “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” raised eyebrows and caused concern. People want to know: What the heck is that supposed to mean? It’s a fair point. It’s a natural question. It’s reasonable for people who are uncomfortable with the phrase to express concerns, discuss it, or ask for clarifications, changes, rewording, or whatever. But I don’t think it’s a fair leap to say, “Those damn racists in Florida want to teach our kids that slavery was beneficial!”

My best guess about the offending phrase is this:

In the spirit of highlighting black people’s agency and resilience — as the writers of the curriculum seemed to try to do throughout — this phrase was intended to refer to the fact that some creative and extremely hard-working slaves took the skills that were imposed on them (seamstress, blacksmith, whatever), and in their not-very-abundant “spare time” took on extra work for pay, in some cases earning enough to buy their own or their family’s freedom.

If you never learned about that in school, here is one article about it. It speaks to the resilience, ingenuity, perseverence, and agency of enslaved people, that they could use these skills for their own benefit instead of just their enslavers’. If that’s the intended meaning, it fits in with the general theme of “Black Americans were dealt a terrible hand, and look what some people managed to do despite that.”

That’s a message I want my kids to learn — you don’t have to be a black person to benefit from that message. Life is hard for everyone. Awful things happen to you. Unfair things. Difficult things. If people who were enslaved could do X, Y, Z in their terrible situation, you, 21st-century child, can surely find ways to make the best of your (much easier) life circumstances.

I want my kids to learn self-efficacy and have an internal locus of control. Why? Because those things are associated with success and happiness in life. The fact that even enslaved people in the worst circumstances sometimes managed to work on their one day off and save up literally pennies until they could get their own families out of slavery is surely a lesson that no matter what horrible circumstances you find yourself in, you can keep trying.

Is that the same thing as saying “Wow, it’s a great thing that we kidnapped those African people from their homes so they learned some skills!”? No, it is not. Is that the same thing as saying, “Good thing these folks were enslaved so they could earn some extra cash”? No, it is not.

Reading the whole curriculum, I don’t believe the people who wrote it were saying “slavery was good” or even “slavery was not all bad.” No. That’s really an impossible conclusion to come to, even if you want to be as uncharitable as possible in your reading, and even if you have terrible reading comprehension.

Once you look at what was written, you can’t conclude bad intent or outrageously racist ideas from the people who wrote the curriculum. Isn’t that a relief?

The people in Florida who devised the curriculum were clearly saying throughout the curriculum, “Slavery was completely bad, duh.” Aside from possibly a few truly fringe people living so far out of the mainstream that they have no influence at all, that’s what all Americans believe today.

If there’s another fair reading of the curriculum, I’d like to hear it — with some evidence, please, from the rest of the document.

What do we accomplish when we freak out about nothing? More important, what do we fail to accomplish?

It’s pretty clear that we accomplish nothing when we share the meme — or even the New York Times article — about the bad, bad people in Florida who want to teach that slavery was good. Nothing. But what do we fail to accomplish?

When we see the people in Florida as Bad People, and when we ascribe monstrous beliefs and motives to them, we completely foreclose any chance at real dialog. I’m not a curriculum person. Maybe this new curriculum has some real shortcomings and omissions that should be addressed.

I guarantee, though, when we come at the conservatives with a preposterous claim, such as “Your new standards are teaching that slavery was good!” they are going to think you are completely crazy.

And consider this: Suppose, like all other decent Americans, conservatives believe slavery is bad and they hear you making outrageous and false accusations that they want to teach that slavery was good. How are they going to feel? How will they react?

They might feel like liberals feel when conservatives say something preposterous, like the claim that people who are pro-choice want to allow full-term fetuses to be aborted for no reason in the most barbaric way possible.

When you hear a claim like that, do you want to engage in dialog about the issue? Do you want to search for common ground? Do you want to try to come to some kind of consensus about the matter? Or do you just shut down, because the person making the claim sounds completely unhinged?

That’s how you sound to them, when you claim they think slavery was good. You sound unhinged. They shut down, and they don’t want to hear any criticisms of their curriculum from you. Why should they listen? At worst, you seem to them like a disingenuous bad actor; at best, like someone who’s completely out of touch with reality.

Let’s consider the pros and cons associated with taking the hysterical approach that “The people in Florida want to teach that slavery was good!”

Pros

• You get some delicious outrage. It feels good to be right, and to be against bad, bad people!

• You get to show all your friends that you’re a good person.

Cons

• You are spouting false information that misleads others.

• You are shutting down conversations, which makes others less likely to listen to your genuine concerns.

• You are putting a big obstacle in the way of positive change. If you want to improve the curriculum for schoolchildren, you’re not going to succeed this way.

• You are perpetuating a situation which our ruling elite loves, in which the working class of all ethnicities and all political views are at each other’s throats instead of uniting and working for real change. The conservative and liberal working class are not each other’s enemies — but both sides are acting as if we are.

Did you notice something? The Pros are things you get. Cheap, easy, worthless things for you. The Cons are things that harm all of us.

This approach to “justice” is selfish. Deeply selfish.

Think about it.

1. The New York Times article says, “For instance, the standards say that middle schoolers should be instructed that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit” — a portrayal that drew wide rebuke.” But that’s the only “instance” that any article mentions.

2. That approach seems reductive, patronizing, and even — should I say it? — a little racist. Is it right to put an entire ethnicity of people in the slavery box and keep them there, K-12? People are more than their worst moments; and an entire ethnicity of people are more than the worst things that happened to them collectively.