One of the members of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup has called out Vice President Kamala Harris for making false claims about the state’s recently approved African American history standards.
Dr. William Allen, former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a current member of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, has called out the “categorically false” claims made by Harris that the newly approved curriculum teaches middle schoolers “that enslaved people benefited from slavery.”
In an interview for “ABC World News Tonight,” Allen criticized the widespread media misrepresentation of the new curriculum standards, specifically debunking Harris’s claim.
“(T)he only criticism I’ve encountered so far is a single one that was articulated by the vice president, and which was an error,” Allen said. “As I stated in my response to the vice president, it was categorically false.”
“It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans,” Allen continued. “What was said, and anyone who reads this will see this with clarity, it is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient and adaptive, and were able to develop skills and aptitudes which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after enslaved.”
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ABC only aired a small portion of Allen’s interview on the show, and Jeremy Redfern, press secretary for Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, posted more clips from the unreleased interview footage on his Twitter page.
In the videos, Allen went on to say that he didn’t think the wording should be amended as that would “effectively erase people’s history.” He said that one of the goals of the new standards is to teach students about the effects of oppression.
“People don’t necessarily simply embrace their oppressors when they’re oppressed,” Allen said. “They also react adaptively and they find ways to make pathways for themselves even in the presence of oppression. That’s what calls upon their resourcefulness, their resilience and their adaptability.”
“I just want to foster and encourage everyone to take the time to read…think every intellect can understand the language written there if people only take the time to read it. And it’s only those who don’t take the time to read it who will misstate it,” Allen said.
Harris made the comments while giving a keynote speech at the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority National Convention on July 20, the day after the Florida legislature approved the new standards. Allen and another member of the workgroup, Dr. Frances Presley Rice, released a statement shortly after Harris’s speech that disputed the mischaracterization of the curriculum standards in the media.
“Any attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage and resiliency during a difficult time in American history. Florida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants,” the statement said.
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MSNBC compares Florida's History Curriculum to defending the Holocaust. pic.twitter.com/K9wqlGvtRy
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