Kamala Harris attacks ‘extremists’ in Florida after DeSantis education fight
Eden Villalovas
Video Embed
Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday spoke out against Florida’s new standards for teaching black history, championed by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
The Florida Board of Education voted unanimously Wednesday to update standards for teaching black history, including implementing instruction on how slaves benefited from skills that they learned.
NEW JERSEY SUES OVER NEW YORK CITY CONGESTION PRICING PLAN
“I do believe this is not only about the state of Florida, there is a national agenda afoot,” Harris said to a riled crowd Friday afternoon.
DeSantis hit back at Harris on Friday in response to her previous comments about the new curriculum, saying that the “Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida” but ignores “the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis.”
Harris avoided mentioning DeSantis by name during her speech. She instead referred to Florida’s “extremist” leaders and their efforts to target liberal ideals in recent times.
“Extremists, so-called leaders, for months have dared to ban books, book bans in this year of our Lord 2023,” Harris said. “Extremists here in Florida pass a law don’t say gay, trying to instill fear in our teachers that they should not live their full life and love who they love.”
Harris called the debate of whether or not enslaved people benefited from slavery “unnecessary,” and she urged attendees to not be distracted by the attempt to “divide our country.”
The updated standards include noting that enslaved people developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.” The curriculum pushes early teachings to focus on accomplishments of African Americans and less about the injustices of slavery, which critics claim whitewashes the horrors enslaved people went through.
“And now on top of all of that, they want to replace history with lies, middle school students in Florida to be told that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Harris said. “High schoolers may be taught that victims of violence, of massacres, were also perpetrators.”
The new guidelines came in response to the Stop WOKE Act, which was signed into law in 2022 by DeSantis. The legislation states discussions about race must be taught in an “an objective manner” that does not “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”
The vice president emphasized what she said was the importance of teaching children the truth about the nation’s history to prepare students before they enter the world.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Harris said the changes would be “building in a handicap for our children that they are gonna be the ones in the room who don’t know their own history when the rest of the world does.
“We will stand united as a country,” Harris said. “We know our collective history. It is our shared history. We are all in this together. We know that we rise and fall together as a nation. And we will not allow them to suggest anything other than what we know the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.”