•

'Do not, for the love of God, tell kids that slavery was beneficial'

https://www.rawstory.com/ap-black-history-florida/

Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting. The description of slavery as beneficial is not t...

'Do not, for the love of God, tell kids that slavery was beneficial'

61 comments

ChrisHani

•

It was beneficial.

To white property owners. Much to the detriment of enslaved Africans and their descendants.

themeatbridge

•

Literally the first sentence of the article. Emphasis added.

Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills.

ChickenLadyLovesLife

•

Ironically, one of the (many) reasons this is total bullshit is that not all slaves were imported for unskilled physical labor. In the Carolinas, when landowners began growing rice they paid a premium for female slaves from west Africa who had experience with rice cultivation because they had no idea how to do it themselves. So it would be accurate to say that white people benefited from slavery because it taught them skills.

sadreality

•

Property? That's a bit broad...

It was beneficial to slave owners, specifically.

And their families should be paying reparations for the ill gotten gains.

TerryMathews

•

You're sniping, but I think the parent poster was accurate in what they said. I don't think it was an euphemism for slave. It was the 1800s. What would you do with a slave if you didn't own property? If they're not tilling and planting or harvesting, or keeping house, or cooking, what would they be doing? A horse would be far more effective at pulling a carriage, and keeping one as a sex slave - while it definitely happened - was strongly looked down upon by society at the time.

If you kept a slave and had no good reason to own one aside from sex, you might well disappear in the night one night - not out of protection for the slave(s) but racial purity.

sadreality

•

Most property owners ie had a plot of land could not afford a slave... they worked that land themselves and then forced their 6 kids do it for them.

nixfreak

•

Sick part you “borrow slaves from what was called New York stock exchange. Then sell a slave or get collateral.

sadreality

•

Yeah going down that rabbit whole really does expose how "white washed" even current understanding of slavery by the normie stream is... shit was whole different level vile that teevee won't really cover.

TerryMathews

•

Right, but take the converse: if they didn't own land, they definitely couldn't afford a slave.

sadreality

•

also true... wiki will explain it better: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necessity_and_sufficiency

owning a plantation is necessary to be a slaver but it is not sufficient since you actually have to own the slaves.

samus12345

•

Slaves were property. A slave owner was a property owner.

pingveno

•

I've become partial to a language change to enslaved people and slavers. It emphasizes the humanity of the victims of slavery and refuses to acknowledge the view of human beings as property. Instead enslavement is a property foisted upon the victims and enslavement is an evil perpetrated by slavers.

sadreality

•

Cell phone and a car are also property... So is a house...

Not all property owners were slavers.

samus12345

•

Ah, I see what you're saying. True.

ChrisHani

•

WHITE slave owners.

You seem to be avoiding a certain adjective.

gaylord_fartmaster

•

Slavery benefitted both white and non-white slave owners.

Edit: at least in the short-term, obviously you could argue differently for long-term effects.

SirElliott

•

This is an incomplete view of the history of slavery. By the numbers, the vast majority of the people benefitting from chattel slavery were white. However, slave ownership reached similar per capita rates among some of the Native American tribes, and there were instances of slaves being owned by free people of color. Notably, there are a large number of black tribal members in the United States. The United States government signed a number of treaties with the tribes in the 1860s that required them to free their slaves and incorporate them as full tribal members.

None of this is said to diminish the fact that the American system of slavery was a product of colonization by European countries. But it is rather reductive to claim that only white property owners benefitted from the atrocity that was chattel slavery.

sadreality

•

While vast majority were "white"... There were others who owned slaves.

All of their families should be held accountable and their profits and wealth should be dislodged to pay reperations to the decedants.

Allowing successors to keep these gains is a crime in of itself.

trias10

•

How could you even track accounting profits that far back in time to repay today? What if the family descendants are poor today? (They lost everything in the Great Depression, as an example)

sadreality

•

Funny thing about money is that it is all traceable. I am not going to act like it is easy but it is not impossible

Sure if money is gone, you can't get blood from a stone... But many families who made money are still ruling us.

Same thing in Germany with families who profited from slave labor during Nazi regimes...

itchy_lizard

•

It's also basically the main reason that the US becamean superpower before WW1

xuxebiko

•

pass on the message that "slavery was so beneficial that this time white people should be enslaved" and watch the whole thing die out.

dojan

•

Yes! Let’s take turnsies! I nominate the entire upper class! It’s time for people like Musk and his ilk to get into the mines!

xuxebiko

•

my turn : I nominate all right-wing politicians.

why should they be denied the many benefits of slavery?

Bipta

•

Repealing slavery is the third rail of American politics!

/s, but for a while literally yes.

Duamerthrax

•

They're already on the way to doing that. The slow striping of worker's rights won't have a natural end until everyone but the elites are serfs.

flipht

•

I can't stop working. Even if my retirement accounts continue to exist for the three more decades it will take me to begin drawing from them, I have no way to know and absolutely no trust that they quantity of money will be sufficient to support me.

The bank can take pretty much anything I own if I lose my job and fall behind, which severely curtails my ability to do anything except exactly what I'm told at work.

What's the major difference between this and serfdom, except that my current lords don't even have to supply me with food and shelter directly?

Duamerthrax

•

Some are actually trying to bring company towns back. In some countries, Walmart pays their employees, in whole or in part, with gift cards.

flipht

•

In the US, Walmart pays their employees by teaching them to file for food stamps and then keeping their pay depressed enough to qualify.

prole

•

Bonus, those employees use those food stamps at Walmart.

borlax

•

What a sick thing to say…

When you care more about profits than people, that’s the kind of slavery apologist shit that you say… just disgusting…

jballs

•

"Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills."

Are these people fucking insane?

borlax

•

I don’t wanna chalk it up to some psychological issue, but I think they are very much in denial about this and will say anything to absolve themselves of the responsibility they have to teach history before it repeats.

So instead, they rewrite history…

Which brings me to my next point. I also don’t want to chalk it up to some psychological issue because literally whitewashing history like this is an evil thing to do. It’s a choice they are making…

NukeminHerttua

•

For some it's intentional and motivated by racism. For others it's probably just cold and calculated opportunism.

The latter don't really care as long as they profit politically or financially from such policies. It's like selling your soul to a devil, because "who cares".

Anyone supporting bullshit like that should experience few years as a slave to really see what the benefits are. Stupid assholes...

sadreality

•

That logic never changed... Here we are...

MyOpinion

•

I am sure this will be the GOP/Nazi party line in Florida.

williamallenbro

•

This isn't new either, that's the worst part, for me. Texas 2015

QubaXR

•

Increasing temperatures and CO2 levels have been linked to decreased brain function. People literally can't think straight and get dumber. With the weather in Florida, Texas, this is beginning to check out.

On all seriousness though, how is this even legal for a bunch of local statesmen to resign educational system, whitewash history, prosecute women and minorities? At what point does the federal government step in?

Bipta

•

Legal is whatever they can get away with doing.

QubaXR

•

Yes, sure, but just what's the point of having The United States of each state sets up laws so different from other ones that they could practically was about them.

salarua

•

as usual, the federal government will step in when each and every member of Congress is personally affected. because, y'know, any societal ill you don't personally experience is just oversensitive snowflakes whining /s

TheSaneWriter

•

The changes to Florida's education system made in the previous decade have been dismal. Florida is driving itself into the ground, not the least because climate change will sink the state in the next century. DeSantis and his ilk need to be removed from office and soon or the states they govern could take decades or even possibly a century to recover.

SpringMango7379

•

What is wrong with people?!

Uniquitous

•

Conservatism.

SeatBeeSate

•

Fascism. Don't let neo conservative ethno fascists hide behind some cushy word. They know what they are, we know what they are.

salarua

•

this. the GOP has picked their lane, and anyone who doesn't completely and unequivocally oppose the GOP is a fascist. this isn't a generalization or hyperbole, it's political reality now

Uniquitous

•

Same thing. Except I think Conservatism embraces ignorance more. Fascism + Prideful Ignorance = Conservatism

PlantbasedChe

•

"Sorry madam, but, you know... god is always correct and if people do not think so they will riot"

sorebuttfromsitting

•

the linked article is quite poorly written, but I also had to look at 4 different stories to find some details

When high school students learn about events such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the new rules require that instruction include "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans." The massacre is considered the deadliest Election Day violence in US history and, according to several histories of the incident, it started when Moses Norman, a prominent Black landowner in the Ocoee, Florida, community, attempted to cast his ballot and was turned away by White poll workers.

https://www.cbsnews.com/atlanta/news/florida-board-of-education-approves-new-black-history-standards-that-critics-call-a-big-step-backward/

housepanther

•

What!? There is something seriously wrong with this! Just don't do business with Florida at all.

JokeDeity

•

Conservatives are pure evil incarnate.

PlantbasedChe

•

Lack of common public planning has consequences

bioemerl

•

Every time someone says America was built on slavery they are saying slavery was beneficial.

Our nation would be larger and stronger if slavery never existed. Never forget that slavery stole from all of us.

snooggums

•

"Built on slavery" is referring to the benefits that the ruling class received by exploiting slaves and that exploitation is a core part of US culture. It reminds people that most of the population was not included in the "all men are created equal" documents of the time.

It is not a positive phrase about general benefits for everyone. It is a reminder that we did, and still do, terrible things and we should not forget.

bioemerl

•

"Built on slavery" is referring to the benefits that the ruling class received

Anyone saying this is either gaslighting or doesn't understand the English language.

snooggums

•

You are confidently incorrect.

https://news.asu.edu/thought-huddle/how-america-was-built-slavery-those-roots-can-still-be-felt-today

Umbra

•

You seriously believe this story?

MyOpinion

•

You under estimate how big of a shithole Florida is.

DragonAce

•

Why wouldn't they?

themeatbridge

•

You doubt it?

TerryMathews

•

I do. DeSantis's anti-woke legislation forced textbook makers to transform Rosa Parks into bus Karen. Seriously, Google it, don't take my word for it.

Umbra

•

I checked the source document and it looks like an extremely comprehensive and fair overview of slavery.
Check it out for yourselves, the African American part is right at the beginning: https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/20653/urlt/6-4.pdf
The offending part is on page 6

Examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural
work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing,
transportation).
Clarification 1: Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be
applied for their personal benefit.

Maybe looks bad on its own but looking at the whole document you can see how the framing in OP is ridiculous.

OceanSoap

•

Yeah, from this excerpt, in no way is it saying that slavery was good because they learned skills that later beneficial to them.

verbalbotanics

•

So I read the document, and I think it's actually worse than what OP wrote. Looking through the curriculum, there's a steady emphasis on African Americans as "patriots"

Identify African Americans who demonstrated heroism and patriotism (e.g.,Booker T. Washington, Jesse Owens, Tuskegee Airmen, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, President....

And conveniently there's no mention of how systemic racism and white supremacy still exist and oppress African Americans today. Garvey, etc. Are mentioned but conveniently in the past.

Which is what they want. Emphasize the model people and show that they can be patriots. Downplay what you don't like. Maybe your definition of education is different but I don't think it should be about saying we should all be good little flag salutors.

I agree that it's rage bait, but you can't trust Florida on this.

Btw the fact that America makes kids pledge an oath to a flag every morning is fucked up, just saying.

Umbra

•

"And conveniently there’s no mention of how systemic racism and white supremacy still exist and oppress African Americans today."

Because they shouldn't teach fantasy in schools.