Michigan Democrat Representative Rashida Tlaib called one controversial piece of Florida’s newly adopted African American history standards “outrageous.”
On Monday, Tlaib wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that it is intolerable that kids in Florida public schools would now be taught that enslaved Black people benefitted from slavery. She said slavery was reprehensible and morally bankrupt– period.
Tlaib posted a video of herself last week addressing the House floor. She said that current school rules in Florida strive to ignore the effect of slavery on the human dignity of Black Americans. She said that the country’s forefathers participated in this as well.
In her floor address, Tlaib said that educating about the history of African Americans is essential to conveying an accurate picture of the United States.
Addressing the Speaker, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), she said we must impart the truth about our nation’s past to the next generation. “That means confronting racism, oppression, lynching, dehumanization, and white supremacist violence,” she proclaimed.
She said we will not stand by and let our history be rewritten, especially when it is no longer being taught. Furthermore, she said, this assembly must recognize that Black history is American history.
There is a lot of pushback to Florida’s new education standards, which Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law earlier this year. According to the new guidelines, classroom discussions on racial issues must be presented without trying to influence pupils’ worldviews.
Concerns were voiced by NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who said the rules represent a return to an era when Black lives, and rights were not respected.
According to Johnson’s comments, we must recognize slavery and Jim Crow as a violation of human rights and a terrible time in American history.
He said that for over a century, the NAACP has stood up to oppressors like those in the DeSantis Administration, and they’re ready to keep doing so by any means necessary.
He proclaimed that nothing less than the truth, the fairness, and the equality for which our forebears fought and died should be given to our children.
