Black Community News News and Commentary for Christians
The Florida Board of Education issued new standards for teaching the history of slavery. Leftists have distorted what the standards teach. Vice President Kamala Harris last month accused the state of saying that slaves benefited from slavery.
The standards say no such thing. This is the sentence that offends liberals:
“Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
Dr. William Allen, a former COO of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE) and a current member of CURE’s Advisory Board, is a member of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup. He set the record straight.
“It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans…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 enslavement.”
Star Parker spoke about this controversy on Straight Arrow News.
“Of course there is only one way to understand slavery in America and around the world: that the practice is evil – pure and simple. No one said it more clearly than our first president of the Republican Party, Abraham Lincoln.”
Star also talked about Dr. Allen’s responses to the distortions.
As a great, free nation under God, we don’t whitewash our failures, Star said. But as Dr. Allen said, we should also appreciate the resilience and ability of all people to play the hand they’re dealt and then to excel amid any and all challenges — something only free people can do, especially when allowed to live their lives free from political manipulations.
