Vice President Kamala Harris does not appear to be interested in discussing slavery with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R).
Instead, it seems she would rather simply drop into the state, lash out about its educational standards, and fly out.
During an event on Tuesday in Florida, Harris said, “Right here in Florida, they plan to teach students that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, in an attempt to divide and distract our nation with unnecessary debates.”
“And now they attempt to legitimize these unnecessary debates with a proposal — that most recently came in — of a politically motivated roundtable,” she continued. “Well, I’m here in Florida, and I will tell you there is no round table, no lecture, no invitation, we will accept to debate an undeniable fact — there were no redeeming qualities of slavery.”
Watch the video below:
.@VP Harris attacks Florida: We cannot allow "unnecessary debates" about slavery pic.twitter.com/Ns1cCu6Z23
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 1, 2023
Harris’ speech refers to a portion of Florida’s new standards for Black history that has come under fire. The new curriculum includes a portion that teaches slaves learned skills they later benefited from.
Late last month, she also traveled to the state to eviscerate the new standards and call Florida’s leaders “extremists.”
In response to the attacks on the new educational standards, which focus on one line and ignore the rest of the 216-page curriculum, DeSantis invited the vice president to discuss the matter.
“You clearly have no trouble ducking down to Florida on short notice. So given your grave concern (which, I must assume, is sincere) about what you think our standards say, I am officially inviting you back down to Florida to discuss our African American History standards,” he said in a letter this week.
It is fair to question whether it is wise to teach students that slaves learned skills that they later benefited from. Even if it is true, it is a lesson that can be misconstrued as if to teach there was some silver lining to slavery.
But if Democrats thought their argument could hold up, why shouldn’t the vice president sit down and verbally destroy a star of the Republican Party? If this is a lesson so objectively and undeniably offensive and false, why not take the opportunity to get a video of her leaving DeSantis twisting in the wind trying to defend it?
Perhaps because she knows that to insist Florida started this debate is ridiculous. The lesson in the curriculum is not one that crazy, right-wing extremists in Florida just decided to throw in. It was a lesson that was also included in an Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies class that was rejected by the state earlier this year.
And at the time, we didn’t hear a peep about this part of the curriculum from liberals. Back then, we were told DeSantis was trying to erase Black history by blocking the class.
It would be fascinating to hear Harris explain why it was fine for the lesson to be included in the class the Democrats liked. But now all of a sudden it is a five-alarm fire and Florida is simply awful and lying to students for including the same lesson.
Unfortunately, it appears we will never get the privilege of hearing Harris try to explain it, which just shows what a gross and cheap political trick the Democrats are playing.