Middle school students in Florida will soon be taught that slavery gave Black people a “personal benefit” because they “developed skills.”

After the Florida Board of Education approved new standards for African American history on Wednesday, high school students will be taught an equally distorted message: that a deadly white mob attack against Black residents of Ocoee, Florida, in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

There is a reason slavers are a common villain trope in a lot of fiction. The idea that slavery is in any way good is generally thought to be a universally rejected concept. Way to undoubtedly show your cards leadership slavers of Florida.

  • Slaves (forcefully) developed skills to their (master’s) personal benefit! Florida could have a bright plan here to replace its immigrant workforce – imagine if the students were as skilled as slaves!

    You don’t need skills like reading, mathematics, negotiating, or critical thinking! Abstract thinking? We live in the real world, not the abstract world.

    So much student potential is wasted learning when it could be spent getting to the workforce sooner! You’ll have an income that never goes up, so it’s stable! You can’t count that high anyway! And you’ll have the same job for the rest of your life, so it’s stable! Who enjoys updating their resume, being interviewed, and getting rejected? Not me!