Voices Florida Decides to Teach That Our Ancestors Benefitted From Being Enslaved

BY AZIAH SIID

Florida has taken yet another stride against teaching the full scope of Black history in statewide public schools — and it’s sparking criticism from advocates and families both state and nationwide.

The new standards, posted on July 19 to the Florida Department of Education website, approved requiring public schools to teach that enslaved people “developed skills that could be applied for their personal benefit” and more.

“The notion that enslaved people benefitted from being enslaved is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our education system.” Florida State Rep. Anna Eskamani said.

“I am very concerned by these standards,” Eskamani said. “Especially some of the notions that you know, enslaved people benefitted from being enslaved is inaccurate and a scary standard for us to establish in our educational curriculum.”

As Harvard Law School professor Cornell William Brooks wrote on Twitter, “Florida‘s new educational standards will assault the emotional health of Black children. If the Supreme Court found segregated education hurt Black children in 1954, THIS segregated white supremacist version of Black history will do the same in 2023.”

Indeed, the new standards come with clarifications — for middle school students, teachers must educate students on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

High school students will learn about events such as the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, the Tulsa Race Massacre, and the Rosewood Race Massacre, all egregious acts against Black bodies in history.

However, the new rules require that instruction of the Ocoee massacre include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”

The massacre is considered the deadliest Election Day violence in the nation’s history, and, according to several historical ac - counts of the incident, it began 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.

The decision is just the latest move by Florida politicians — led by Republican governor Ron DeSantis to prevent the accurate teaching of Black history. In January, Florida’s education officials department rejected a proposed pilot version of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students after it claimed the course lacked educational value. In addition, the DeSantis-led “Stop WOKE” movement has sparked numerous book bans nationwide.

“Today’s actions by the Florida state government are an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where Black life was not valued, nor our rights protected,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement.

“It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history. We refuse to go back.”

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BY JAMES A. WASHINGTON

I suppose the details are all in the interpretation.

I went to church intent on hearing a particular preacher, only to find him absent from the pulpit.

The guest minister’s sermon on humility was a stark reminder that it is all about the message and never about the messenger.

Fortunately for me, that was one of the spiritual lessons I learned from the minister who saved my life—coincidentally, the one whom I was going to hear on that Sunday.

Humility, as the pastor was trying to clarify and explain, should be viewed as described in Philippians 2. The entire chapter is devoted to Paul’s message to the Church at Philippi regarding “imitating Christ’s humility.”

As I listened, “humility” transformed from my initial context of docile behavior to a fact of faith and strength of character.

By that I mean, it was made clear that Christ chose to consider Himself at best equal to, if not lesser than his fellow man.

Remember, we’re talking about God here. He consciously chose to make Himself human in order to serve His divine purpose.

The text tells us, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but, in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interest of others.”

Now, my recollection of Christ says that’s a pretty good description of how He looked upon His duty and that was pretty much what got Him killed.

I mean, isn’t it interesting that the most dangerous — and, therefore the most powerful and important — thing you can do in life is to care about someone else more greatly than you care for yourself?

This humility thing does indeed have the inherent power in this is crystal clear.

Paul teaches us that it is our fundamental responsibility, as Christians, to be united in our effort to emulate Jesus’ denunciation of status, pride, ego and self.

Surely, if anyone had a right to be arrogant, it was the living Son of God.

You try being the walking talking Word and deliberately transform yourself into a mere mortal human being.

If you can grasp that thought, please don’t let it blow your mind because you know you couldn’t do it. Become Christ and die willingly on the cross by the hands of mere men.

Fortunately, as the minister made clear, Paul is not asking us to do the impossible. He let us know that our goal is service unto man.

Put a lid on what we think of ourselves and our prideful independence in favor of our collective interdependence upon each other and the Almighty.

Christ died to save us all and here in Philippi, Paul tells us that our conduct must be rooted in the following truth: out of this thing called humility, Christ saved the world.

Are we better than him? Think it through.

If you look down your nose at anyone for any reason, if you truly think you’re better than anyone else, then you think you’re better than Jesus, who thought himself no better and even less than you.

He died in service to us, you and me.

Do something good for someone else today simply because you can.

If you don’t get this, may God bless and keep you always.

“I’m very fortunate to still live with my mother, but I never thought I’d be out here looking for a job. This strike has pulled me back into doing Photography, Modeling and Makeup; revisiting my old skills has made me realize that I still got it and hey it’s not so bad, sometimes we gotta go backwards to fling forward. But my heart goes out to my fellow film friends. Some are relaxing, chilling and most are really struggling. We are trying to make it out here by creating our own films, applying to 9 to 5, etc. This is life changing and enlightening.”

“The industry… how it has affected me is kind of bad. I had to move out of my apartment. I’m facing repossession of my car. I’m grateful that I have a few businesses that I can fall back on that will help me but a lot of people don’t. They (Actors and Writers) are in fear of losing their job because of what A.I. is doing to the industry… taking money out of their pocket. So I understand why they are striking but it’s affecting us.

“The current duel strikes of the Writers and Screen Actors Guild has affected me significantly because my primary source of income as a customer in Atlanta’s tv and film industry has completely shut down. The show I was working on since the beginning of May was shut down and I have been out of work for a couple of weeks. So now I am figuring out my way through Georgia’s unemployment process with its own set of challenges. I guess I’m not alone but it’s still hard, though.

Compiled by Vincent Christie

“The film strikes have basically brought work for film to a standstill. There’s some indie stuff out there but now you are dealing with slim pickings. A lot of us have found other avenues to supplement our income. Pretty much there is nothing else around except Tyler Perry stuff. Tyler Perry is still going. I don’t know how but they are still going. But I supplement by teaching photography for the City of Atlanta and I’m also a Photographer as well so I am doing different things to keep the money going.