Kamala Harris doubles down on Florida curriculum attacks, but her past remarks expose the emptiness of her outrage



Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down Tuesday on her accusation that Florida wants to teach students that American chattel slavery benefited the enslaved.

But her latest remarks only served to highlight the selective nature of her outrage.

What did Harris say?

On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) invited Harris to meet with him and scholar Dr. William Allen to discuss the African-American history curriculum standards.

Despite already having a scheduled trip to Florida, Harris refused to meet. Instead, she once again bashed Florida and the curriculum, further propagating the narrative that her critics say is false.

"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," Harris said at an event in Orlando.

"Well, I'm here in Florida and I will tell you, there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: There were no redeeming qualities of slavery," she added.

Where's the double standard?

The problem with Harris' outrage is that she is trying to have her cake and eat it, too.

Rewind to January when Florida was facing criticism for rejecting the College Board's African-American Studies course. At the time, Harris blasted Florida's leaders as "extremists" for their decision.

"Every student in our nation should be able to learn about the culture, contributions, and experiences of all Americans — including Black Americans — who shaped our history," Harris said in a statement. "Unfortunately, in Florida, extremist so-called leaders ban books, block history classes, and prevent teachers from freely discussing who they are and who they love. Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America's future."

But, upon closer examination, what exactly did that AP course include in its curriculum standards?

In its unit on Slavery, Labor, and American law, the course suggests that students learn the following:

In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, American Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.

That's right: The AP course that Florida rejected, resulting in outrage from Harris, taught the same idea that Harris is now on a crusade against. In fact, the course called the statement "essential knowledge."

That leaves one question: Where was Harris' outrage then?

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Will she accept? Gov. DeSantis issues direct challenge to Kamala Harris to 'set the record straight' about curriculum



Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued Vice President Kamala Harris a direct challenge on Monday over the narrative that she has perpetuated about Florida's African-American history curriculum.

What is the background?

Last month, Harris seized on Florida's new curriculum standards, claiming state officials want to "gaslight" students by teaching them "that enslaved people benefited from slavery."

The curriculum, of course, does not teach that.

Rather, one specific standard says teachers should examine "the various duties and trades performed by slaves (e.g., agricultural work, painting, carpentry, tailoring, domestic service, blacksmithing, transportation)." The added "benchmark clarification" explains that "instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

Harris' claims set off a firestorm against DeSantis, which has included being attacked by fellow Republicans who also criticized the curriculum.

What is DeSantis doing now?

On Monday, DeSantis invited Harris to Tallahassee to discuss the standards with prominent scholar Dr. William Allen, a former chairman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights who helped craft the standards.

Allen is a descendant of slaves and has defended the standards vigorously.

"It's past time to set the record straight," DeSantis wrote in a letter. "In Florida we are unafraid to have an open and honest dialogue about the issues. And 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. We will be happy to host you here in Tallahassee," he continued. "I will ask Dr. William Allen — instrumental in the development of our impressive new standards — to join. We welcome you, of course, to bring Randi Weingarten or someone else who shares your view about the standards."

DeSantis said he is prepared to meet as early as Wednesday. Harris is actually speaking in Orlando on Tuesday, so meeting would not be logistically difficult. She is traveling to Wisconsin on Thursday.

Indeed, a short turnaround time is not difficult for Harris because, according to CNN, Harris' team "quickly arranged" the trip to Florida, where she launched her attack against DeSantis and the new curriculum.

TheBlaze reached out to a Harris representative for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

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