Florida just overhauled its Black History curriculum standards, and from liberal reaction you would’ve thought that the Klan had written them. Especially when Vice President Kamala Harris rolled into Jacksonville to castigate the new curriculum.

Of course that’s because FL Gov. Ron DeSantis is running for president, although she didn’t mention him by name. Instead she lumped him in with “extremists” and people “want to be talked about as American leaders.” Kamala delivered her rant at the Ritz Theatre and Museum in the historically Black neighborhood of LaVilla, where an audience of civil rights leaders, educators, community members and elected officials from Jacksonville cheered her message.

Here are some of the accusations Kamala made:

Let’s be clear — I do believe this is not only about the state of Florida. There is a national agenda afoot. Extremist so-called leaders for months have dared to ban books — book bans in this year of our Lord 2023! Extremists here in Florida passed a law, ‘don’t say gay,’ trying to instill fear in our teachers that they should not live their full life and love who they love. And now, on top of all of that, they want to replace history with lies.

First of all, there is no “Don’t Say Gay” bill — it’s the “Parental Rights in Education Act.” But the misnomer has stuck, and it’s a useful cudgel for the Left to bash DeSantis.

As for book bans — please, Ms. Vice President, tell us what books are banned. Give us titles. That accusation is as ludicrous as a sign I saw in a local shop which read, We sell banned books. Well, if they’re banned, then no one can sell or purchase them, right?

But what really raised Harris’s ire was the statement in the curriculum which says “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Kamala Must Think Slaves Were Stupid

Here’s what Harris said about the “skills” statement:

Come on — adults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world. How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?

No decent person today would insist that slavery was a good thing. If someone were to tell me that slavery is this nation’s biggest shame, I might agree with that point. Slavery was dehumanizing. It deprived human beings of their intrinsic God-given rights.

But to deny that slaves developed skills to use for their own purposes is insulting. It implies that slaves were too stupid to adapt to a very terrible situation.

However, that’s her modus operandi, isn’t it? Perpetuate the notion that Black Americans are eternal victims. After all, if she were to portray them as self-sufficient people who adapted to their circumstances, then they just might vote Republican.

Kamala Harris is Gaslighting

Kamala Harris didn’t reserve her harangue just for Jacksonville. She had made similar comments on Thursday in Indianapolis to the black sorority Delta Theta Sigma. Apparently Harris was so incensed by the notion that black slaves could learn skills to adapt that she used that canard in both cities:

Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it.

However, National Review writer Charles C. W. Cooke was equally outraged — but at Kamala Harris. He wrote:

This is a brazen lie. It’s an astonishing lie. It’s an evil lie. It is so untrue — so deliberately and cynically misleading — that, in a sensible political culture, Harris would be obligated to issue an apology.

Not only did Cooke call out Harris for her lies, he researched the curriculum — which I’d be willing to bet that Kamala did not do. Moreover, in his NR article he “copied and pasted every single reference to slavery, slaves, abolitionism, civil rights, and African Americans that is in the document.”

Here Are the Receipts

The list is very, very long — 191 items long. It includes the words “slave” 96 times, “slaves” 23 times, and “slavery” 45 times. Here are a few of the receipts that Cooke brought:

• Examine the Underground Railroad and how former slaves partnered with other free people and groups in assisting those escaping from slavery;
• Examine the service and sacrifice of African patriots during the Revolutionary Era (e.g., Crispus Attucks, Peter Salem, James Armistead Lafayette, 1st Rhode Island Regiment);
• Instruction includes writings by Africans living in the United States and their effect on the abolitionist movement (e.g., Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, William Wells Brown, David Walker, Martin Delaney).

Yeah, I’m sure Kamala overlooked these. That is, if she even perused the curriculum.

But wait! There’s more!

• Describe the contributions of Africans to society, science, poetry, politics, oratory, literature, music, dance, Christianity and exploration in the United States from 1776-1865;
• Instruction includes contributions of key figures and organizations (e.g., Prince Hall, Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Richard Allen, the Free African Society, Olaudah Equiano, Omar ibn Said, Cudjoe Lewis, Anna Jai Kingsley).

And the list goes on — way too many items to include in this post. It also includes contributions of black Americans in the Civil War, in the World Wars, the arts, and in the civil rights movement.

As for that egregious “slaves gained skills” point over which Kamala Harris obsessed, it’s a tiny part of an enormous compilation.

Cooke adds:

If you are able to read it and conclude that the single reference to slaves developing skills is indicative of the narrative direction of the course, rather than a tiny (and correct) part of it, then you are beyond saving and you deserve to live your life as an ignoramus.

Kamala Harris accused Florida of trying to gaslight its citizens with its Black History curriculum. But just who’s doing the gaslighting? Hint: it’s not Ron DeSantis or Florida Republicans.

Featured image: Mobilus in Mobili/flickr/cropped/CC BY-SA 2.0.