Understanding Florida’s batshit curriculum
  July 27, 2023 Good evening, Meteor readers, As you have likely heard, singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor passed away yesterday at 56. The tributes pouring in in her honor have been gorgeous and gutting. I want to add one more. As a young transfemme person in the mid-2010s, I searched for examples of who I wanted to look like when I grew up. And so many versions of femininity seemed unattainable to me, too far a leap from my current reality. But Sinéad gave me a roadmap. In a 1991 Spin magazine interview I found online, she said, “Shaving my head to me was never a conscious thing. I was never making a statement. I was just bored one day and wanted to shave my head, and that was literally all there was to it.” When I read that, it occurred to me: Oh. I can do whatever the hell I want. So I shaved my head too. Women are told left and right how femininity should be expressed. But alongside her many other contributions, Sinéad gave me—and so many others—the power to realize my self-expression didn’t have to be this huge, profound decision. I could choose something just because I wanted to.  In today’s newsletter, Keisha N. Blain, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, brings historical perspective to Florida’s curriculum whitewashing. You can read her discussion with Rebecca Carroll down below. But first, the news. Having a drink before the war, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT’S GOING ON
  IT’S ALWAYS FLORIDAWhat Exactly Does Ron DeSantis Want Students to Learn About Enslavement?A professor and historian breaks down Florida’s new propaganda campaign disguised as a school curriculum. BY REBECCA CARROLL (IMAGE BY JOSHUA LOTT VIA GETTY IMAGES) Last week, the Florida Board of Education unanimously approved a new set of standards for how Black history will be taught in schools. Included in these new standards is an emphasis on teaching “the ways slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” and highlighting “acts of violence” perpetrated by Black folks against other Black folks during slavery. Neither of those claims are factual, and both attempt to mask the actual brutality of white people during enslavement. I needed to understand more, so I reached out to professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and MSNBC contributor Keisha N. Blain Ph.D., because, honestly, help. Rebecca Carroll: I know you’ve written about the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching Black history in the classroom—but what was your initial reaction to the curriculum changes both as a historian and a teacher? Keisha N. Blain: As a professor, I know these standards are poorly designed. But far beyond the poor quality of these standards, I am deeply disturbed by the whitewashing of history and the negative impact these standards will ultimately have on the teaching of United States history in Florida—and beyond. Even if, in some instances, enslaved people developed skills that ultimately helped them survive/thrive, why does that immediately humanize the enslavers rather than emphasize the resilience of enslaved people? The new instructional guidance reveals a complete misunderstanding of chattel slavery as it was practiced in the United States. The goal of these standards is to hide the harsh conditions of enslavement and protect white Americans from grappling with the ugliness of slavery. The goal is clear: The Florida Board of Education wants to foreground a version of slavery wherein enslaved people could benefit. This framing underscores that the plan is not to discuss the resilience of enslaved people; they want to make slavery appear less evil. This effort also cannot be separated from past methods of instruction: Until the 1960s, white historians and educators often promoted a narrative of benevolent white slaveholders and content enslaved people. This discussion also ignores how the economic exploitation of Black Americans through sharecropping, prison labor, and redlining continued to rob them of opportunity. Emancipation did not free Black Americans from discrimination or racism; those practices continued as white Americans continued to reap all of the “benefits” from Black laborers. And what is the nuanced conversation that we should be having here? Because if I believe that the history of racism is about dehumanizing and terrorizing Black and brown people, and Florida believes the history of racism is biased against white people, we have a real problem. One of the reasons I became a historian is because I came to the recognition that a deep understanding of the past is one of the ways we can build a better future. If we don’t carefully access what has already taken place over the last few centuries, then we run the risk of making the same mistakes over again. We cannot be “wishy-washy” about topics such as slavery. We have to be firm in acknowledging that slavery was a brutal and exploitative economic and labor system that attempted to strip Black people of their inherent humanity. Anyone who dances around this fact has already embraced white supremacist ideology, and deep down inside, they don’t mind returning to an era of slavery. How do you think these new standards will affect classroom dynamics—will students start recording teachers in an effort to catch them saying something “bad,” meaning something accurate? On the one hand, students could absolutely weaponize these standards against teachers. Some of this will likely emerge from parents pushing their children to report these matters; some will also likely arise from students wanting to target certain teachers they don’t like. These standards are intended to curb free speech and push teachers to endorse a false version of history out of fear. On the other hand, I am also thinking about those students and educators who are bold and savvy enough to bypass these new restrictions. One of the benefits of living in the age of computers is that we have quick access to a lot of information. Banned books in schools can still be accessed elsewhere and students can find deeply researched and accurate accounts of history in other venues. Educators are also skillful at coming up with ways to share information with their students—even if it means defying these new standards. Ultimately, Black people have dealt with this before—others have tried to block our ideas and history in the classroom setting for decades. But Black history education has persisted through decades of repression. This all feels similar to the “stand your ground” laws, which say that if anyone (often a white person) feels threatened they can use force. I think the impact of these standards—and the Florida state government’s recent attempt to outlaw making white people uncomfortable—is to spread misinformation. Gov. Ron DeSantis and other conservatives are trying to render history into moral statements—such as “the United States is faultless”; “no one is to blame for slavery”; and “racism no longer exists.” This is nothing more than propaganda, [and] when public institutions are pushing this form of propaganda, conflict will emerge whenever someone points out historical facts. Seen from this perspective, this has a real chance of turning classrooms into powder kegs where fights can erupt at any moment. It also makes teachers’ jobs much more difficult. Educators in Florida are now fighting the state simply by telling their students an accurate and unadulterated version of history based on years of research. In your opinion, what do you think DeSantis wants students to learn? Like, specifically? I think the basic lesson that Gov. DeSantis and the Florida Board of Education want students to learn can be boiled down to the idea that white Americans carry no guilt for the enslavement and exploitation of Black Americans. This is why their standard that mentions the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre makes sure to state that the lessons should include the “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” They are designed to conflate the violence committed against Black communities with the actions of Black Americans defending themselves from white mobs. In short, they are trying to instill a narrative that exculpates white Americans and tacitly embraces the nation’s history of white supremacy. There is this sense that Black folks can (and should?) endure anything, which, in effect, is normalizing our trauma, no? We do run that risk. But I also think it is important to take pride in how our ancestors fought and resisted against white supremacist forces. We can avoid this pitfall of “normalizing our trauma” by recognizing how the history of Black liberation contains lessons for the present. When we look back on figures like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, and others, we cannot ignore the toll their activism took on them—but their lives also show us strategies and tactics we can use today to resist white supremacy.  Rebecca Carroll is a writer, cultural critic, and podcast creator/host. Her writing has been published widely, and she is the author of several books, including her recent memoir, Surviving the White Gaze. Rebecca is Editor at Large for The Meteor.  WEEKEND READSOn education: Sex ed teachers have been forced into hiding by right wing “activists.” On sports: U.S. Soccer is trying to support working moms on the pitch. How can the rest of us get some of that? On money: “How student loan debt has fueled the pay gap for Black women.” On gawd: How Catholics reconsidered their relationship with The Vatican after Sinead O’Connor tore an image of Pope John Paul II on national television.  This newsletter was written by Bailey Wayne Hundl, Shannon Melero, and Rebecca Carroll. FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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