While speaking with Fox News Digital on Tuesday, 2024 Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) continued his critique of language on slavery in Florida’s social studies standards and called for the controversial sentence to be removed because anyone “talking about the one industry, slavery, that deprived African Americans of their freedom, is somehow going to defend any aspect of it whatsoever is just wrong. There was not a redeeming quality in slavery.” Scott also stated that it’s his 2024 GOP rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) who “signed off” “on the same curriculum” as Vice President Kamala Harris.
Scott said, “Well, Kamala Harris and Ron DeSantis both signed off on the same legislation — on the same curriculum. All I’ve suggested is take the sentence out. Anyone who suggests that the nation founded on freedom, talking about the one industry, slavery, that deprived African Americans of their freedom, is somehow going to defend any aspect of it whatsoever is just wrong. There was not a redeeming quality in slavery. For us to have that conversation at all in 2023 is the wrong direction for this nation, and it’s just an immoral, undeniably unethical industry that devastated black families, mutilated black people, and raped black women.”
The Florida standards say, “Instruction includes how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
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