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I knew when I saw news of Vice President Kamala Harris claiming that Florida's new African-American history standards for public schools taught that "enslaved people benefitted from slavery," I knew instinctively that this was a lie of unusual medacity even for her. Don't take my word for it: read the curriculum guide for yourself, especially page six, where Harris and the rest of the race-obsessed educrat-complex twists one sentence in the most grotesque way imaginable.
The real sin of the curriculum guide, from the left's demented point of view, actually can be seen page eight, where the curriculum mentions including the history of slavery before 1619. Ah—there's the rub. The real reason Harris attacks the Florida curriculum is that it dares to correct the distortions and omissions of the 1619 Project, which has become the platform for saying that America was, and is, purely a slavocracy, and that American capitalism practically invented slavery.
One of my principal teachers in graduate school (and a past guest on this podcast), William B. Allen, was one of the authors of the new Florida curriculum guide, and he's been in high demand this week refuting the calumnies of our vice president. I managed to catch up with him this morning to note the obvious irony that the party of Calhoun would be reviving Calhounism just now, but trying to deflect it onto the other party. (Because of course the real reason for this attack is that Joe Biden might face Ron DeSantis as a candidate next year, so better start calling him a racist now.)
Hosted by John Yoo, 'Lucretia', and Steve Hayward, with guest William B. Allen
Discussion (1)
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Wise comments by Prof. Allen.
The VP's demagoguery would not be a problem if we still had a free and fair press. This would have been called out immediately, as in the way Charlie Cooke did it over at National Review. But those on the left, who do not read NR or listen to Powerline, believe what she said is true. To take it a step further, if we really had a free and fair press, she never would have tried this, knowing she would be exposed as a liar and a demagogue. Knowing she would get away with it, she proceeded full speed ahead.