Black Americans and White Americans: The benefits of slavery.

(ThyBlackMan.com) Misinformation is information that is proven to be inaccurate, even though the disseminator might not be aware that it is. On the other hand, disinformation is misinformation that is combined with the intent to deceive. Notably, disinformation doesn’t necessarily need to express a complete falsehood; disinformation may contain a cell of truth that metastasizes into a cancer of lies.

Enter the Florida Department of Education, which is the rubberiest of rubber stamps for the State’s governor, “anti-woke” crusader Ron DeSantis. The department recently announced new educational “standards” for teaching African American history. Among the controversial changes is the notion of teaching that Black people benefited from learning skills as a result of their enslavement. Vice President Kamala Harris joined a large chorus of voices who have spoken out against this highly offensive argument.

In response, Dr. William Allen, who is a member of Florida’s African American History Standards Workgroup, defended the curricular changes. He said, “I just want to… encourage everyone to take the time to read, or as I said in my response to the vice president, I think every intellect can understand the language written there if people only take the time to read it.” Dr. Allen added, “It is the case that Africans proved resourceful, resilient, and adaptive, and were able to develop skills… which served to their benefit, both while enslaved and after (being) enslaved.”

Well, I read the standards. Having done so doesn’t change the fact that the State of Florida is spreading disinformation. Dr. Allen’s apologia seems to be, “We didn’t say that Black people benefited from slavery! What we actually said is, well, Black people benefited from slavery in some cases.” Such amphiboly is worthy of the widespread ridicule that it has received.

The primary impression that one gets from reading Dr. Allen’s statement is that slavery wasn’t all that bad because a few Black people gained useful skills. I understand that such is probably not what Allen would say his intent was, but that doesn’t absolve him of his culpability. His “cell of truth” will have a carcinogenic effect on how students perceive America’s original sin.

Human traffickers could beat their “property” to within an inch of their lives (or worse), yet their property “benefited” from learning how to be a carpenter or blacksmith? This is the academic version of blackface – turning the suffering of African Americans into a minstrel show to soothe white guilt.

Suppose I made the following argument: “Some children benefit from being sexually abused because they became more resilient”. Or try this one: “Some Jewish people benefited from the Holocaust because it taught them to be more resourceful.” And lest we forget: “Some women benefit from domestic violence because they learn how to be more adaptable.” These disgusting sentiments are no different from those that Dr. Allen uttered.

Importantly, there have been several recent instances of school board members and parents – all of them white – who have forced changes to school curricula based on the fact that their children have been (or even might be) “uncomfortable” with discussions of racism in the classroom. What if Black children or parents are “uncomfortable” with the suggestion that their enslaved ancestors benefited from slavery? Would those school boards change the curriculum? Nevermind. There’s no need to answer that question.

To make matters worse, the Florida standards argue that Black people were morally wrong while they were defending themselves during racial massacres that were perpetrated by white mobs: “Instruction includes acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans but is not limited to 1906 Atlanta Race Riot, 1919 Washington, D.C. Race Riot, 1920 Ocoee Massacre, 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre.” (Italics mine.)

You read that correctly. Florida is arguing that there is no moral distinction between African Americans defending themselves from murderers and the people who were murdering them. Florida has required teaching African American history since 1994. Its new standards, and the attitude that fostered them, appear to have come from 1894. The purveyors of such attitudes are worthy of Dantean levels of torment.

Here’s the thing. If the overwhelming majority of Black folks don’t like what you’re doing “for us”, you’re not doing it for us; you’re doing it to us – irrespective of your intent. It would be much more useful to teach children, Black and white, about Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois’ incomparable work, Black Reconstruction in America. In discussing the South after the Civil War, Du Bois writes about the “public and psychological wage” that white Americans gain from racism. In short, even the poorest and least skilled whites were given the non-monetary (i.e., social) wage of being white, which was worth infinitely more important than financial wages that African Americans earned.

Finish story here; Black Americans and White Americans: The benefits of slavery.