On Thursday's CNN This Morning, correspondent Carlos Suarez filed a report promoting misleading claims by left-wing activists protesting against Governor Ron DeSantis's policies on teaching black history in Florida.
The segment began with a clip of Tennessee state legislator Justin Pearson as the Democrat lawmaker gave a speech in Florida:
And for too long, they tried to silence our voice and silence our hope and silence our opportunity, and now we're fired up. They thought that they would be able to change these standards, and we wouldn't say nothing.
Setting up the report, co-host Phil Mattingly showed a clip of protesters chanting, then misleadingly recalled accusations that the new curriculum teaches that slaves benefited from being slaves:
Now, some of the protesters carrying signs saying, "Teach the truth," and "Slavery had no benefits." It comes after the state issued those new teaching standards that required lessons including that slaves learned skills that benefited them personally.
Suarez began by recalling several times from a century ago when black Americans were victims of deadly violence by whites. He added: "A painful racial past that some historians and educators believe Florida is trying to rewrite."
After a brief clip of Governor DeSantis declaring that "These are the most robust standards in African American history," Suarez continued:
Last month, the state's board of education approved new standards for teaching black history in order to comply with, quote, "anti-woke policies" led by Governor Ron DeSantis that limit how race is discussed in schools and businesses. The board now requires that events like the Ocoee massacre to be taught as, quote, "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans" -- a distinction historian Dr. Marvin Dunn says is wrong.
Then came a soundbite of Dr. Marvin Dunn: "There was no black-on-white racial violence in Ocoee. The state of Florida requires teachers to teach that lie."
But if one looks at the actual text of the new standards, it doesn't exactly say that there was black violence in the Ocoee incident. Rather, it lists several examples of anti-black violence, including Ocoee, and generally states that examples of both black on white violence should be included, which could have been referring more to the other incidents.
For example, in the Tulsa killings from 1921, one-third of the official death toll consisted of whites, some of whom allegedly were among the first to be killed in the initial skirmish.
Concluding the report, the CNN correspondent recalled that the state's commissioner of education, Manny Diaz, failed to attend a town hall meeting to discuss the issue, and the report made sure to include a soundbite of one member snidely calling Diaz a "coward."
Suarez suggested that it was the left-wing activists who wanted the truth to be taught as he related:
It's that truth that parents, teachers, lawmakers and activists demanded at a recent town hall near Miami where the frustration was palpable when the discussion turned to another part of the new education standard that states, quote, "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
The piece soon continued:
SUAREZ: Manny Diaz, Florida's commissioner of education, accepted an invitation to attend but did not show up, saying he was welcoming students back to school.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Manny Diaz is a coward.
In the next sentence, Suarez informed viewers that Vice President Kamala Harris had turned down an invitation by Governor DeSantis to debate him on the issue, but he did not include any soundbites of anyone accusing her of being cowardly for her refusal to face the Florida Republican.
Left-leaning academic John McWhorter notably commented recently on The Glenn Show that the overwhelming majority of the new Florida curriculum on black history is precisely the kind of things liberals would write, but that the left have chosen to focus on one item that is taken out of context.
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Transcripts follow:
JOHN McWHORTER (appearing on The Glenn Show): There was this curriculum put together by a work group that included black people and Latino people. There were 191 points made. Exactly one of them -- one sentence -- saying that slaves sometimes learned skills during their enslavement which helped them. Just one thing out of 191.
(...)
You know, even if you have a sense that there were, say, 12 things, and that was one of them, why dogpile on that one sentence as a characterization of the whole document as being in some kind of denial about slavery as if we're at a point in 2023 where a critical mass of people genuinely want you to think that the slaves were happy? Why fight yesterday's battles? Why pretend that it's 1939 when progress does happen?
And, more to the point, it seems like it was about 10 minutes ago that a certain kind of race man was trying to show that slaves actually managed to thrive often in creative ways despite slavery. So there was the grand old argument about resilience of families despite being split apart, that it was an adaptation to slavery that black family structures often involved people who were not necessarily biological kin, that black people could get along without being married because they so often supposedly had to during slavery -- which, in fact, is not especially true, but that's what a lot of people thought in the 1960s and '70s. So the idea was to show that we made the best of the very, very worst. And that sort of thing would have included saying that many slaves learned skills.
(...)
CNN This Morning
August 17, 2023
6:41 a.m. Eastern
STATE REP. JUSTIN PEARSON (D-TN): And for too long, they tried to silence our voice and silence our hope and silence our opportunity, and now we're fired up. They thought that they would be able to change these standards, and we wouldn't say nothing.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Tennessee State Senator Justin Pearson, one of the Tennessee Three, traveling to Miami to march with protesters against Florida's new black history standards.
CLIP OF PROTESTERS: Whose streets?! Our streets! Whose streets?! Our streets! Whose streets?! Our streets! Whose streets?! Our streets!
MATTINGLY: Now, some of the protesters carrying signs saying, "Teach the truth," and "Slavery had no benefits." It comes after the state issued those new teaching standards that required lessons including that slaves learned skills that benefited them personally. CNN's Carlos Suarez reports.
CARLOS SUAREZ: These are some of the cruel reminders of Florida's black history -- the destruction of the once thriving black town of Rosewood at the hands of a white mob; lynchings in Newberry; and a mass unmarked grave in Ocoee where, in 1920, two black men tried to vote. The offense considered so great that it led to the deaths of as many as 50 people. Most of them were black -- two were white men.
Dr. MARVIN DUNN: They killed two of their own.
SUAREZ: A painful racial past that some historians and educators believe Florida is trying to rewrite.
GOVERNOR RON DeSANTIS (R-FL): These are the most robust standards in African American history.
SUAREZ: Last month, the state's board of education approved new standards for teaching black history in order to comply with, quote, "anti-woke policies" led by Governor Ron DeSantis that limit how race is discussed in schools and businesses. The board now requires that events like the Ocoee massacre to be taught as, quote, "acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans" -- a distinction historian Dr. Marvin Dunn says is wrong.
DUNN: There was no black-on-white racial violence in Ocoee. The state of Florida requires teachers to teach that lie.
SUAREZ: Dr. Dunn recently took three dozen teachers and staff for Miami-Dade public schools for what he calls his "teach the truth tour" with stops throughout central Florida.
DUNN: It's painful to see our history being buried like that on purpose.
SUAREZ: For high school teacher Mark Riley the trip was overwhelming.
MARK RILEY, TEACHER: No, I've heard stories, but it's nothing like coming out here yourself and experiencing and then seeing it for yourself.
SUAREZ: From high school to Sunday school, churches are also carrying the tradition of preserving black history. Dr. Tony Drayton is the pastor of the St. James Church of Riviera Beach, where he says black history has long been a part of his sermons and lessons for his young members.
Dr. TONY DRAYTON, ST. JAMES CHURCH OF RIVIERA BEACH: Five, 10-minute short stories that's on his or her level.
SUAREZ: Dr Drayton is also part of the nonprofit, Faith in Florida, a group that's created a black history toolkit. It's a resource featuring books, articles and documentaries to help anyone learn more about the history of African Americans.
Dr. DRAYTON: The toolkit can be a game changer in teaching our history.
SUAREZ: It's that truth that parents, teachers, lawmakers and activists demanded at a recent town hall near Miami where the frustration was palpable when the discussion turned to another part of the new education standard that states, quote, "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."
STEVE GALLON III, MIAMI-DADE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER: Slavery was one of the most horrific, brutal, divisive, destructive, evil experiences that this world has ever known.
SUAREZ: Manny Diaz, Florida's commissioner of education, accepted an invitation to attend but did not show up, saying he was welcoming students back to school.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Manny Diaz is a coward.
SUAREZ: Vice President Kamala Harris did come to Florida to speak out against the new standards, and she turned down an invitation from Governor DeSantis to have a debate about the new curriculum.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: There were no redeeming qualities to slavery.
SUAREZ: And so we reached out to the -- we reached out to the Department of Education for comment on some of the criticisms surrounding the new standards as well as the education commissioner's decision not to attend the hall. However, we did not hear back. As for the teachers that we spent the weekend with in central Florida, all of them said they do not plan to teach what they believe to be lies. Phil and Poppy?
MATTINGLY: All right, Carlos Suarez for us in Miami, thank you.
POPPY HARLOW: Yeah. So glad Carlos did that piece. Really important.
