STOP THE LIE! Conservatives Like DeSantis Aren’t Erasing Black History

February 23rd, 2023 9:28 AM

If you only got your news from liberal hosts like Don Lemon, Joy Reid and Stephanie Ruhle you’d think Republicans, particularly Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were completely banning all mentions of Black history. 

Liberal journalists and some celebrities have spent the last month depicting conservatives (who are merely paring back leftist indoctrination to K-12 kids) as racist bigots whose pushback against the woke agenda in public schools will bring harm to Black Americans. 

MSNBC’s Jason Johnson disgustingly asserted Republicans are “perfectly happy with black people being murdered,” that it’s “just the cost of doing American business. So they don’t care about not teaching people about that [history.]”

Longtime NBC News veteran Andrea Mitchell actually claimed (falsely) that slavery was being written out of the Florida public school curriculum. 

Leftist hosts would have their audiences believe that Black American heroes such as Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks were being erased from Florida public school textbooks. 

Yet a quick search of the Florida Department of Education’s website (something any of these so-called journalists could have easily done, if they didn’t have an anti-DeSantis agenda) shows that even some of the more controversial leaders of the Black Power movement (Bobby Seale, Huey P. Newton and H. Rap Brown) are part of the curriculum.  

Here’s the actual language from the Social Studies / African American History section of the site, listed as Benchmark # SS.912.A.7.6, Description: “Assess key figures and organizations in shaping the Civil Rights Movement and Black Power Movement.”

Examples may include, but are not limited to, the NAACP, National Urban League, SNCC, CORE, James Farmer, Charles Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Rosa Parks, Constance Baker Motley, the Little Rock Nine, Roy Wilkins, Whitney M. Young, A. Philip Randolph, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert F. Williams, Fannie Lou Hamer, Malcolm X [El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz], Stokely Carmichael [Kwame Ture], H. Rap Brown [Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin], the Black Panther Party [e.g., Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale].

 

Here is a brief montage from NewsBusters Media Editor Bill D’Agostino: 

 

 

The following are some of the worst examples of leftists in the media attacking conservatives for their pushback against wokeness in public schools: 

 

DeSantis and Other Republicans “Perfectly Happy” with “Black People Being Murdered”

 

 

“There are lots of people that are perfectly happy with black people being murdered on a regular basis….They’re happy to see black people be killed….Or at bare minimum, I think the most charitable interpretation is, black people being killed, to them — to politicians like [Florida Governor] Ron DeSantis, politicians like [Attorney General Daniel] Cameron in Kentucky — black people being killed is just the cost of doing American business. So they don’t care about not teaching people about that….There are people that like America as the violent avatar that it is for Black bodies, and they want nothing to change that, and they definitely don’t want to start it in the classroom.”
— MSNBC political contributor Jason Johnson on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, February 1. 

 

Mitchell Spreads Lie About DeSantis and Slavery 

 

 

“Let me ask you, what does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about black history and the black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?”
— Host Andrea Mitchell to Vice President Kamala Harris on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, February 17. DeSantis has said himself that Florida law requires slavery and its aftermath to be taught. Mitchell offered a half-hearted correction on her Feb. 22 show.

 

“Mean” Ron DeSantis Appealing to “MAGA Faithful” by “Attacking Black People”

 

 

“He’s [Ron DeSantis] right now polling just behind Donald Trump in the latest Quinnipiac poll. So, there’s a hunger for him, he’s a certain kind of mean that they like. They like the fact that he’s going after black history and you know attacking black people is sort of the easiest way to sort of get on first base with the MAGA faithful, which we knew Donald Trump did as well. What do you make of the fact that he seems to be putting the whole weight of his appeal on attacking black people and brown immigrants and gay people and trans people?”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, February 16. 

 

Ron DeSantis to Blame for Racist Kids Video

 

 

Correspondent Jean Casarez: “In the video, a girl is seen spray painting the face of another girl black, throwing around racist insults, all while several girls are watching.”...
Host Don Lemon: “I hope Ron DeSantis is watching and paying attention.” 
— During a segment about Philadelphia high school girls who participated in a racist video as aired on CNN This Morning, February 9. 

 

“Book Banning” Republicans Are “Erasing History” 

 

 

“Florida is becoming ground zero for the culture wars. Republicans are waging and a sign of what we might expect at the national party, erasing history, banning books anti-gay bills, gas stoves, and you cannot possibly make this up, tracking menstrual cycles of student athletes.”
— Host Stephanie Ruhle on MSNBC’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, February 3. 

 

Please Tell the World How “Racist” America Is

 

 

“Zooming out on the Tyre Nichols funeral today, people both inside the United States and outside are looking at this killing and asking, ‘Is the United States a racist society?’” 
— Voice of America reporter Anita Powell to White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre at February 1 White House press briefing. 

 

Police Brutality as “American as Apple Pie” 

 

 

“If you have a heart, what happened to the 29-year-old father [Tyre Nichols], skateboarder, FedEx driver and amateur photographer should outrage you. It should shock and disgust you. As should the so-called brothers who chose to behave like a little blue gang rather than as black men. But it damn sure shouldn’t surprise you. What happened to Tyre Nichols was as American as apple pie.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, January 30. 

 

Florida Has Gone From “Don’t Say Gay to Don’t Say Black,” Will Be “Illegal to Teach Slavery”

 

 

“[Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis has blocked a new AP course on African American history from being taught in Florida schools, saying that it violates state laws and is, quote, ‘historically inaccurate.’ Under DeSantis, Florida has gone from ‘Don’t say gay’ to ‘Don’t say black.”
— Host Mehdi Hasan on MSNBC’s The Mehdi Hasan Show, January 29.

 

 

Host Don Lemon: “Now, it’s going to be illegal to teach slavery in schools. It seems really odd.”
Host Audie Cornish: “I mean, where’s he [Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] going to draw the line?”
CNN This Morning, January 24. 

 

“Orwellian” DeSantis Policy Will “Disenfranchise People” and Undermine “Cultural Progress” 

 

 

“What he’s [Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] done is this kind of Orwellian plot to censor what is being taught in the classrooms….Kids can’t read books in classrooms because teachers are so scared they could get slapped with a felony….This is the way we re-indoctrinate people to sort of a white Christian nationalist agenda, which is very much at the heart of the Republican, sort of, platform….DeSantis has been insanely effective in….creating a climate of fear, and ultimately undermining a lot of the social and cultural progress that this country has seen.” 
— MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight host Alex Wagner on NBC Late Night with Seth Meyers, January 27.

 

“Barring” Leftist Course = “Cultural Genocide” 

 

 

“Between 1869 and the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in boarding schools operated by the federal government. The children were punished for speaking their native languages. Their names were changed and their hair cut off. They were forced to study only English and convert to Christianity. This brutal campaign was a form of cultural genocide, to further erase the indigenous population and though this is an extreme example, America’s practice of forced assimilation continues today. Like in Florida where [Governor] Ron DeSantis is barring education about race, gender, sexual orientation, or any part of history that might make white Christians feel bad.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, January 24. 

 

Reagan Used MLK Holiday to “Advance” His “Anti-Black Crusade” 

 

 

“It was President Reagan who popularized the tactic of co-opting Dr. King’s philosophy of a color-blind society to advance his assault on racial progress….Even quoting King while attacking affirmative action, as he weakened the enforcement of civil rights laws…It was Reagan who signed the King holiday bill into law back in 1983….The law came with advantages, not for the country or for people of color but for Reagan. By pacifying his critics….to advance the anti-black crusade he had waged since the 1960s, now under the alluring mantle of color blindness.”
— Host Joy Reid on MSNBC’s The ReidOut, January 16.

 

“Fascist” DeSantis Going to “Ban the Alphabet”

 

 

Co-host Ana Navarro: “I live in Florida. I live under Governor Ron Disaster!...Every day I wonder what he’s going to be? What’s the flavor du jour today? What’s he going to be against today? He’s against A.P. He’s against DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. He’s against ESG this week. He’s against electric stoves. He’s against LGBTQ. I think he’s going to ban the alphabet. Holy hell!”...
Co-host Joy Behar: “These people, these fascists out there like DeSantis, they think that we’re just going to sit back and let them do whatever they want. No, we’re not. We’ve seen this movie before….Those of us who lived in the 60s and 70s, we saw this movie. There were many many fascists coming down the pike from [Richard] Nixon and the rest of the fascists, that’s what they are.”
— ABC’s The View, February 16.

 

“Anti-Black” DeSantis Appealing to His “Racist” Constituents

 

 

Co-host Joy Behar: “Do you think he’s [Florida Governor Ron DeSantis] racist?”
Revolt TV and former WABC radio host Eboni K. Williams: “I think he’s anti-black. And I really like to say that precisely, because Sunny [Hostin] made a brilliant point. He talks about the importance of Spanish culture of Chinese culture. So, there’s a global inclusion that works overtime to eliminate and erase blackness specifically. And we have to identify that.”
Behar: “That’s basically to say to his constituents, who are racist, ‘Look what I’m doing.’”
Hostin: “Yeah. ‘I’m a leader in this area.’”
— ABC’s The View, February 1.

 

Fact-Check False: Florida Making It Illegal to “Learn About Enslaved People” 

 

 

“Even what is going on in Florida, you don’t even want us to learn our history. Like, there was a time when enslaved people couldn’t learn and now it is illegal for us to learn about enslaved people.”
The Daily Show substitute-host/comedian D.L. Hughley on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, January 30.

 

Conservatives Who Oppose Wokeness Are Just “Pieces of Shit”

 

 

“What I know ‘woke’ to mean is, like, learning new things about people or the world, and then acting accordingly like, basic kindness. Maybe a gesture of care to people who are more vulnerable than you. You know what, you wouldn’t like it, it’s Jesus stuff, but they’re like, ‘Yeah, but I don’t like when they push it on me.’ Nobody’s pushing shit on you. You’re acting like a beta cuck. Like, woke for the right is really just an umbrella term so they don’t have to say specifically that they’re pieces of shit. It feels cooler to say, ‘I’m not woke,’ than the truth, which is, ‘I’m terrified of what I don’t understand and I only know how to process that as anger because I can’t look inward.’”
— Comedian/actress Sarah Silverman substitute-hosting on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, February 15. 

 

Comparing GOP Candidates to a Venereal Disease

 

 

“A new Wall Street Journal poll says that, in a hypothetical GOP primary matchup, DeSantis beats the former president 52 percent to 38 percent. Yay? Also maybe boo? It’s hard to know who to root for here. It’s like a poll between gonorrhea and a slightly more racist gonorrhea….Apologies to gonorrhea.”
— Host Stephen Colbert on CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, December 14.