Florida has come out with their new curriculum guidelines for African-American history and MSNBC’s Ana Cabrera invited Vanderbilt Prof. Michael Eric Dyson on to her Thursday show to talk about how they allegedly are comparable to teaching that there were good things about the Holocaust.
Before introducing Dyson, Cabrera cited the two most controversial aspects of the new standards, “the new standards say students should learn that enslaved people developed skills that, quote, ‘could be applied for their personal benefit.’ And that during lessons about mob violence against black residents, teachers should include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.’”
Cabrera then welcomed Dyson and asked for his reaction. Naturally, Dyson was not happy, “Well, Ana, thanks for having me. It's quite ludicrous, it's devastatingly deceitful, it's mendacious, and it doesn't recognize the central place of pedagogy and teaching and curriculum in trying to get at lessons for young people.”
He asked, “Why is the state trying to impose its hand on the teaching of history of African-American people for the state's students? This is something that should be generated with educators, experts at disseminating information.”
It was, but Dyson proceeded to get into the specifics:
This would be akin to saying that Native American people, when we teach their history, we should not only talk about the smallpox blankets that were distributed by the Pilgrims, but the attempt of Native Americans to defend themselves that was equally violent. This would be like teaching the Holocaust saying that there were some good things that Jewish brothers and sisters picked up in those death camps that should they survive would be helpful for them to make their way in life. This is ludicrous.
It would not be totally unreasonable to look at the part that related to skill acquisition and say that Florida is making it seem as if slavery had a redeeming quality, which would be a mistake on the state’s part, but a more charitable explanation would be that the state is pointing out that slaves performed various tasks, such as tailoring or blacksmithing in addition to manual agricultural labor, that were used after emancipation.
Still, Dyson rolled right along and proceeded to lament that Florida children might learn that Thomas Jefferson was a good guy in history:
Now they're saying we should teach both Rosa Parks and Thomas Jefferson. No problem there, except to say that Thomas Jefferson, while being a creative interpreter of American history and a contributor as a Founding Father was also enslaving human beings. Rosa Parks was not. So this false equivalency between experiences of African-American people and others being dictated to by the state of Florida is a grave disservice to true education in America, and those who were on the right-wing who supposedly want to keep government out of the classroom and the bedroom are doing the exact opposite.
In the state’s 216 pages of social studies guidelines, the word “Jefferson” appears only four times, but none of those are in the section on African-American history, only in the generic American history and civics sections. For whatever faults exist in Florida's new standards, MSNBC focused on two sentences in "benchmark clarifications." The larger takeaway is they do represent a balanced account of the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of history, which not only proves all of MSNBC's previous hysterics wrong, but raises the question whether they want only the bad and ugly parts.
This segment was sponsored by Sling.
Here is a transcript for the July 20 show:
MSNBC Ana Cabrera Reports
7/20/2023
10:37 AM ET
ANA CABRERA: Yet another flash point in Florida over race and education. The state board of education just approved new rules for how to teach black history in public schools and according to the Washington Post, the new standards say students should learn that enslaved people developed skills that, quote, “could be applied for their personal benefit.”
And that during lessons about mob violence against black residents, teachers should include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”
So, let's bring in Michael Eric Dyson, professor of African-American studies at Vanderbilt University, he's also the co-author of Unequal: A story of America. Michael, your reaction to these changes?
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Well, Ana, thanks for having me. It's quite ludicrous, it's devastatingly deceitful, it's mendacious, and it doesn't recognize the central place of pedagogy and teaching and curriculum in trying to get at lessons for young people.
Why is the state trying to impose its hand on the teaching of history of African-American people for the state's students? This is something that should be generated with educators, experts at disseminating information.
This would be akin to saying that Native American people, when we teach their history, we should not only talk about the smallpox blankets that were distributed by the Pilgrims, but the attempt of Native Americans to defend themselves that was equally violent. This would be like teaching the Holocaust saying that there were some good things that Jewish brothers and sisters picked up in those death camps that should they survive would be helpful for them to make their way in life. This is ludicrous.
This was an institution of enslavement. Now they're saying we should teach both Rosa Parks and Thomas Jefferson. No problem there, except to say that Thomas Jefferson, while being a creative interpreter of American history and a contributor as a Founding Father was also enslaving human beings. Rosa Parks was not. So this false equivalency between experiences of African-American people and others being dictated to by the state of Florida is a grave disservice to true education in America, and those who were on the right-wing who supposedly want to keep government out of the classroom and the bedroom are doing the exact opposite.
