"The talking point narrative around it, yeah, it sounds awful,” said Donalds, who, like almost every Republican in Florida's congressional delegation, has endorsed Trump over DeSantis in the primary. “To me, yes, that section needs some adjustments," he told southwest Florida's WINK News this week. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., one of the most powerful Black Republicans in the state, said he has a problem with the part of the curriculum that suggests enslaved people derived any benefit from their situation. Other Black conservatives have begun to speak out. Many of DeSantis' GOP presidential opponents have stayed silent, including Tim Scott, who is the Senate's sole Black Republican member. Harris, the nation's first Black vice president, traveled to Florida last week to condemn the curriculum. It is every little aspect, of not just slavery, but the Black experience in America.” DeSantis facing backlashĭeSantis is now facing criticism from Florida teachers, civil rights leaders and the Biden White House. “The standards that were developed, these are Black history scholars, many of whom were African American themselves, they worked on this. “We believe in true history,” DeSantis said in an interview Tuesday with conservative commentator Clay Travis. But DeSantis, a combative conservative who leads one of the nation's largest states, has embraced far-right positions on race perhaps more aggressively than anyone in the 2024 presidential contest as he tries to position himself to the right of Trump.įacing fierce backlash this week over the new curriculum, the 44-year-old governor was as defiant as ever. The divisive debate highlights the political and practical risks of DeSantis’ approach to racial issues as he seeks to catch Donald Trump in the crowded 2024 primary and the Republican Party works to strengthen its dismal standing with voters of color.Īmbitious Republican leaders have long seized on white grievance to animate the party's most passionate voters, who are almost exclusively white. His organization issued a travel advisory for Florida in May warning African Americans against DeSantis' “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.” “DeSantis has perfected the art of using policy violence that we must stop," said Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP. Civil rights leaders who have watched DeSantis closely dismiss such explanations. Specifically, Florida's teachers are now required to instruct middle-school students that enslaved people “developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”ĭeSantis has repeatedly defended the new language while insisting that his critics, who include Vice President Kamala Harris and at least one high-profile Republican congressman, are intentionally misinterpreting one line of the sweeping curriculum. Instead, African American leaders decry what they call a pattern of “policy violence” against people of color executed by the DeSantis administration that reached a low point after the recent release of an “anti-woke” public school curriculum on Black history. But four years later, as DeSantis eyes the presidency, their hope that the Republican would be an ally on racial justice has long faded. Civil rights activists cheered when Ron DeSantis pardoned four Black men wrongfully convicted of rape as one of his first actions as Florida's governor.
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