DeSantis whitewashes slavery as Biden honors Emmett Till. Spot the difference?

Here’s a quick look at one of the differences between America’s two political parties: GOP presidential primary candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spent the weekend, right here in the year 2023, arguing that slaves benefited from valuable job training. Democratic President Joe Biden spent the weekend preparing to approve a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose murder in 1955 sparked the civil rights movement.

See the disparity? I know it’s subtle, one side trying to whitewash history and the other trying to make sure it’s always remembered.

Let’s start with the Democrats. On Tuesday, Biden is expected to announce the establishment of a national monument to Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was kidnapped, tortured and killed by white men in Mississippi after he allegedly whistled at a white woman.

Till’s open-casket funeral, which his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on, showed the world the horrors of white supremacist violence against Black people in America and fueled the nascent civil rights movement. Tuesday is the anniversary of Till’s birth.

A ‘living testimony’ to honor Emmett Till, whose murder sparked the civil rights movement

The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument will be in three locations: the Chicago church that held Till’s funeral; the Mississippi courthouse where an all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers; and the spot where Till’s body was pulled out of the Tallahatchie River.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, told The Washington Post: “This new national monument is the physical evidence and a living testimony to the legacy of one family whose unimaginable tragedy led our nation one step closer to the arc of justice. We encourage the world to learn from this history, reckon with what caused harm and continue the work to prevent the same trauma from ever happening again.”

Are we really ‘both-sidesing’ slavery in the year 2023?

Meanwhile, in Florida, where learning from history lately seems to involve a lot of Republicans sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting “NEENER NEENER NEENER,” DeSantis’ education department released a new curriculum saying middle schoolers will now learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Is ‘Barbie’ anti-man?I won’t see the movie, but I will definitely yell about it!

Suggesting slavery provided beneficial skills is like saying a stabbing victim was fortunate to learn a few things about knives. But rather than embrace the always-accurate rule that “slavery = bad,” Florida’s governor, the man presently polling in second place in the GOP presidential primary, decided to lean into the whitewashing.

Asked about the standards Friday, DeSantis said: “They’re probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”

Defending slavery is generally not an excellent campaign strategy

That prompted headlines – and again, I feel it necessary to restate that the current year is 2023 – like these:

“DeSantis doubles down on claim that some Blacks benefited from slavery.”

“Ron DeSantis Accused of Being ‘Pro-Slavery’ Due to New Florida Curriculum.”

“Teachers union, DeSantis disagree on whether slavery had any benefits.”

Super!

Look, no one is arguing that slavery had benefits, but …

Fox News host Jesse Watters came to DeSantis’ defense, saying: “No one is arguing slaves benefited from slavery. No one is saying that. It’s not true.”

In the same breath, and somehow without his head rolling off his shoulders and toward the nearest sewer drain, Watters continued: “They are teaching how Black people develop skills during slavery in some instances that can be applied for their own personal benefit.”

So nobody’s arguing slaves benefited from slavery, but they are arguing that slaves benefited from slavery. It makes perfect sense as long as you ignore all the words and what they mean.

DeSantis’ education department releases a less-than-smart statement

To further defend this “both-sidesing” slavery, DeSantis’ education department released a statement late last week highlighting 16 examples of “some slaves” who “developed highly specialized trades from which they benefitted.”

But as the Tampa Bay Times and others noted, “Nearly half the figures highlighted by the state were never enslaved” and several of those who were “did not gain their skills from their servitude.”

Accountability. Imagine that:Republicans (apparently) agree Trump should be prosecuted and held accountable

A Texas A&M doctoral student pointed out on Twitter that one of the names on the state’s list – Betty Washington Lewis, identified as a shoemaker – appears to be “the free white sister of George Washington, the first President of the United States.”