Category: Bigotry
This INSANE PragerU Propaganda Will be Taught to Kids in Florida Schools
RFK Super PAC Largely Funded By GOP Megadonor
Well we knew that. The republicans recruited him to run as a chaos agent to suck votes from Biden. Republicans know their candidates and the ideas they push are unpopular with the people. So they only way they can stay in power is to cheat, suppress votes of the democrats, and gerrymander to create districts that only republicans can win. Rather than change the party to appeal to more people they simply demand no one gets to vote unless they vote for them, so they can rule as a minority over the majority. The problem for the right is RFK is talking more like a republican than a democrat. What republicans are doing should be illegal. Hugs
Politico reports:
A super PAC supporting the presidential ambitions of longshot Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reported receiving more than half its nearly $10 million in funds from a single GOP donor.
Of the $9.8 million reported, $5 million came from Timothy Mellon, a longtime GOP donor who gave $1.5 million to a Trump-aligned group last fall, according to campaign finance records. In a press release earlier Monday, Mellon touted Kennedy’s bipartisan credentials, calling him “the one Democrat who can win in the general election.”
Most of the rest of the super PAC’s fundraising through the end of June came from Gavin De Becker, an author and consultant who reported giving the group $4.5 million.
The Insider reports:
Mellon also contributed $53 million to an effort led by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas to build a wall on the US-Mexico border, effectively funding the entire venture himself.
The grandson of famous banking magnate Andrew Mellon and an heir to the family fortune, Mellon once wrote in a self-published autobiography that welfare programs are “slavery redux” and described Black people as becoming “even more belligerent and unwilling to pitch in to improve their own situations” in the 1980s.
Yep. He’s the new Tulsi Gabbard. In 18 months he’ll have his own show on Newsmax
Killing more Republican viewers with his anti-vax message. That’s one way to insure the quick extinction of the doomed evolutionary offshoot: MAGAman
how shocking.
Senior DeSantis Aides Were Thrilled With Nazi Video
The candidate hires Nazi thugs. The Governor hires Nazi fascist thugs. Nazis and gang thug militia groups that try to force by violence their demand that others live as the right Nazi fascists tell them they must. So what does that mean. It means the governor and his supporters are Christian nationalist fascists. And think what that means as they work to gain control over the US government. Hugs
Semafor reports:
Senior aides to Ron DeSantis oversaw the campaign’s high-risk strategy of laundering incendiary videos produced by their staff through allied anonymous Twitter accounts, a set of internal campaign communications obtained by Semafor reveals. The videos include two that have created recurring distractions for his campaign in recent weeks: an anti-Trump video that featured a fascist symbol, and another that attacked Donald Trump for past comments supportive of LGBT rights.
The meme-filled videos emerged from a Signal channel called “War Room Creative Ideas,” screenshots of which were shared with Semafor and whose authenticity was confirmed by a second source familiar with the campaign. The chat in Signal, an encrypted messaging app, offers the first clear look into the “war room” that has defined the Florida governor’s candidacy, and is presided over by his high-profile and confrontational director of rapid response, Christina Pushaw.
Read the full article.
The creator of the Nazi clip, Nate Hochman was fired. Hochman last year appeared in a Twitter Spaces event with Nazi Nick Fuentes, during which he gushed over Fuentes.
Unsurprising.
How it started:
Where it went:
Where it is now:
Houston school district to turn libraries into disciplinary centers
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jul/29/houston-school-district-libraries-book
Critics condemn superintendent Mike Miles’s ‘new education system’ that removes students’ access to books
The state is to take over the district next year due to poor academic performance. Photograph: Francois Picard/AFP/Getty Images
The largest school district in Texas announced its libraries will be eliminated and replaced with discipline centers in the new school year.
Houston independent school district announced earlier this summer that librarian and media-specialist positions in 28 schools will be eliminated as part of superintendent Mike Miles’s “new education system” initiative.
Teachers at these schools will soon have the option to send misbehaving students to these discipline centers, or “team centers’” – designated areas where they will continue to learn remotely.
News of the library removals comes after the state announced it would be taking over the district, effective in the 2023-24 school year, due to poor academic performance. Miles was appointed by the the Texas Education Agency in June.
In a press release announcing the schools participating in the “new education system” program, Miles said: “I am overwhelmingly proud that this many HISD school leaders are ready to take bold action to improve outcomes for all students and eradicate the persistent achievement and opportunity gaps in our district.”
Lisa Robinson, a librarian retired from the school district, told local news outlet KPRC2 that her “heart is just broken for these children that are in the [NES] schools that are losing their librarians”.
Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, condemned the district’s move and said the solution to the problem of behavioral conduct was not to revoke access to books, especially in these underserved communities.
He said: “Are there students who need additional support? Yes, and I am 100% supportive of that. But it’s not an eithe/or. You don’t close the libraries, remove the librarians, and simply have the books on the shelf. What about all the other students? What are you saying to them?”
He added: “With all due respect to the superintendent, I grew up in this city. I still live in the same neighborhood that exists. I am the mayor of this city, and I am the mayor of every person who lives in the city of Houston.”
He urged schools to open up libraries to avoid creating a two-tier system within the district, as well as providing additional support to students who need it.
The Houston independent school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Discipline centers sounds a lot like internment camps…just saying. Texas.
There will be a triage. Minority kids get whipped. Lbgt kids will be assigned a.minister or a youth pastor. white kids will get pistol training.
MrRobotoLA Joe in NM5 days ago
This is the school to prison pipeline. They’re teaching the undesirable kids, ie black and brown inner city teens, that the only future in front of them is a prison sentence.
Beat me to it.
I’ve been saying we’re reliving the 1930’s and it’s no coincidence Republicans don’t want history taught.
These motherfuckers aren’t even trying to hide their education-hating bastardy anymore.
I used to practically LIVE in my school’s libraries. They were my sanctuary and my escape.
And now they want to turn them into little day prisons inside their bigger day prisons for children being prepped only for lives of manual labor and poverty.
Same. My neighbourhood library just a few blocks away was my sanctuary. I knew all the librarians and they knew me. I grew up there. I knew all of their names and they knew to leave me alone to find what I was searching for. Art, history, and even sex books as I got older. They were better for me than catholic school or even my parents. Best of all was that none of the other neighbourhood kids or my family, other than my mom, ever went there. She was the person who taught me to love reading and research.
2patricius2 jugomono4 days ago
I used to love to walk to the public library when I was in grade school. I loved books about space and about science fiction. I would check out and read as many books as I could on a regular basis. The school library didn’t have as many books. But I liked the libraries in high school and college, and in graduate school as well. One summer when I was in graduate school for an MSW, I drove to the Institute for Sex Research to do a week of independent study of transvestism, and what was then called transsexualism. While there I met Alan Bell, and we discussed some of the latest theories on the origins of homosexuality.
Same. In junior high (aka “middle school”) this weird latent queer kid hung out there, by myself at lunch, every day…
This is terrible for all kids but especially those from low income families. It’s not just about access to books, but also to the internet, computers and other media and technology that many couldn’t afford otherwise. Books are great but only one part of what modern libraries do. And lack of access makes it impossible for them to get themselves to the kind of opportunities their talents might take them.
I’m betting that if Houston actually gets to do this the
discipline centers will be 99% Latino, black, gay, poor and ESL students. Right after this Texas will try to legalize slavery, again. Florida will be riding Texas’s coat tails and then the rest of the shit-hole states.
The next step is to shutdown the schools and turn them into jails.
Gregory In Seattle freehit5 days ago
The school to jail pipeline has existed for many years, all this is doing is shortening the pipe.
C’mon, Texas. Why not just send your misbehaving students directly to jail? You know you want to.
This initiative to prevent students from learning the truth about the Civil War is really getting out of hand.
They are going to learn remotely? I recall the MAGA cult hyperventilating over remote learning when it was the emergency option to use in a life threatening pandemic. They said it was an infringement on their freedoms. But now it’s okay to do remote learning when the students being harmed are kids they don’t like.
They know that. And they have no intention 😞 f teaching “those kids” anything.
Florida’s conservative PragerU teaching texts labeled ‘indoctrination’
Again none of what DeathSantis and the right is doing has nothing to do with protecting children from something that confuses them, sexualizes them, or makes them something they are not. This is about removing any representation from society of something Christian fundamentalist conservative dislike. This is about denying that LGBTQ+ people / kids exist. The goal is to indoctrinate kids into a 1950s social mindset in an attempt to lock them into a right wing republican way of thinking, of seeing the world. All because they can not accept nor adjust to the current society. They don’t want to allow others to live openly as who they really are with equality to themselves. They want a society where whites were automatically privileged and Christianity was forced on kids and prevalent in society. It is about forcing how they live on everyone. Republicans understand they are a minority party whose members are dwindling and dying out. Most conservatives are older white people. Instead of changing the party to appeal to more people, the party wants to force kids to be indoctrinated in to their views with no other representation. The republican leaders want to create their voters rather than appeal to those voters. Some religions are against higher education because their kids are exposed to different ways of thinking as adults than was forced on them as kids. That is why Christians had to create their own colleges and universities. Same with republicans and higher educations. Older teens would move away from restrictive conservative homes / communities to the wider more progressive view of looking at the world and they would often change their way of thinking before. Conservative religious republicans can not tolerate that and so again have to indoctrinate students at all levels. Florida is the first state that the experiment is being pushed, despite the majority of the public against it. Hugs
A quote from the article. “We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,” Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU as a whole. He reiterated that sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is “fair” to say PragerU indoctrinates children. “It’s true we bring doctrines to children,” Prager told the group. “But what is the bad of our indoctrination?”
Critics of the material approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis say it aims to influence young minds. Its founder says that’s true.
By
- Ana CeballosTimes/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Published July 31|Updated Yesterday
TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly says he opposes indoctrination in schools. Yet his administration in early July approved materials from a conservative group that says it’s all about indoctrination and “changing minds.”
The Florida Department of Education determined that educational materials geared toward young children and high school studentscreated by PragerU, a nonprofit co-founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, was in alignment with the state’s standards on how to teach civics and government to K-12 students.
The content — some of which is narrated by conservative personalities such as Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson — features cartoons, five-minute video history lessons and story-time shows for young children and is part of a brand called PragerU Kids. And the lessons share a common message: Being pro-American means aligning oneself to mainstream conservative talking points.
“We are in the mind-changing business and few groups can say that,” Prager says in a promotional video for PragerU as a whole. He reiterated that sentiment this summer at a conference for the conservative group Moms for Liberty in Philadelphia, saying it is “fair” to say PragerU indoctrinates children.
“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,” Prager told the group. “But what is the bad of our indoctrination?”
The governor’s office and the Florida Department of Education declined to say how PragerU’s mission and statements align with state law and DeSantis’ vow to ensure Florida classroom instruction does not indoctrinate or persuade students to accept a specific viewpoint.
PragerU is not an accredited university, and it publicly says the group is a “force of good” against the left. It’s a nonprofit organization based in Los Angeles that produces videos that touch on a range of themes, including climate policies (specifically how “energy poverty, not climate change” is the real crisis), the flaws of Canada’s government-run health care system (and how the American privatized system is better), and broad support for law enforcement (and rejection of Black Lives Matter). In some cases, the videos tell kids that their teachers are “misinformed” or “lying.”
Some videos talk about the history of race relations and slavery. In one video, two kids travel back in time to meet Christopher Columbus, who tells them that he should not be judged for enslaving people because the practice was “no big deal” in his time. Columbus argued to the kids that he did not see a problem with it because “being taken as a slave is better than being killed.”
In another video titled “A Short History of Slavery” and narrated by Owens, she says that the first thing kids need to know is that “slavery was not invented by white people” and that it also took place in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. She also says “white people were the first to put an end to slavery” when it was abolished by Britain in 1834.
“After centuries of human slavery, white men led the world in putting an end to the abhorrent practice. That includes the 300,000 Union soldiers, overwhelmingly white, who died during the Civil War,” Owens says, while adding that “no one, regardless of skin color, stands guiltless,” noting that white slaves have also existed.
In a statement, Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said the state agency “reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.”
“PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion,” Palelis said. She added that PragerU Kids did not submit a bid to be included in 2022-23 instructional material list, but did not answer when asked if it had submitted a bid for the 2023-24 school year.
Florida approves PragerU content for use in schools
That type of content can now be used in Florida classrooms at the discretion of schools. The option is becoming available as the DeSantis administration and Republican lawmakers add other right-leaning educational choices to students, including a Classic Learning Test, revised K-12 standards and an overhaul of college-level course offerings.
Adrienne McCarthy, a Kansas State University researcher who co-authored a case study on PragerU after viewing hundreds of its videos, said in an interview that the content has a “very strong agenda.”
“The videos have this very strong us-versus-them dichotomy, and it’s usually the evil, immoral leftists versus the moral Judeo-Christian right,” McCarthy said. “They are attacking culture and trying to change rhetoric.”
With colorful animation, catchy melodies and adventurous child protagonists, the content is seemingly harmless and friendly, she says. But she argued the content could potentially serve as a “gateway for right extremism.”
“If we’re teaching ideologies that overlap with far-right groups, and that becomes normalized, then it’s easier for those far-right groups to become more brave and grow,” McCarthy said.
Melissa Streit, the chief executive officer of PragerU, said in an interview that the group’s content is meant to “create an even playing field” in schools — and that the only ones accusing them of indoctrinating students with a right-wing ideology are “probably the teachers unions,” which she said don’t want to lose control of the system.
Teachers unions have criticized the organization. In a video posted on TikTok, Florida Education Association president Andrew Spar said the group has a “political agenda” as it goes over some of its content.
“We believe in teaching an honest history, a complete history. We believe in teaching the truth,” Spar says in the video. “Teachers are not pushing an agenda, they are pushing to educate children. This (PragerU) is pushing an agenda. You don’t have to take my word for it, check it out for yourselves. This is part of the agenda of Ron DeSantis.”
Streit defended the group’s content and messaging in a phone interview.
“To label PragerU as right wing, one should also label at the same time virtually 80% of what’s in American schools right now as extreme left wing,” Streit said. “The ideology that we promote is a pro-American ideology, the ideology of which America was essentially built upon that has created this nation. But we are not a political enterprise, we are a pro-American enterprise.”
Conservative activism in education
Streit said PragerU Kids was launched two years ago. Around the same time, groups like Moms for Liberty stepped into the mainstream political world, and school board meetings across the country became engulfed by partisan culture wars as parents and activists debated pandemic restrictions, race and gender issues.
“We launched because we realized that there are many parents who want their kids to learn more than what they’re learning in schools,” Streit said. “We are very, very big believers in education choice, and we believe that parents should be involved and have the right to really make sure that their kids are learning what it is that they believe that they should learn.”
In Florida, the state approved the content to be used as a supplemental material in classroom instruction. It does not mean that PragerU will be writing the curriculum at a school, but that if a school approved the use of the material, a teacher could use it as an aid to teach a class.
The materials could be used starting in the upcoming school year, but some districts — including Broward, Miami-Dade, Pasco and Pinellas — say that curriculum guides remain under development and that no decisions have been made to accommodate PragerU content.
They said they have no plans to review the materials for inclusion, unless PragerU submits a bid to be considered.
Streit said the group believes in transparency and that anything that would be made available to classrooms would be made available online for parents to see.
The group’s website, prageru.com, includes links to dozens of video clips, its mission and information for those who want to learn and donate to their cause.
It also includes a list of its presenters, which include conservative activist and Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk; David Rubin, a conservative commentator and political supporter of DeSantis; and Will Witt, a longtime influencer for PragerU and the editor-in-chief of the conservative media outlet The Florida Standard, which DeSantis and his office turn to frequently to amplify their message.
The website does not include information on who is creating the content or its reference sources.
When asked for more information on the content creators, Streit said there “are a lot of people involved” with different expertise, but that the group does not intend to disclose their names or credentials on their website because “we live in a world where people attack people who they disagree with.”
How PragerU came to Florida
Streit has found supporters in Florida. She said talks of bringing PragerU Kids to Florida — the first state in the nation to approve its content — began over the summer with Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and K-12 Chancellor Paul Burns.
“The state did not approach us,” Streit said. “I would say that we got to know each other through mutual friends and we started talking about how we can be helpful. It is not that they came and applied for us to do something.”
Before the initiative was launched in Florida, Streit said she also crossed paths with Florida’s first lady, Casey DeSantis. Streit did not specify when or where, but she said that is how she learned that the DeSantis family showed PragerU videos to their young kids.
“So I imagine that if he thinks it’s good enough for his own children, why wouldn’t it be good enough for other Floridians?” Streit said.
DeSantis’ office did not respond when asked if this was true.
Times staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek contributed to this report.
https://www.mediamatters.org/media/4009031/embed/embed
SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad5 days ago
The REASON you have to indoctrinate children is because if you waited till high school or college to educate persons about religion, there would almost no religious people.
Seriously, a college class explaining (for the first time) to a student that the world was created in 6 days and woman from Adam’s rib, the ark, crucifixion, etc. The teacher would struggle to be heard over the laughter.
PhillyProfessor SkokieDaddy – wiener dog dad5 days ago
High school students are a MAJOR, MAJOR target. Young Life Ministries has it down to a science. They start by recruiting the cool kids, the jocks from the football and basketball teams especially. They then use the jocks to recruit the average kids that are dying to fit in. And then they gently pressure the kids to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Often with a version of Liar, Lunatic or Lord. ( conveniently leaving out the option of Legend). They got me and my sister. I got out. Not my sister.
For many years I drove by a Christian elementary school and never gave it a thought.
Of late though I get angry.
It’s a place intended to groom children.
Wonderdogabides Ross5 days ago
And that is how Fox News viewers, Trumpers, & QAnon’s are being groomed to react to gays, trans, and drag queens.
“But what is the bad about our indoctrination?”
How much time you got?
No one is born christian. They have to be indoctrinated into it.
Philly Mike 🐸 The_Wretched5 days ago
It isn’t enough for them to have a bible school every 3 miles but now they want to spew their blather in public schools.
PragerU has the same credentials and credibility as tRumpU.
I think it has no accreditations of any sort, except “Endorsed by Jesus.”
So they ARE okay with kids being “groomed” as long as it’s right wing hate.
Oh thank you for admitting it’s indoctrination. Makes the inevitable lawsuits easier when you come out and say you’re trying to use schools to indoctrinate kids
Yeah, this is clearly a violation of separation of church and state. Especially profiting off of taxpayers dollars. If only there was a SCOTUS that would enforce that..
The_Wretched jimbo655 days ago
Goresuch struck the establishment clause from the Constitution in bremmerton last year.
Gregory In Seattle The_Wretched5 days ago edited
Specifically, Kennedy v. Bremerton School District. “Held: The Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses of the First Amendment protect an individual engaging in a personal religious observance from government reprisal; the Constitution neither mandates nor permits the government to suppress such religious expression.”
https://www.supremecourt.go…
That is to say, while a school district cannot push religion, a teacher or group of teachers or teachers and administrators can as long as they at least make it seem like they are acting under their own authority and not under government order.
thatotherjean5 days ago edited
Oh, please. Mr. Prager, there is nothing good about indoctrination, and–so far as I can find out–nothing good about anything with which you associate.
PRW Professor Barnhardt4 days ago
Christopher Columbus, who tells them that he should not be judged for
enslaving people because the practice was “no big deal” in his time.
Uh … the Spanish Inquisition got up in his business for overdoing it; it was indeed a ‘big deal’ in his own time.
If you want to know what right wingers are actually doing, look at their accusations against liberals. That is what they are doing.
They have to try much harder now. Recent polls show more than half of Americans don’t belong to a religion. Soon they will be a clear minority.
‘Til Tuesday 🎧 Blue Bear DJ 🎸 NotMiguel5 days ago
Unfortunately if they have people in the right positions of political power, it doesn’t matter how few in number they are – they still can wield incredible power over the lives of others.
““But what is the bad about our indoctrination?””
It’s encouraging hate and violence against lgbt people, women, and minorities.
GROOMING!
DeSantis appointee to Disney board taught seminar using discredited research claiming White people were slaves in America
Yes because anything to defend white people holding black people as property and what the white people did to them. Don’t mention the bad thing, the rapes, humiliations, the being told what, when, where you were allowed to do anything including pee (sounds like how Amazon treats workers only without them being able to say no or go home) how and when they could eat, basically a white person had complete control over those black people and their bodies. Let’s obscure and fudge that anyway possible, even making up that white Irish people were also chattel slaves. That is a complete lie. But the people that wanted to push it built a whole mythology around the idea. Just like the anti-trans people have done with every mythical idea they can to try to discredit the idea of a person identifying as the gender not assigned at birth by a visual inspection of the genitals. What is it with these type people that they cannot simply accept the truth, the history, the science? Why is it so damn important for the to deny all of the science and history to protect their feelings or their views of the world? Hugs
DeSantis appointee to Disney board taught seminar using discredited research claiming White people were slaves in America
By Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck and Steve Contorno, CNN
Published 7:00 AM EDT, Fri August 4, 2023
Ron Peri, a member of the Board of Supervisors for the Reedy Creek Improvement District, listens during a monthly meeting on June 21, 2023 in Reedy Creek, Florida.
An appointee by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to an oversight board of Disney’s special tax district taught a seminar in 2021 falsely claiming “Whites were also slaves in America,” using discredited research to say there was an “Irish slave trade.”
The comments were made by Ron Peri, one of five people DeSantis appointed earlier this year to oversee the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace the old board after the company spoke out against what critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law in Florida.
Peri, an Orlando-based pastor and CEO of a Christian ministry group called The Gathering, made the comments in an hourlong class for his group posted on YouTube about critical race theory called “Cunningly Devised Fables.”
In other comments Peri spread false claims that Irish slaves were forcibly bred with enslaved Africans. He also said a “significant” number of free Blacks in the antebellum era owned slaves, claims disputed by reputable historians who say the number was minimal. CNN archived Peri’s comments from 2021, which he deleted from YouTube following his appointment to the Disney oversight board.
The oversight board, previously called the Reedy Creek Improvement District, governed Disney’s sprawling 25,000 acre footprint around Orlando. Created in 1967, its duties include providing services like sewage, fire rescue and road maintenance and issuing debt for infrastructure projects supporting Disney’s theme park empire.
“Slavery is a moral wrong wherever it exists or existed and is one of America’s great historical wrongs,” Peri told CNN in a statement Tuesday. “Similarly, racism is likewise wrong. I countenance neither to any degree, so the criticism of the belief that thousands of people being held in slavery was significant and a terrible wrong is severely misplaced. Even one person in slavery is egregious and morally reprehensible, regardless of race.”
The DeSantis administration but did not respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Peri’s 2021 comments came in the context of him pushing back on claims of “systemic racism” in the United States from past White ownership of slaves.
“Look at old newspapers, as old as you can find, and you’ll find that Whites were also slaves in America,” said Peri. “The Irish slave trade began when James II sold 30,000 Irish prisoners as slaves to the new world. His proclamation of 1625, which you can go back and see, required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.”
“By the mid 1600s, the Irish were the main slaves sold to Antigua and Montserrat,” Peri added. “From 1641 to 1652, over 500,000 Irish were killed by the English, and another 300,000 were sold as slaves.”
“The settlers began to breed Irish women and girls with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion,” Peri added.
Peri’s claims are based on fabricated material that has circled the Internet over the last two decades and has been the subject of repeated debunkings from news organizations like the New York Times, Reuters, the Associated Press, Snopes, and frustrated historians – many of whom signed an open letter in 2016 disputing the claims.
Even the article Peri cited as evidence was updated before he used it in the seminar to note it contained a number of factual errors.
Historians who spoke to CNN said that the research Peri cited is ahistorical and based on invented research: Whites were never considered slaves in America, legally or socially; 300,000 Irish were not sent as slaves to the Americas; English King James II – who Peri cited as issuing the proclamation in 1625 – was not born until 1633 and did not take the throne until 1685. Even then, no proclamations by King James II on Irish slaves exist. The Irish did not “breed” with African slaves, as Peri claimed.
Irish immigrants in North America and the Caribbean were never considered slaves but were indentured servants, said Matthew Reilly, a professor of anthropology at City College of New York.
Indentured servitude consisted of a fixed period of time, usually five to seven years, and was not inheritable. Whereas the race-based chattel form of slavery kept enslaved people as property for life and children would inherit their mother’s status.
“The conditions may have been like that of slavery, but socio-legally, it was a very different form of unfreedom,” said Reilly.
In another comment, Peri used data attributed to the 1830 census to say the numbers showed a “significant” and “large number” of free Blacks owned slaves. However, the 1830 census data cited by scholars show that out of 2,009,043 slaves in the United States, 3,776 free Blacks owned 12,907 slaves – 0.006%.
“The justification that they have for it is they claim that systemic racism emanates from White ownership of slaves,” Peri said. “Therefore, all White wealth is based on the hard work and abuse of Black slaves and women. That’s their justification. Well, the reality is all races owned slaves.”
“A significant number of these free Blacks were the owners of slaves,” Peri added.
Historians, like esteemed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., have noted that a large number of those Black slave owners “owned” their own family members to protect them – oftentimes by purchasing a family member. And that pointing to other races owning slaves is a way to minimize the brutal realities of slavery.
“The vast majority, the overwhelming majority – to the tune of millions of people who were brought from West and West Central Africa to the Americas – they were enslaved. Not people who were perpetrating slavery themselves,” Jenny Shaw, a professor of history at the University of Alabama, told CNN. “There’s a small number who did because they rose up in society and did what society was doing, which was enslaving people.” And that some people of African descent enslaved people because they were family members bringing them into their households with the intent of freeing them.
Peri’s unearthed comments come amidst the controversy over the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching Black history.
Disney and DeSantis
Peri’s appointment to the Disney oversight board followed a clash between the company and DeSantis over a state law that would restrict certain classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity. While Disney first declined to weigh in publicly on the legislative fight over what critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, then CEO Bob Chapek, under immense pressure from the company’s employees, later changed directions, and shared his concerns with the legislation. Later, after it became law, the company in a statement said it would work to get it repealed.
However, Peri has also accused Disney in the past of adopting teachings of critical race theory in its company training. The comments touched on another top concern of DeSantis, who sought to ban employers from training workers about privilege and systemic racism when he signed the Stop Woke Act, parts of which were blocked by a federal judge from going into effect.
“We’re seeing companies embracing CRT,” Peri said in his Zoom. “I’m gonna just share two – Walt Disney you’re quite familiar with. You know, down here in Orlando.”
DeSantis has faced backlash in recent days over Florida’s board of education approving controversial new standards for teaching Black history in the state, which includes teaching “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” DeSantis has defended the state’s curriculum.
Peri previously faced scrutiny after CNN’s KFile uncovered that the Orlando pastor had suggested tap water turned people gay. Peri disputed that he made the remark during a May 1 Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board meeting, saying from the dais, “I never said that. I don’t believe it, certainly.”
The latest revelations about Peri’s beliefs come as DeSantis’ conflict with Disney is embroiled in dueling legal challenges. Peri is named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by Disney, which alleges that the Florida governor has punished the company for exercising its First Amendment rights while describing his hand-picked board as a pawn in his “retribution campaign” against the entertainment giant.
In its complaint, filed in the United States Circuit Court for the Northern District of Florida, Disney alleged DeSantis picked board members who would “censor Disney’s speech and discipline the Company” and that DeSantis’ action against the company “threatens Disney’s business operations, jeopardizes its economic future in the region, and violates its constitutional rights.”
Peri, meanwhile, voted with the rest of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board to sue Disney in state court. In the past week, a Central Florida judge rejected Disney’s request to dismiss the state lawsuit. In the federal case, lawyers for DeSantis have asked the court to delay a trial until after the presidential election while Disney attorneys suggested a timeline that would put the case before jurors next July.
The board installed by DeSantis has said much of its power was stripped by Disney in an agreement reached before the governor’s appointees took over in February.
Since then, DeSantis and the board have focused on clawing back authority while threatening to develop the land around Disney – including by building a prison or a competing theme park next to Disney World.
AP psychology course can’t be offered over gender identity, sexual orientation lessons, College Board says
Students in teacher Kelly Meahl’s (right) AP American Literature class at Seminole High School listen during a lesson at the school in Sanford, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008. AP classes are popular in Florida, but Thursday the College Board said the state has effectively banned AP psychology because its lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity violate state laws and rules. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Florida will not allow public school students to take Advanced Placement psychology because the course includes lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity, topics forbidden by the state, the College Board said Thursday.
The state, however, said the College Board was “playing games” and that the course could be offered. However, the Florida Department of Education had previously told the College Board it would need to sign an “assurance document” that AP psychology, and other AP courses, met Florida laws and rules.
The College Board would not do that and said to offer its course in Florida would mean dropping sexual orientation and gender identity – key topics in a college-level psychology course. As a result, it advised school districts not to make it part of their schedule for the coming school year.
That means the class schedules for thousands of students are likely up in the air now, with school starting Aug. 10 in most districts. About 5,000 students in Central Florida and about 28,000 statewide took AP psychology last year.
A spokeswoman for Lake County schools said the district would not offer AP psychology this year, based on guidance from the College Board and the education department. The district will be giving students options to take other college-level psychology courses that do not include the banned topics, Sherri Owens said in an email.
Orange County Public Schools sent messages late Thursday to parents of students enrolled in AP psychology, telling them the class cannot be offered because of “select content” that isn’t allowed by Florida rules and because the “College Board requires educators to teach the entire curriculum for an AP course for college credit.”
With AP psychology no longer an option, OCPS schools are “working to identify alternative options for your child’s schedule,” the message said.
Other Central Florida districts did not immediately respond to questions about their plans for AP psychology.
Cassie Palelis, an education department spokeswoman, said other “advanced course providers,” such as the International Baccalaureate program, had “no issue” with offering a college-level psychology course in Florida, and that the College Board should do the same.
“The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course,” Palelis said in an email. “The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year. We encourage the College Board to stop playing games with Florida students and continue to offer the course and allow teachers to operate accordingly.”
But the College Board said it advised districts not to offer the course because doing so would violate state law or, if altered, the requirements of the class.
“We are sad to have learned that today the Florida Department of Education has effectively banned AP Psychology in the state by instructing Florida superintendents that teaching foundational content on sexual orientation and gender identity is illegal under state law,” the College Board said in a statement.
“Therefore, we advise Florida districts not to offer AP Psychology until Florida reverses their decision and allows parents and students to choose to take the full course.”
The College Board runs the 40-course AP program, which aims to offer high school students introductory college courses and a chance to earn college credit. AP psychology has been offered in the state since 1993.
According to the College Board, the education department told school superintendents they could offer AP psychology only if lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity were omitted.
But the College Board said those are part of the class and, if deleted, the course will not be able to carry the AP designation.
“This element of the framework is not new: gender and sexual orientation have been part of AP Psychology since the course launched 30 years ago. As we shared in June, we cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness.”
Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando, called the state’s stance a “terrible decision” that is “100% politically motivated” and will hurt Florida students.
“As someone who graduated from Florida public schools with college credit via AP classes, I know how powerful and effective these classes are and I am sick to my stomach to see what Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican Party are doing in our state,” she said in a statement.
Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, also criticized Florida’s decision, saying it was “at war with students and parents, censoring more AP curriculum and denying students the opportunity to earn college credit.”
Earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis rejected the AP African American studies course, saying “woke” topics violated Florida laws.
In May, Florida asked the College Board to review all its courses to make sure they comply with Florida law, which because of new laws and rules, prohibits teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity as well as certain race-related topics.
In June, the College Board told the state it would not alter the AP psychology course, which had been taught at 562 Florida high schools.
Florida has had a two-decade relationship with the College Board and its courses are popular among public school students looking for challenging classes and a chance to early college credit.
In 2021, Florida had the highest AP participation rate in the country and ranked second, behind only Connecticut, for the percentage of high school seniors who had passed at least one AP exam, the Florida Department of Education said. In 2022, Florida high school students took nearly 364,000 AP exams, College Board data shows.
But that relationship soured in the last year, most notably when Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration announced the rejection of the AP African American studies because of content it found objectionable.
DeSantis this spring signed legislation that authorizes the development of a state-based alternative to the AP program and allows students to use the Classic Learning Test in addition to the ACT and SAT to qualify for Bright Futures scholarships. The SAT, the most popular college admission tests in Florida, is made by the College Board.
Florida’s ban on instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity was part of its Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed “don’t say gay” by critics. The law, first applied to kindergarten through second grade, was expanded this year, and a new State Board of Education rule banned those topics in all grades through high school.
That April vote by the board immediately prompted questions about whether schools could keep AP psychology given that those topics could not be taught..
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