I like this YouTuber and while he is straight he is a great LGBTQ+ supporter. I normally skip the fan art section and I recommend you do also unless you like badly drawn stuff from fans that look like 2nd graders did it. But the video is important to show the extent of bigotry in Texas toward trans people by the police to the point where they violate the laws and civil rights. Hugs
How silly and thin this excuse is. Somehow it will harm kids in a advanced placement college level course to know that some black people that deserved a place in history were gay or trans. Seriously the idea that these high school teenagers knowing that gay people did some great things is harmful to the students according to the right / republicans. Michelangelo was gay. The fact is gay kids need and deserve the positive affirmations of knowing they also can achieve great things. It is about seeing representation of ones self, but the right is terrified of nearly adult teens knowing that gay people have done some incredible things. That knowledge contradicts all the right wing ideology of how bad gay / trans people are, how they are low-life scum out that never achieve anything and always look for way to assault and rape the good straight people. This is again out of the Russian playbook that outlawed anything positive about gay people while the state constantly pushes the most negative harmful narratives. There are gay people in all walks of life and their sexual orientation is part of who they are. What the right wants to do is let kids assume that all people are straight, that all people in history that did something notable were straight is total right / republican indoctrination / ideology. As for the justice system being about more than prison and punishment again other developed countries have shown that if your prisons are not punitive hellhole but having reform with rehabilitation have shown that it cuts recidivism rates. Crime goes down, and you have less prison populations. But that would interfere with the for profit prsions incomes. Hugs
DeSantis said the course was somehow being used to push a queer “agenda.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that his state recently rejected an advanced placement (AP) African American Studies course because of the course’s “indoctrination” of the “queer” agenda.
“We have guidelines and standards in Florida: We want education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said during a news conference. DeSantis was asked why his state Department of Education had refused the course, which is currently being offered by the College Board in a pilot program at 60 schools nationwide.
DeSantis said that when he heard that the class didn’t meet the state’s educational standards, he figured the course involved critical race theory (CRT), a college-level curriculum about the effects of institutional racism throughout history.
“It’s way more than that,” DeSantis continued. “This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory?’ That is someone pushing an agenda on our kids.”
Queer theory examines societal responses to non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities. It’s an essential part of Black history both because of notable Black LGBTQ+ figures and the criminalization of Black sexual identities throughout history.
Nevertheless, DeSantis also criticized the course for having a “political agenda” because its current form includes content about intersectionality and abolishing prisons. Intersectionality examines how overlapping personal identities result in social privileges or disadvantages. Prison abolitionists want restorative justice and rehabilitation programs instead of just prisons.
“We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them,” DeSantis added. “When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
DeSantis is asked during a news conference about the state's rejection of an AP African American history class. He says "this course on Black history, what's one of the lessons about? Queer theory … that's the wrong side of the line for Florida standards." pic.twitter.com/HzKnWsyUb3
Last Friday, Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote that the state had “rejected an AP course filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law.”
Specifically, the department said it objected to “the inclusion of readings from many major African American scholars, activists and writers, who explored subjects like Black queer studies, Black feminist literary thought, the reparations movement and intersectionality,”The New York Times reported.
Florida’s education department said it objected to readings from professor Angela Davis for being a “self-avowed Communist and Marxist”; professor Kimberlé Crenshaw “the founder of intersectionality”; and bell hooks for using language like “white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”
Though the College Board didn’t comment on Florida’s rejection, it noted that the course is still being revised based on feedback from African American scholars, the Times reported. The final framework of the course will be publicly posted before becoming widely available in U.S. high schools.
Critics have also pointed out that Florida high schools offer AP European History courses, which reinforce a narrative of predominantly white cultures colonizing and enslaving non-white countries in order to benefit capitalist and industrialist regimes.
It’s hardly surprising that DeSantis’s administration rejected the Black history course. Last year, he signed the Individual Freedoms Act (known as the Stop WOKE Act) which limits how racial issues are taught in public schools, public universities, colleges, and workplace trainings.
Last year, he also signed the Parental Rights in Education bill (known as the Don’t Say Gay law) which restricts teachers from acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people in public schools. Heworked with far-right media outlets and book-banning groupsto help promote the law.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Florida’s rejection of the course.
“These types of actions aren’t new… especially from Florida,” Jean-Pierre said. “Sadly, Florida currently bans teachers from talking about who they are and who they love.”
“They didn’t block AP European history. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high achieving high school students to learn about their history of arts and culture,” she continued. “It is incomprehensible.”
According to the College Board, the pilot version of the AP African American Studies course will expand to hundreds of additional high schools in 2024. The final course will be offered in schools that same year, with the course’s first exams being offered in Spring 2025.
Do you know why safe spaces were created? It started with building or businesses such as fire stations or restaurants that scared abused kids could go into and tell an adult what was wrong. Kids walking home from school or walking in an area that were approached by gangs, drug dealers, or the threat of harm / abuse could rush to these places. The idea worked so well it was expanded into schools and other places. In this case the complaining parents claimed it discriminated against non-LGBTQ+ kids. Straight white kids wouldn’t have a safe space those parents shouted. But really all kids know that a teacher will protect a straight white kid, it is the black kids when in the minority and the gay / trans kids that need to know they are safe. The straight black kids and white straight kids can just assume that the staff would protect them but that assumption is not something that gay / trans / non-binary kids have. They don’t assume an authority figure will support them because so many authority figures actively speak badly of them. So they need a sign to tell them if harassed, threatened, abused come here for help or safety. Some parents cannot stand that LGBTQ+ kids are not allowed to be bullied, harassed, picked on, and harmed especially if their kids are disciplined for being the ones doing it. Yes bigoted parents can produce bigoted kids and parents of these kids hate rules protecting the kids their kids like to beat up. As I have reported one of the co-authors / sponsors of the Florida don’t say gay bill admitted that he was angry that gay kids coming out were accepted and not too frightened of harm to come out at all. He was upset these gay kids were not targets for abuse and harm. That is the mind set of people that want to get rid of safe spaces. Notice that the attack on these safe space stickers are driven by the right wing hate machine that calls them indoctrination. The idea of tolerance, kindness, and not harming others is somehow thought to be a harmful ideology by the right. Their own ideology says attack anyone who is different until everyone is just like us. Do we want that taught to kids who grow up and teach it to their kids? And again letting kids know that gay people exist is indoctrination by these people, well I guess telling kids about any reality is indoctrination then. Seriously is there a harm that kids know there are gay people? Is there a harm that kids know there are left handed people or red haired people also? Kids know that there are gay people, it doesn’t make them gay just as kids knowing that there are straight people doesn’t make all kids straight. Hugs
“The safe zone rainbow stickers let kids like me know that they are not alone despite their differences,” one lesbian student said.
A middle school in New Jersey has removed rainbow-themed “safe zone” signs from its campus. Superintendent Peter Turnamian announced the change at a January 3 board of education meeting.
The LGBTQ+-affirming signage at Long Valley Middle School, in place since 2019, was the result of a student-led effort at inclusiveness. Recent complaints by parents led Turnamian, superintendent for the Washington Township School District, to consult with district lawyers.
“Ultimately, the advice of legal counsel was to have them come down,” Turnamian said of the signs. Lawyers characterized parents’ concern over favoritism as “appropriate criticism.”
The superintendent unveiled plans for a “Profile of a Panther” initiative to replace the safe zone signs, using the school’s mascot to “encourage kindness” among the school’s sixth- to eighth-grade students. Plans for the initiative would be developed with feedback from the community, said Turnamian.
The change marks a victory for parents who lobbied for the signs’ removal. A months-long campaign at school board meetings in the rural township in southern New Jersey brought out residents on both sides of the issue.
“School should be a safe space for all kids, not just some kids,” newly elected school board member John Holly said at the meeting in early January. “Is this just a convenient way to push ideology on kids?” he asked, speaking of the rainbow-themed signage.
One meeting attendee recalled for board members that students were responsible for establishing the safe zone signs.
“There aren’t any kids that are talking about how this is harmful to them,” she said.
A self-identified lesbian and genderqueer student at Long Valley was applauded at a December board meeting: “I can say the LGBTQ+ community is constantly bullied and belittled in our school system. The safe zone rainbow stickers let kids like me know that they are not alone despite their differences. The signs are not hurting anybody, and they are not imprinting on your children. They only promote love and accepting yourself for the way you are.”
“The removal of LGBTQ+ affirming materials from schools is downright shameful. LGBTQ+ students across the country are already facing relentless attacks from legislators, and they deserve — at minimum — to feel safe in the classroom,” said GLSEN Executive Director Melanie Willingham-Jaggers. “We’re so thankful for our educators who create inclusive, affirming environments for their students despite hateful opposition from those who seek to erase and silence LGBTQ+ people. There is no place for discrimination in the classroom, and we will continue to fight for representation and visibility of LGBTQ+ communities in all schools across the country.”
Rainbow flags, stickers, and other LGBTQ+-affirming materials have been under attack at schools across the country recently. Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law has had a chilling effect on students’ and teachers’ speech, with rainbow imagery removed from classrooms by school administrators, or preemptively taken down by teachers in fear of losing their jobs.
In September,Proud Boys showed upat a school board meeting in Missouri to protest the display of a small rainbow flag by a seventh-grade teacher after an alderman demanded in a Facebook post that the district “stop indoctrinating and grooming our kids!” In the same month, Bucks County in Pennsylvania banned all rainbow imagery and other “advocacy materials” in classrooms.
The truth is DeathSantis and his ilk want to erase the LGBTQ+ and insure that only straight white Christians are the default and the only acceptable representation in society. They do not want inclusion, diversity, or even the tolerance of others different from them. This is about having the white straight homogenous society they think the 1950s had where white straight men were just assumed to be in charge having all the authority and say in society while those who were not straight white men were expected to know their place or not be seen in decent society. Ask why the republicans and the right wing media are so against general respect for others that are different from them? Not talking acceptance, but the right / republicans are going full speed on not even showing respect for anyone or anything different from them. They have shown they can not tolerate much less respect anyone who has political differences from them. They attack in mass anything said by a democrat regardless of what it is. They have become so tribal that they will soon attack those with different hair colors in their own groups. They make a mockery of the term land of the free. This is a great short read. I ask how just letting kids know there are gay kids, gay people, and same sex families with children is sexualizing them but letting kids know that straight kids, straight people and opposite families is not sexualizing kids? That makes no sense. Gay or straight are still sexual orientations that exist and are legal. If reading about two boys or two girls holding hands is indoctrination so is reading about a boy and girl holding hands. Hugs
Anti-wokeness is anti-awareness, and that is DeSantis’ intent.
By his own admission, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has attempted to prevent residents, schools, and corporations in Florida from becoming actively attentive to important societal facts and issues – especially issues of racial and social justice. This is clear in his rhetoric and support surrounding the state’s so-called “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees (W.O.K.E.) Act.”
In addition to demonizing Latinx and Black immigrants coming from the U.S. southern border and using their bodies as props to promote himself and his far-right agenda, DeSantis and Republicans in the state legislature passed the Stop W.O.K.E act to supposedly provide businesses, employees, children, and families the legal means of opposing alleged “woke indoctrination.”
The bill bans the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and other discussions around the country’s racial history in schools, and it also bans diversity and inclusion training in corporations.
During his second inaugural address on January 3, DeSantis declared, “We reject this woke ideology. We seek normalcy, not philosophical lunacy. We will not allow reality, facts, and truth to become optional.” And then he pledged, “We will never surrender to the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die.”
In his statement and actions, DeSantis is not allowing reality, facts, and truth to enter the public sphere.
DeSantis is not only criminalizing discussions of race and racism, but he is also preventing Florida residents from actively attending to important facts and issues of sexuality and gender as well.
On Tuesday, June 7, 2022, a large van from the Broward County Florida public school department drove up in front of the Stonewall National Museum and Archives in Fort Lauderdale. In the van, Broward County school officials had filled boxes of children’s books on LGBTQ+ themes taken from county classrooms and school libraries for donation to the museum.
While county officials claimed the donations were the result of their attempts to clear shelves and office space for the accumulation of other subject matter, it is no mere coincidence that Florida’s so-called “Parental Rights in Education” law, referred to by opponents as the Don’t Say Gay law, was to take effect weeks later on July 1, 2022.
Passed primarily by Republicans in the state legislature and signed into law by DeSantis, the new law reads in part: “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Florida has positioned itself at the tip of the spear to cut and bleed to death school curricular materials on topics of race, gender, and sexual identity, but most schools, as reproductions of the larger society, function on an overarching system of racism, heteronormativity, and other forms of oppression.
A December 2022 progressive political panel in Denver titled “Straight White American Jesus” (after Podcast of the same name) focused on the topic of white Christian nationalism in the United States. Speakers discussed the major components of Christian nationalism: “innocence” in history and “purity culture.”
Sara Moslener, a lecturer in religion at Central Michigan University, asserted that these concepts of “innocence” and “purity culture” are often located in white Christian nationalism, stemming from colonial history when whiteness was coupled with freedom and innocence.
“The innocence that is connected to white racial identity has been a… delusion that has worked really well in giving white people a sense of specialness, a sense of ‘we have something in common with one another,’” she said. “There is this sense that we are innocent of all of these things, and white Christian nationalism says: Well, this was all part of God’s plan.”
Moslener continued by explaining the concept of “purity culture,” taken from conservative evangelical Christianity, which opposes abortion rights and homosexuality and adheres to traditional gender roles and sexual abstinence before marriage for women. She claimed that this is also foundational to Christian nationalism. This “purity culture,” is mainly about “evangelicals gaining political power.”
“White Christian Nationalism is steeped in myths of national innocence and this idea that the founding of the United States was a God-anointed beginning,” Moslener said. And this is connected as a movement by a unified commitment to a social order of a shared theology of family, and a shared perception of gender roles, sexuality, and gender expression.
“Many politicians have tried to ally themselves with this ideology to promote it,” Stewart said, citing Ron DeSantis, who identified himself with this ideology to gain votes in his political campaigns, and now it seems in his quest for the White House.
So, as DeSantis and the growing number of politicians and state and national conservative caucuses push for similar “anti-WOKE,” “anti-CRT,” and “anti-LGBTQ+” regulations and laws in the schools, as well as restrictions on diversity and inclusion discussions in businesses, their not-so-hidden agenda is intended to bring the nation closer to the patriarchal white Christian nationalist ideals attempted in other Fascist movements.
Power-hungry autocrats understand that an informed awake populace increases the chances of mass challenges to their authority, as history has clearly shown. But if the white power structure can severely restrict and downgrade the education of people they deem outside this structure – people of color, non-Christians, non-cisgender, and non-heteronormative individuals – then they believe their domination will be assured.
However, allowing free and age-appropriate discussions of the “hard” history connected to race and racism unmasks this Christian nationalist myth of “white innocence.” And free and age-appropriate discussions of topics around sexuality and gender knock out of the water the propagation of their invention of some sort of “purity culture” destined by God.
Anti-wokeness is anti-awareness, and that is DeSantis’ intent.
Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other “unvetted” book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to “groom” students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, told Popular Information that the policy was communicated to principals in a meeting last Wednesday. Individual schools are now in the process of informing teachers and other staff.
Teachers in Manatee County lamented the news on social media. “My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one Manatee teacher wrote on Facebook.
Another Manatee teacher called the directive “a travesty to education” that interfered with efforts to “connect with books and develop [a] love of lifelong learning.”
In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called “media specialists” and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a “library media center” includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.
The law requires that all library books selected be:
1. Free of pornography and material prohibited under s. 847.012.
2. Suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented.
3. Appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the materials are used or made available
Chapman says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials “harmful to minors” could be prosecuted for “a felony of the third degree.” Therefore, teachers must make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students until they can establish that each book has been approved by a librarian.
In response to the policy, some teachers packed up their classroom libraries. Others covered up the books students are no longer allowed to read with construction paper.
Restoring student access to classroom libraries is a complex process. First, someone must cross-check each book in their classroom library with the district library catalog. If the book is available in the district libraries, that means it was approved by a media specialist and can be made available to students again. But any book not currently held in the district libraries must be individually evaluated and approved by a librarian.
And that’s just the beginning. Materials prepared for an upcoming Manatee County School Board meeting include a 21-point list of procedures to ensure that classroom libraries comply with the new rules.
As a result, one Manatee teacher reported being forced to take Sneezy the Snowman and Dragons Love Tacos off the shelves pending review. Other teachers, fearing criminal liability, are telling students not to bring in “unvetted” books from home:
Chapman said he was not aware of teachers being told specifically to prohibit students from bringing books from home but, as a policy, “all materials we use in a classroom are all state approved.”
One high school teacher in Manatee County told Popular Information that they would not comply with the new policy. The teacher has spent the year carefully curating books donated by parents or sourced from their personal collection. “I’m not taking any books out of my room,” the teacher said. “I absolutely refuse.” The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing that speaking out about the policy could put their job at risk.
Librarians in Manatee County are now expected to review thousands of books in classroom libraries to ensure compliance with the new law. Manatee County has 64 public schools and 3,000 teachers, many of whom maintain classroom libraries. Chapman said that every school in Manatee County has a media specialist but that the process could take a while because it is “one person” and “they are human.” Any book approved for K-5 students must also be included on a publicly available list.
Similar policies will be implemented in schools across Florida. Some Florida schools do not have a media specialist, making the process even more cumbersome.
That review must also be consistent with a complex training, which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.
Stephana Ferrell, a co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, said the new policy followed “a pattern of fear-based decisions that prioritize staying in good favor with the Governor over doing the right thing for our students.” Ferrell said she blamed “the Florida Board of Education that passed this rule change last Wednesday without an ounce of consideration for its impact.” Now, “thousands of students are without classroom access to fun and engaging literature.”
Ironically, Manatee County is making thousands of books inaccessible to students just in time to celebrate “Literacy Week” in Florida, which runs from January 23 to 27. Only about 50% of students in Manatee County are reading at grade level.
“Err on the side of caution”
Popular Information asked Chapman if Manatee County librarians and teachers were expected to remove books that violated the Parental Rights In Education Act, known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” or the Stop WOKE Act, which limits classroom discussion of racial issues. Chapman did not answer the question directly, saying only that librarians are expected to apply the “specialized training for media center specialists” approved last week by the Florida Department of Education. That training, Chapman says, includes “new definitions of inappropriate material.”
The Parental Rights In Education Act prohibits all instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is “not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” But the law applies only to “[c]lassroom instruction by school personnel or third parties” — not library books. Similarly, the Stop WOKE Act is limited to classroom instruction.
The teacher training approved by the Florida Department of Education, however, does not inform librarians that the Parental Rights in Education Act and Stop WOKE ACT do not apply to library books. Rather, librarians are told: “There is some overlap between the selection criteria for instructional and library materials.” One slide says that library books and instructional materials cannot include “unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination.”
A subsequent slide provides a list of “unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination,” which includes information about “sexual orientation or gender identity.” It also includes a variety of topics related to race, including “Critical Race Theory” and material that might make someone feel “guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” as a result of their race. The training instructs librarians to “err on the side of caution.”
As Popular Information reported earlier this month, Manatee County schools have already removed several books from school libraries because they contain LGBTQ characters or themes.
This interpretation of the law runs directly counter to the arguments the DeSantis administration is making in court. In federal court filings, lawyers representing DeSantis insist that the Parental Rights in Education Act does not apply to library books. Nevertheless, the DeSantis administration, through its media specialist training, is encouraging a much more expansive interpretation of the law.
Please notice the similarities of what the Nazis did with what DeathSantis and the republican leaders in red states are doing now with the don’t say gay laws. The Nazis started with getting rid of the literature and any gay positive news or newspapers. They made laws restricting and outlawing gay meeting places just like the red states are doing with drag queen shows. Also they made gay associations and gay supporting groups to disband and forbid them from existing just like in Florida where no gay straight alliance clubs can now be formed in schools supporting the gay / LGBTQ+ kids. There is so much more in the video that shows how DeathSantis and his advisors are following the Nazi play book to eliminate the LGBTQ+ community, to rid the state of the gay and trans people. Such as using thugs called Brown Shirts to attack and scare gay establishments which reminds me of the Proud Boys gangs. Arresting and stopping events claiming they were preventing crime and if they got a gay person in the arrests or anyone with any public indecency in their record they made a big deal of making an example of them, claiming the need to protect the public and the children. One of the reasons that the Nazis hated the gays was they did not produce Aryan children which was the goal of the movement. Similar to the current white nationalist / Christian nationalist that claim that same sex marriage is not a true marriage and that same sex families are not real because same sex couples can not produce offspring. In their minds there is not enough white kids being born. Please note the same things said about homosexuality then are the same things said about gays today by republicans, including what the religious evangelicals today say about same sex marriage not producting children. Hugs
Kirk is a well know republican racist bigot. So he thinks a white centered white straight history is the only history to be taught. Hugs
“I am enthusiastically behind Ron DeSantis saying that Black-centered education has no place in Florida schools, obviously. It’s bigoted from its premise.
“First of all, Western culture is better and it’s a thoughtcrime to say it out loud. Number two, Blacks were sold into slavery by other Blacks. Can’t say that out loud, Thomas Sowell wrote that in great detail.
“Number three, when Blacks were given opportunities to return home, they did not want to return home. Blacks didn’t want to leave.
“I mean obviously, slavery is reprehensible and terrible and awful, but there’s a lot more to that story than people would ever want to acknowledge and admit, which is more Blacks have come to America voluntarily than ever came in the slave trade.
“More Blacks have come to America voluntarily since the 1980s, whether it be from West Africa, from the Caribbean, than ever came in the slave trade.” – Charlie Kirk, on yesterday’s show.
It doesn’t matter who sold them into slavery, and it doesn’t make it alright if black tribes sold members of other black tribes into slavery. SLAVERY IS WRONG. Also, the history courses are pretty much WHITE-CENTRIC. Why is THAT OK? Why shouldn’t black AND white children learn about black history? It’s as much a part of our nation’s history as white history. Go pop your zits in private, Charlie, and leave the rest of us alone.
“Number three, when Blacks were given opportunities to return home, they did not want to return home. Blacks didn’t want to leave.
WTF? Charlie, were first generation slaves offered the chance to return to their homelands? I think not. If this even happened it would have been generations later. That would be like someone offering anyone of us whose families have been here for generations the opportunity to return to the motherland. Ones family and life are now here. The lunacy of these bigots drives me crazy.
It’s how Liberia was setup, but they had to be able to pay to return there. It wasn’t a ‘free’ trip. So that’s why most Black people wouldn’t have ‘wanted’ to leave. Not to mention that people don’t like forced migrations… Once moved, why move again?
If someone wanted to “return” me to Scotland, I might take them up on it. I’d love to live where it rains most of the time, everything is deep fried, and men wear skirts to special events.
But if they just wanted to “return” me to a random chunk of Europe carved out as a dumping ground for anyone of European descent, where a non-English language was spoken by the locals and all the customs were foreign, that would be a completely different matter.
And that’s the kind of “return” that was offered to African Americans after the War of Secession.
I’ve made it a rule to not listen to dropouts tell me what to be ought included or excluded from school curriculum. I only listen to dropouts talking about school when they’re talking about ways to keep people in school.
Florida rejected a proposed Advanced Placement course focused on African American Studies because it included study of topics like the Movement for Black Lives, Black feminism and reparations, according to a list of concerns provided to CNN on Friday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office.
The state also said the course framework for the study of reparations – the argument to compensate Black Americans for slavery and other historical atrocities and oppressive acts – includes “no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson.”
The state Department of Education on January 12 informed the College Board, the organization that oversees the Advanced Placement program, that the course violated state law and rejected its inclusion in Florida schools.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has concerns with six topics of study on the syllabus for the new AP African American Studies class, according to a list provided to CNN, including the study of the Movement for Black Lives and reparations,https://t.co/Nbhi350j3W
I wrote up an acceptable black history curriculum for Florida:
– Once upon a time, there was a kind of embarrassing practice where some people were forced to do jobs — even though it wasn’t as bad as some people like to say. And the same thing existed in Africa too, so it wasn’t the Americans’ fault.
– All of the divinely-inspired Founding Fathers wanted to end it.
– Eventually, the North invaded the South, and the South fought back valiantly. But the North overwhelmed it by throwing overwhelming, sacrificed bodies of soldiers at the brave defenders — who only wanted to be able to have their own laws and culture without woke, federal interference.
– Then the North told all those workers they didn’t have jobs anymore.
-The North tried to make those people serve in government for about 10 years, but everyone agreed that it was a disaster, and things went back to normal.
– Those people liked to call themselves “colored.” Some of them had some good qualities like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, who were both Republicans and loved guns. They opposed the Ku Klux Klan, which was created by the Democrat Party.
– Eventually, there was a guy named George Washington Carver. He invented peanut butter. He was also a Republican.
– Not much happened for a long time. Eventually there was the great Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a Republican too. He taught everyone that it is wrong to talk, or even think, about skin color.
– Then Obama became president and brought Democrat racism back.
Neo-Confederates in the US have been pushing their bizarre ,revisionist history of the Civil War and slavery for as long as I can remember.. This is the first tine a state government has turned those lies into an official state sanctioned history..
The thing is, every revisionist lie about slavery, and the cause of the Civil War they tell is contradicted by contemporary documents from the Civil War: the articles of session by the various states, the constitution of the Confederacy, the Congressional record of the Confederacy, public speeches by confederates, such as the infamous Cornerstone Speech.
If the media examined what happened in the Nazi murder camps using the “both sides” approach they’ve adopted today, they wouldn’t denounce the Holocaust as evil. They’d tell us what happened and then insist on getting the Nazis’ “point of view.”
A previous draft version of the concerns sent to CNN by DeSantis’ office included an objection to the study of “The Black Power Movement and The Black Panther Party.” The draft version asserted that “The Black Panther Party (BPP) was based on the ideology of Marxism- Leninism. Goal of the BPP was to fundamentally change or overthrow the American government.” However, in an updated version of the state’s concerns, the references to the Black Panther Party were removed and replaced with an objection to the study of “Black Queer Studies.”
There is NOTHING in education, especially higher education, that students should not be exposed to so they have a good knowledge of WHAT IT IS. That is what education is about, for Christ’s sake, not keeping people in ignorance! Any student of history, certainly of U.S. history, should know what the Black Panther Party was. Any high school student should be familiar with what it was, should know what Marxist-Leninism is! And why should they not be made familiar with contributions made to society by gay people in the Black community?!
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. By Ta-Nehisi Coates
I went to university at one of NYC’s city colleges and it was possible to major in religion. In fact it is possible to major in religion at many public universities. I probably disagree with much of what is taught in thise departments, but I would never approve of the state banning the classes. Which is just another example of how the right wing engages in cancel culture and stifling free speech. Yet the media would have us believe the left engages in it.
Quick update on me before the video that has information that everyone should hear. I hurt so bad right now I can only stand a few minutes before the pain is so bad I either have to sit or fall. Of course it is better earlier when I first get up by noon or 1 PM I can barely get up and go to the bathroom before the pain is so severe I am in danger of falling down. But if I sit the pain builds up in the upper part of my back instead of the lower part so again I have to move. Mostly right now it seems I get about 3 hours up at most and then 2 hours laying down. When I take enough medication to help cover the pain which lately has been the maximum of my medications, the next day I am sick to my stomach and have nausea issues. Think of it like being on a drunken night out at the bars, and how you would feel the next day. That lasts until I get enough medication back in my system again, and then if I take the maximum again I am sick the next day. It is a cycle I cannot stand. Be pain controlled in the afternoon and rest of the day while befuddled with confusion of the medications and the next morning wake up sick with a rolling stomach and nausea that either makes me vomit (three times yesterday) or just feel like I am going to vomit such as today when I did not vomit but felt I could until about 1 PM. I have an MRI on the 25th. I am losing the good from the last set of spine shots in the bottom of my spine, so tomorrow I need to call the pain clinic and see if they can adjust my appointment to get another set of spine epidurals for all three sections. Right now I am spending as much time laying down as I am upright. However this morning and yesterday morning Ron and I did take a short walk as we used to before the hurricane. It is much shorter than the other walks were because my back gives out and his hip starts to bother him too much to do a longer one. If the new spine shots don’t fix this, then I need to change medications to fentanyl or something as strong. The doctor tells me that fentanyl is much stronger than the medications I am currently taking. One last thing. Randy my wonderful brother has tried to get me to look at getting an over the bedside table like hospitals use and using a couple of the old laptops we have or at least the bedroom TV and a laptop to read and answer comments which I bitch constantly I am missing. Today Ron and I have started talking about it. It will depend on what the doctors can do. Hugs
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)Photo: Shutterstock
Photo: Shutterstock
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)Photo: Shutterstock
Scottie's Playtime 