Vice President Kamala Harris criticized Florida’s new education guidelines on teaching slavery in schools.
The guidelines, approved by the state’s Board of Education, avoid presenting slavery as divisive. They discourage the use of terms like “master” and “slave” in classrooms. Furthermore, the guidelines downplay the role of slavery as a cause of the Civil War.
Kamala Harris, being Black herself, condemned these guidelines for erasing the history of slavery. She emphasized the importance of teaching the truth about slavery’s impact on the United States. Historians, educators, and civil rights groups widely criticized the guidelines.
The NAACP expressed that the guidelines insult the millions of enslaved Americans. The Florida Department of Education defended the guidelines as providing a balanced view of history. However, they are part of a trend among Republican-controlled states to restrict slavery education.
States like Texas, Oklahoma, and Tennessee have also implemented restrictive laws on critical race theory. Harris’s criticism coincides with her upcoming visit to Miami to discuss voting rights with Black leaders.
