JMM Reviews Florida

2/ the entire updated AAH curriculum just updated. By way of background, I have a PhD in American history w a focus on the colonial period but covering all of Am history. I havent been professionally engaged in the literature as a working historian for abt 25 years. But I …

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 22, 2023

11/ and then the second Civil Rights Era. But if you’re new to the topic you might be scratching your head wondering why the second one was necessary. Needless to say this is a pretty big part of the story, the violent reimposition of white rule in the South and how it was …

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 22, 2023

13/ to pull out quotes referencing them to try to refute what I’m saying. But read the curriculum yourself and I don’t think any fair minded reader would be able to dispute these points. These are by no means the only problems with this curriculum. They are just …

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 22, 2023

50 years later. See how much has changed? And it turns out JMM is being too kind by half:

This is a statement from two of the people who wrote Florida's new education standards on slavery. In it they give several names of people to exemplify slaves who learned skills they applied later in life.

Let's go through the supposed truth of this list one by one. https://t.co/Y8rJLsPEv5

— Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023

The statement itself is an offense. The list of lies just makes it worse. That thread details the salient facts about every person on the list provided to justify the new educational standards of Florida. It’s far too long to repost here, but I can give you the summary:

So taking stock @AlexLanfran, of all of the bull shit ("truth") you helped spread, of the 16 names in that statement:

– 9 were never enslaved
– 9 are listed in the wrong industry
– 13/14 didn't learn their skills by being slaves
– 1 was the white sister of George Washington

— Alexander - Sex Critical 🦢🦜 (@etotheipie) July 22, 2023

The Florida standards are not badly reasoned and poorly grounded. They’re shit. White supremacist shit. It’s a 21st century repackaging of “happy darkies” glad to serve Massah. Another lie about the “peculiar institution” that I grew up with, and I’m guessing JMM didn’t, so it’s harder for him to recognize.

Old times there are not forgotten. And “look away” means never look directly at it. Like looking into the sun, you can’t look directly at the truth of our national sin, our hidden wound. But we have to at least look at the shadows it casts. That darkness is real, and we have to face it.

(I reviewed JMM’s entire thread again, and I’m not arguing he’s wrong. But I do think he’s a bit anodyne. In the old cliche, he misses the forest for the trees. He attributes the underlying philosophy of the Florida standards to “movement conservatives.” He’s far too kind. It’s the racism, stupid.)