VP Kamala Harris backed high school course on slaves' 'skills' ahead of Florida backlash

Vice President Kamala Harris is accused of hypocrisy for endorsing a college-level class on slavery that is similar to the curriculum she condemned in Florida.

Vice President Kamala Harris has been accused of hypocrisy for endorsing a college-level class on slavery that is similar to the Florida curriculum she recently condemned as spreading “lies” about history.

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the historic Ritz Theatre in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., July 21, 2023. Harris spoke out against the new standards adopted by the Florida State Board of Education in the teaching of Black history. Civil rights activists cheered when Ron DeSantis pardoned four Black men wrongfully convicted of rape as one of his first actions as Florida's governor. But four years later, as DeSantis eyes the presidency, their hope that the Republican would be an ally on racial justice has long faded. (Fran Ruchalski/The Florida Times-Union via AP, File)(AP)

The College Board’s 2023 AP African American Studies course features a lesson that teaches how slaves acquired “specialized trades” that they used to “provide for themselves” after emancipation — a part of “American history” that Harris praised earlier this year.

But last week, Harris slammed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for the state Board of Education’s controversial African American history curriculum, which claims that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

The VP called Florida’s curriculum a dishonest attempt “to replace history with lies.”

“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it,” she said in a fiery speech in Jacksonville, days after the education plan was approved unanimously last week.

DeSantis hit back on Fox News this week, calling the vice president’s criticism a “hoax.”

“There is no agenda here. It is just the truth,” the potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate said. “And they talk in gory detail a lot of the bad in American history, including, of course, the injustice of slavery.”

He accused Democrats of pushing a “fake narrative” about Florida politics.

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to reporters following a meet and greet at the Hotel Charitone, Thursday, July 27, 2023, in Chariton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(AP)

In January, Harris also criticized DeSantis’ decision to block a pilot version of the AP’s slavery course in high schools.

“Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future,” she said then, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

Last year, the Florida Governor signed into law the “Stop WOKE Act,” which regulates the content of instruction and training in schools on topics like race. A Florida judge ruled it unconstitutional.

This week, Dr. William Allen, former chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights, also rejected Harris’ characterization of the Florida curriculum as “categorically false.”

“It was never said that slavery was beneficial to Africans,” Allen, who helped design the curriculum, told ABC News.

Neither DeSantis’ nor Harris’ offices immediately responded to requests for comment on the two-course plans.

In a statement, the College Board said it was aware of the similarities between the AP course and Florida’s middle school lesson.

“We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans. Unequivocally, slavery was an atrocity that cannot be justified by examples of African Americans’ agency and resistance during their enslavement,” the nonprofit testing company said.

“Unit two of the current framework includes a discussion about the skills enslaved people brought with them that enslavers exploited as well as other skills developed in America that were valuable to their enslavers. Enslaved Africans and their descendants used those skills to survive, build community, and create culture in resistance to their oppression.”

The College Board said its course “will provide an unflinching encounter with the facts, evidence, and invaluable contributions of African Americans.”

Critics have also raised other concerns about Florida’s lesson, such as its use of the outdated term “slaves” and its claim that racial violence was committed by both white and black Americans.

Genesis Robinson, political director of the advocacy group Equal Ground, told the Tallahassee Democrat that the state curriculum was also too superficial in its explanation of systemic racism and its impacts.

Robinson said the Florida standards and the hostile environment would discourage teachers from discussing certain subjects.

He contrasted this with the AP course, which covers topics like racism, exploitation, and black women’s activism in more detail.

The AP course also clarifies that enslaved people’s skills only helped them after they were freed, not during their enslavement.

The College Board revised the course after the Florida controversy, but denied that it was influenced by the state government. Packer said they let the experts decide what topics to restore.