Andrew Malekoff

Gov. Ron DeSantis, in touting his stance on public education, referred to Florida “as the state where woke goes to die.”

The expression “being woke” is a modern-day variation of “being awake.” It is often used today to suggest that one is knowledgeable about what is going on in the community, especially as related to racism and social injustice.

Psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton, who studied the psychological causes of political violence, advised an audience about what it takes to become an effective advocate. He said, you have to ask yourself two questions: Why am I awake? and, How do I relate to people who are asleep?

Gov. DeSantis’ used the term “woke” as a political buzzword. His aim was to throw red meat to his base and, in so doing, to inflame them.

To better grasp what is going on in Florida’s public education system, a bellwether of what is evolving in other red states, I watched an eye-opening interview by journalist Alex Wagner with Tatiana Ahlbum, a Florida social studies teacher.

Ahlbum had just completed a three-day training offered to 2,500 teachers across Florida, that included instruction on teaching about slavery.

One training slide noted that less than 4% of slavery in the Western Hemisphere was in Colonial America and that the number of enslaved people in America only increased through birth.

Following is the interchange between Wagner and Ahlbum on this matter.

Ahlbum: “There was this heavy emphasis that most of our enslaved people were born here, almost to say it was less bad…”

Wagner: “…to enslave children for generations?”

Ahlbum: “Yeah, we didn’t steal them and bring them on a boat, is kind of what it felt like.”

Wagner: “Sort of making a difference between slaves born in the United States and those born in Africa; and, suggesting somehow that our moral debt is less because they were born into slavery as opposed to snatched from their homes.”

Ahlbum: “Yes, that’s definitely how I felt they were portraying this information.”

Wagner: “And, also less than 4% of slavery in the Western Hemisphere was in Colonial America. Is that to minimize the number of slaves that were here that still numbered in the millions?”

Ahlbum: “I believe so.”

It should be noted that there were almost 4 million slaves among a population of 31 million in the U.S. in 1860, according to the Library of Congress.

The facilitators showed slides that contained quotes by slave-holders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, professing their desire to see slavery abolished. The training did not mention that Jefferson raped at least one of his 14-year-old slaves Sally Hemmings, who was Jefferson’s property and mother to six of his children.

Although there was a heavy emphasis on teachers using primary sources in the classroom, the facilitators advanced information in the training sessions that was not sourced. For example, no primary source was provided for either Washington or Jefferson’s quotations or for the stated percentage of founders who supported the abolition of slavery.

University of Pennsylvania sociology and law professor Dorothy Roberts summed up what the Florida training omitted: “The law allowed white men to profit from their sexual assaults on Black women. Freed from the worry that their mixed-race offspring had any legal claim to freedom, white men could rape enslaved women with total impunity, maintaining their domination while increasing their wealth. Their control over Black women’s bodies was key to creating a permanent labor supply.”

There appears to be little room for honest history in DeSantis’ Florida, the state where truth goes to die.

The full interview cited in this column can be accessed on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/5kkmyRVPVeg