School’s slavery language distracts from how far we’ve come

This article originally appeared in Fox News on July 31, 2023

If you have been keeping up the news lately, you might have seen the ongoing controversy concerning the Florida Department of Education and their egregious update to their social studies curriculum where they claim, "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." 

Naturally, outrage ensued given that it is quite difficult to imagine, let alone argue, that slavery was in any way beneficial to the millions of Black Americans who were held in bondage for generations. 

Unfortunately, instead of correcting the repulsive claim, Florida’s Department of Education thought it wise to send Dr. William Allen — the author of Florida’s Black History curriculum, who himself is a Black man — to somehow justify what could have been a quick and painless linguistic fix.  

Now we, as conservatives, find ourselves once again diverting from the real issues. What ought to have been a conversation celebrating Florida’s robust Black American History curriculum has been diluted due to an avoidable choice of words.  

Needless missteps like these have pervasive consequences that often harm conservatives across the country. Before shedding light on the consequences of this avoidable blunder, it is worth noting what the conversation should have been about the curriculum update...

Read full op-ed in Fox News