Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida on Wednesday called on the state Department of Education to “correct” its new standards for teaching Black history, after it suggested that slaves benefited from skills used during forced labor.
“The new African-American standards in FL are good, robust, & accurate,” Donalds tweeted. “That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn’t the goal & I have faith that FLDOE will correct this.”
The comments echoed remarks he made during an earlier interview with WINK News, a local news outlet in Fort Meyers, where Donalds had suggested the standards need “some adjustments.”
Florida’s Board of Education could work to “bring refinement,” he said during the interview, to a benchmark on slavery that included teaching students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills.
The Florida Board of Education had laid out the state’s approach to Black history in a 216-page document that was approved last week.
Vice President Kamala Harris made a last-minute trip to the state last week and delivered remarks opposing the new standards, suggesting that “extremist” leaders were making efforts to “push propaganda to our children.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended the new standards and made how issues of race are discussed in the classroom a part of his presidential campaign.
When asked about the standards, DeSantis suggested on Friday that some slaves had “parlayed” skills used during forced labor “into doing things later in life,” and that the standards had been put together by scholars.
“It was not anything that was done politically,” he told reporters.
DeSantis has also pushed back on Harris, accusing her of coming down to Florida to “perpetuate a hoax.”
“She’s here to try to push a fake narrative about what Florida did,” he said Tuesday in a Fox News interview.
In March, Donalds snubbed his state’s governor when he joined other members of Florida’s delegation in endorsing former President Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night, but on Twitter, campaign aides were criticizing Donalds.
Spokesman Jeremy Redfern said Donalds’ office was repeating “false talking points” put out by the White House.
“Did Kamala Harris write this tweet?” Christina Pushaw, the rapid response director, wrote in reply to Donalds’ tweet.
Jason Miller, a campaign adviser to Trump, called Donalds a “conservative hero“ in a statement Wednesday night.
“The Congressman also calls it like he sees it, and if he thinks something is BS, he’ll tell you. That’s why we like him so much,” Miller said, adding that any attempt to “smear” Donalds by DeSantis’ campaign was “a disgrace.”