Now this is the FCB Podcast Network, A bred Masoda day that we won't said, and we won't say all we gotta does no one get takedatto in days gonna be okay day that we won't said and we won't say all we gotta does no one get taketto? And don't don't say it's don't be okay. Hi, everybody, welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kia Davis. I am your host, Kia Davis, and this is podcast where we take hot topics, hot button issues, and we discuss the talking points on those issues, and we draw those issues all the way out to their logical conclusion. And before I get started, I want to reiterate if you haven't listened to my interview on the Barbie movie or my review of the Barbie Movie with my daughter Ruby, go back and listen to that. We went this week. They had a great time. I loved it. I loved the movie. So if you want to hear a full review, listen to that podcast or go to my substack. I also wrote a review there just Kara Davis dot substack dot com and there I'm way detailed about how I really feel about the themes and what I think the conservative criticisms are, and I respond to that. I recommend it. I think it. I don't understand actually the conservative h towards it. I think it's a very subversive movie and it's very clear about the differences between men and women, which is refreshing. So I recommend it. And and it's an ode to gen X. I'll tell you that it's an ode to gen X. So if you're my age, you're really gonna like it. It's not for kids, and not in a way that's like it's sexually inappropriate or something like that. It's that it's it's a movie for adults. It's a movie for gen X. There's it's for you. It's an ode to that nineties kid And I think that a little girl would be bored. It's unfortunate because it's Barbie and it's live action. You think you can take your girls and feel perfectly fine, like you're not going to be assaulted with something weird. But um, I think they'll be bored. I think there's a lot about it that they just won't get. That being said, um, there's no like weird surprises in it, But you can go to my substact Jescaradavis dot subsac dot com, sign up for my substack, and then you can read the full review or listen to that episode with me and Ruby. I think you should go. I think you'll like it. This week, so we are going to talk about We're going to do some classic logicing. We're talking about the Florida History curriculum and the recent controversy that has sprung up around some of the language in it. And Kamala Harris has pointed out some of the language and it's ignited this debate about the slavery have benefits or not? Or I'll read you the line before you probably have already heard of it. Just in case, I'll just read you this mainline that everybody's upset about. Not everybody, but a lot of people. And if you would like the page number, I think it first shows up on page seventy one of this curriculum. I read the whole thing, everybody, I read the whole thing, all right, this is what the sentence says. And then I'll go on to tell you my journey with this curriculum. I'm so tired of reading boring things. Okay, instruction includes how slaves developed skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. All Right, I didn't want to talk about the subject. People have been bitching about Florida getting rid of the CRT standards in their curriculum and getting rid of some other suspects stuff, which is as somebody who ran for school board and who was very involved in education and peeping what's been going on in the curriculum. I definitely applauded, still applaud and more please. And I never read the full thing. I don't think it was available until recently. There were talking or not talking plays outlines that the college board was using, and and so they they passed those around and I read through those, and even when I was reading through those months ago, I thought to myself, it doesn't look that different, like I'm not sure what conservatives in Florida are touting here. It didn't look like it looked to me like the board was trying to figure out a way how to not do what the santis was asking them to do. That's that's how I was thinking. But again, these were these were just outlines, and it was still very heavy with multiculturalism and everything, and so then everyone got to their corners. And because I'm going through this midlife crisis and I have very low patients for ignorance or half ass opinions these days, I didn't want to get involved because everybody is looking at headlines or reacting to somebody, but no one's going to the source material, which of course is not surprising, but also that's why we do this show. That's why you listen to the show. That's why I've spent so many hours reading so many boring laws to you, because people, we shouldn't have excuses, and if you don't want to read it, maybe you'll listen to it. But the whole point is that we need to be informed, and I didn't want to jump into a discussion which I was not informed about. I mean, I've seen the headlines on Fox News and CNN, but I'm also on Fox News and I know that if you should not trust the headlines in any news situation, you're getting you're getting four words of context, you know, in a chiron in a headline. So I didn't want to talk about it then get into the fray and join anyone's corner. But I also didn't want to read the curriculum because I'm really tired of reading boring things. I can't remember the last time I just read a book just for fun. I'm always reading things for information. This curriculum is two hundred and sixteen pages. I finally gave in the other day because people are still going on about this, and now this comment from Kamela Harris has come up, and then every conservative who tries to like jump in on the conversation is just getting trash and it seems like we're only allowed to think one way about this. And so my instinct when I see people going, oh, boy, see, conservatives are not helping black people here de Sante's is basically a racist, my instinct is always to be like, okay, I need to dig in right, Like I never take anyone's word for it, especially if it's something that sounds too good to be true, like if it's biased, confirming on either side. My first instinct is to go to the direct source. And I was like, six, two hundred and sixteen pages, I'm so bored, but I'll do it. I'll do it for you. Please reward me with a rating, a five star rating and a review. I'll do it for you, so I read it so that I could talk about it. It is two hundred and sixteen pages. However, don't feel too sorry for me, because it's an easy two hundred and sixteen pages. It's really a bullet point format and so it was very easy to speed read through. I did it in a couple of days. That's the story of my journey to this podcast. So we're going to talk about it. So maybe what we should do is talk about some of the Maybe I should start by discussing some of the reactions to it that I've seen online. Okay, So, keeping in mind the offending sentence that I just read you, here's what Camela said. How is it that anyone could suggest that, amidst these atrocities of slavery, there is any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization. When we send our children to school's parents, we want to know they're being taught the truth. It's hilarious to hear a Democrat saying that, but the truth like boys can be girls. Okay, anyway, carry on, Kira. It is a reasonable expectation. It is a reasonable expectation that our children will not be misled. And that's what's so outrageous about what's happening right now. Okay, so that's Kamela Harris. So here's what Florida Representative Byron donald who is black, had to say about this curriculum and this controversial portion of it. The new African American standards in Florida are good, robust, and accurate. That being said, the attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong and needs to be adjusted. That obviously wasn't the goal, and I have faith that Florida will correct this. All right, that's Byron. Here is Governor Desciantis responding because, as you know, Governor Deciantist is running for presidents, so these are now national issues and he has to respond to everyone. Here's what he said. He says to Byron. He's responding to Byron Donalds. So at the end of the day, you've got to choose. Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets. Are you going to decide with the state of Florida. I think it's very clear that these guys did a good job on these standards. It wasn't anything that was politically motivated. These are serious scholars, So don't side with Camela on that stand up for your state. So those are some of the main comments, and then the conservative and liberal social media sphere has really sort of taken they're really all three of those comments are very representative of the basically the three positions people are taking on this issue. So, as I said, I want to read the curriculum, and as I said, I read out through all two hundred and sixteen pages, and I'll tell you this, I thought, I agree with that Byron Donald that this is a robust and good curriculum. It's really really good. I mean it's really good. It's embarrassingly good. And by that I mean and by the way, this isn't a history curriculum, and it's not an African American history curriculum. It's a social studies curriculum. African the African American that everyone's talking about, that's just a portion of the social studies standards. So this includes government, geography, economics, and history. Those are the four I think the four pillars of a social studies curriculum. And it's K through twelve. So they've got the two hundred and sixteen pages. Is like they divide it by elementary, middle school, and then high school, and when I was reading through it, I was really impressed by how deep it went, and it's really glaring. It points out the fact that I was so impressed, points out how much we are failing our children. I mean, if I had half of this stuff in our California public schools, look out. It's embarrassing that someone has to demand that this stuff be in a curriculum. And I'll read you some examples later. I'm not going to read all two hundred and sixteen pages, obviously, but i'll read through some I made notes, and i'll read south through some of the interesting things. Of course, i'm gonna break down the infamous sentence. But my first impressions were to agree with Byron Donalds that it is a really good curriculum. It's very robust. Then I read that line in the line first appears on page seventy one. As far as I can see, I may have skimmed over it earlier, but I think it first appears on page seventy one. I've seen it three times in this two hundred and sixteen pages, and again the line goes goes a little something like this instruction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. I'm just going to be honest with you. I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I truly don't. I think this is one of those situations where you go in with your mind already deciding what the people who meet it think about black people, like you've already gone into I mean, and I guess that's just normal. But it's why we do this show, right, we dig in. I honestly didn't. I think what's making it worse is the argument mints right, because conservatives really a lot don't know how to defend their ideas. I don't even think this is an idea that needs to be defended, and I think, in fact, if you're defending it, you're losing. It's just a sentence, by the way, it's one single sentence. It's repeated three times because there's three segments to the social studies curriculum, so you know, kindergarten, middle school, high school. So it's repeated three times because each school level has its own social studies in its own, particularly African American curriculum. But this curriculum is two hundred and sixteen pages, so I don't understand to pick out that, and it's and it's excellent. By the way, the fact that Democrats would seize this line and then highlight this is like indicative of the whole curriculum tells me that they that they know the curriculum is good. It's really good. I mean, I'm I am trained in education. I am an educator. Not only was I a homeschooler, but as you guys know, I ran in after school program. I was a professional tutor, an educator. This is really good curriculum. And I think it also behooves us to know that the people who wrote this portion are black, so it wasn't like a bunch of white reply. I think this is how people are picturing it, which is also adding to their biases, like Ron de Sandis and a bunch of his Republican buddies sitting around going black people loved being slaves. I don't. I honestly am how the only way I'm getting a whole show out of this is if I go through this curriculum with you. Because I don't know how to talk about this. I don't see anything wrong with it. I'm going to explain to you why I don't see anything wrong with it. I think if you took that one phrase and you said this is what the curriculum is about, I guess I would be like what. But then I read the whole thing. For you, America again, reward me with five stars, please. But then I read the whole thing and I was like, this is nothing. And it's one line in two hundred and sixteen pages of material, And if you read the African American studying section, it is it is, as Byron Donald says, good and robust and comprehensive. Any Conservative who is spending a lot of time focusing on this and accusing Republicans and saying that they have to defend it, I think you're you're falling into the trap, right. I think you're letting the Democrats set the tone for this. And I think that it's you're you're making people defend defend something that doesn't need a defense. There's a great interview. I'm going to post his interview in my substact. There's a great interview with the gentleman who wrote this, and he is he is not rondescentists. He's an old black man, an old black professor, and an intelligent one, you know, And I mean again, I just think part of the problem here is that no one's arguing in good faith anymore, and no one's taking anything in good faith anymore. Everyone's coming to the table already deciding what the other side is doing, already deciding, already assigning perverse motives to the people who write things, or do things or say things, and it's causing discourse. Conservatives are doing this too. I'm noticing more and more we're taking on the habits of the left, and it makes me very uncomfortable. We used to not do that, I feel, and now we're doing it. And this is a great example. I'm seeing a lot of conservatives like get really upset over this, and I'm like, you haven't read it, and I don't want. I don't think it needs to be defended because it's just one line and a whole string of curriculum. So let me lay out for you a little bit how this curriculum is laid out. You have, as I said, it's divided into the three pieces, and then each piece has what they call a strand. So this is in particular what we're talking about. It's the African American history strand. And if you know anything about making curriculum, what you have to do is you have to build. Curriculum has to build. That makes sense, right, You can't multiply if you don't know how to add first, Like, everything is a build, which is one of the problems with common Core math because there's no building. It's a weird but anything everything is a build. So curriculum is actually really complicated to form because you not only have to understand how kids learn and like what they can absorb and tailor it for that, but you also have to understand where they're going to end up. So if you're making curriculum for a first grader, you have to be anticipating twelfth grade. I could never do it. It's very difficult and it's no wonder. It takes a whole panel of people and a lot and it takes a long time. So each one has a strand, and each strand has a bullet point. So let's start. For instance, we'll start on page seventy here, Grade six to eight African American history strand. Well, the first bullet point, the first thing you learn and go through in sixty three eight you identify this is the first bullet bullet point, it's S S sixty eight. It's SS dot six eight dot AA dot one, dot one. So I'm going to assume it's Social Studies six through eight African American Curriculum, Unit one, Section one. I'm gonna assume that's what it is. That's so good, all right, identify Afro Ursian Eurasian trade routes and methods prior to the development of the Atlantic slave trade. So there you see. It's and if you go to elementary school, it's the same thing. But because every kit, every grade level is different, you need to clarify what you mean by that, because what eighth grader will learn about the Afro Eurasian trade routes is going to be different than what a second grader is going to learn. Right, you might learn a little bit more about the horrors of it in eighth grade, and the second grade you just might cover the basis. So in order to clarify, they have under each strand benchmark clarifications. So that's the word you're hearing when people are talking about how offended they are by that sentence, you're hearing bench They have benchmark clarifications. And so that's to add a little more context and a little more direction for the teachers. So you're going to get more involved. So here's the benchmark clarification for six through eight. For the trade routes. Clarification one instruction includes how slavery was utilize in Asian, European and African cultures. Clarification two instruction includes the similarities and the differences between serfdom and slavery. I like that we don't talk enough about that. We need to because there are a lot of people who who try to equate serfdom was slavery and they're not the same thing. And there are a lot of people who be like, oh, I don't know why black people were complaining because serfdom, you know, they're different. So I think that's a great thing to put in there, but that's a sidebar for me. And Clarification three instruction includes the use of maps to identify trade routes or routes. What do you say roots? Routes sounds Canadian, so I'm going to go with routes. So that's an example of how this goes. Each unit to each section has your overall overview. This is what you're going to study. And then here are the clarifications. Here's how it differs in this grade as opposed to that. Great. Hey, y'all, this is Alie Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored by big tech. So I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Alie Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you hitch podcasts. That's Ali a l II. Come check on my show. I'll see you there. Here's another S S six a AA one dot four describe the history and evolution of slave codes. Well, here's a clarification. Instruction includes judicial and legislative actions concerning slavery. Here. That's why I don't have a problem with this sentence or the word benefit. Everyone's hung up on this word benefits, and I think we're it's getting blown way out of context, and I don't understand why you would take a really good curriculum. And again, I'll read you some of the things that I was really impressed by later on why you would take a really good curriculum and that allow it to be torn down because you don't like this one word. This says nothing about like the outrageous, Like how like I'm seeing my friends post stuff on this, and I have to say, friends, like I love you and respect you. If I totally disagree with you on your interpretation of this. I think it's based on headlines and not the document. I saw one person who was like, slavery can never benefit anybody, and it's like, that's not true. It benefited white people, didn't it. It benefited a lot of people. That's why there are slaves still to this day in the world. So yeah, obviously the idea that it doesn't benefit maybe it benefits the wrong people. Well, obviously it does. But like, yeah, it's it's too my benefit to kidnap someone enforce them to do labor for me. Yeah, that's going to benefit me. I don't have to pay them for their labor. Isn't this what this is? Like? The whole like black empowerment movement and even the reparations movement is based on the idea that African America, I hate that term black people built this country, and that America, that white America benefited from the labor, the free labor of this entire group of people who are never properly concompensated for that labor. So the word benefit I don't take exception to. Also, I don't see I did. I do not read this as why people liked slavery or slavery was good for them. But I don't see that at all. In instruction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for personal benefits. Okay, I've got two things, two more things to say about this. I just told you what it takes to build curriculum, right, curriculum is a build. You have to know when you're when you're forming curriculum for first grade, you have to know what they're going to have to know in twelfth grade. This is a build. So here's what I found in this curriculum in the early days of In the K through sixth curriculum, on page ten, there is a section for dealing with the slave codes. Now, this is a really important part of American history, the slave codes, because and this is another thing that the Florida curriculum does prisingly well that I haven't seen in other places. This curriculum does a really good job of setting up how we got to the horror of slavery, and how so in the beginning, there are black people who come over as indentured servants. Right, that's serfdom, and that's what a lot of slavery. I don't even want to say apologists, but people who I think have the wrong opinion about about the complaints we make about the slavery of era. They'll say, oh, the first people came over, you know, they were voluntary. They were voluntary. They weren't slaves. The first black people came over, they weren't slaves. They were part of Well, they were indentured servants. And here's how this happened. Sure they came over. Some of them came over as part of I guess you could call it a consensual agreement. Sure they came over. Some of them were actually able to build decent lives. That's why throughout slavery you actually saw towns, even in the North, where black people lived kind of normally really like as a part you know, they were middle class, they lived and they were integrated. There are those instances. Twelve Years of Slave is a great example of that. But then the folks pulled the rug out from under people, and we're like, oh, wouldn't it be better if we could just make these people work for us? And they're from Africa and so they don't know anything, they're not even real people. Let's change the codes of our colonies and rip the rug out from under them. Now suddenly you're not a free person making decisions for yourself. One day you're going to work and earning money, and literally the next day you are enslaved. It adds a special layer of evil to what slavery was when you understand that. And we don't teach that enough in school. We don't, and I think it's one of the more tragic aspects of what we did. So you start that in kindergarten. But you can't have those types of really deep, horrific conversations with the kindergartener, like you can't or you shouldn't be So you have to couch it, right, You have to sort of I don't want to say water it down, but you have to approach it in a way that this is a building block. We know that down the road they're going to learn what the horrors of the slave Code mean for how slavery develops after that. But now they just need to know that this is the thing that happens. So here's one building block. Then what happens in this curriculum is you get to middle school and they expand that building block. Now you are talking about you're getting deeper into what the slave codes did. You're getting deeper into the nefarious nature of what the US government did and denying black people their civil rights that are clearly laid out in the Constitution. You start to get into in the sixth grade, sixth or eighth grade curriculum, you start to get into let me see if I can find this here. I thought I wrote it down, but I didn't a page number. Oh yeah, here it is. It's it's on that same page. It's page seventy one. Then you got it. Then you get into what the duties of a slave was. So a lot of us who didn't have the privilege of having a robust African American curriculum. Remember our Black History Month curriculum where we learned that, you know, maybe a day a day in the life of a slave, and we learned a little bit about the jobs that they did. But but in this curriculum, the sixth grade, they get deeper into it. So here is section two point three per sixth through eight examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves, so what you did every day. And then also there is a section that asks the students to learn how to explain the effect of the cotton industry on the expansion of slavery due to the cotton gin. So here you're building why because in grades nine through twelve you're going to learn about reconstruction and what happened during reconstruction the entire populace of the United States shifted in a significant way that changed the face of this country forever. It was bigger than what happened during COVID although I think our kids down the road twenty thirty years will be learning about how the great migration out of heavy, heavily regulated states has affected the development. Right there's the building block. So you're going to learn about reconstruction. What happened during reconstruction. A bunch of black people who were former slaves in the South, or the children of former slaves who were suffering now through Jim Crow stuff and trying to pick up the pieces of suddenly going from and enslaved people with nothing and no rights and no property to just sort of having the freedom to move about trying to pick up those pieces. They're not educated, right, they have no provisions. There's no provisions made for these people. And the South has extreme biases for obvious reasons, against black people. So a lot of black folks were like, let's head up north, we're moving. Well, what did these black people know how to do? They weren't educated. A lot of them weren't even allowed to read. Most of them couldn't even sign their name. They did a couple of things. One is, black people started establishing schools to educate people so that they could sign their name and they could take on bigger and better jobs. And two, they used the skills that they learned while they were being forced to do things that they shouldn't and didn't want to do. They took those skills and turned them into marketable skills because it's all they had. That's it, That's what the benefit means. And I feel like they picked apart this line for some time because the idea that they add in some instances. It's clear to me that they were concerned that some idea logue out there. Am I look at this and think, oh my gosh, Republicans are saying black people loved slavery. I do not get that from this. It doesn't say it. It doesn't say that. It doesn't say that black people enjoyed slavery or that it was good for them. It doesn't say that. So I know that they're building up to reconstruction and the important thing that and then then this don't even get me started this a whole their podcast because this has I love history. I love history. It has greater implications for what happened to the labor force into unions Davis Bacon Act. Right, So all of these black people came up and they were skilled laborers because that's what they were forced to do for decades and decades and decades at the end of a whip. So they did have skills that white people gave up doing because they were like, we got slaves. I don't have to learn how to blacksmith. So what they do they took those skills up North and then they opened businesses, they opened shop, and the white folks up there the races white folks, not all the white folks, but the race was ones didn't like that these uneducated laborers were coming in and taking the jobs that were good money even back then, you know, good money. So what did they do. They formed trade unions to fight for the little guy. No, read the Davis Bacon Act. No, they did it because they wanted to unionize and force black people out of the labor market because they felt like the blacks were coming up from the South, or they were too skilled, they were getting all the jobs because they knew what they were doing. And then it's that stereotypical like these people were coming and taking all our jobs. So the trade unions were formed to push black laborers out of the labor market, and they did a damn good job of it. So I feel like that's a logical progression, right that it's not. There's nothing in the sentences as black people enjoyed being slaves or that slavery was good for them. What it says is the skills, Well, just read it. Instruction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. If you were forced to be the slave of a blacksmith, and you learn. I mean, okay, forget this, forget I don't even have to give it. Let's take Robert Smalls. Let's take Robert Smalls, who was the slave of a ship's captain of a Civil War ships captain and the Mississippi somewhere, and the captain, because he thought that his slave boy was loyal and went never did too stupid to run. The captain taught his man Robert Smalls everything he knew about sailing. And then what the captain would do is they'd sail up and down the Mississippi River. That these were the Confederate this was the Confederate side. They'd sail up and down the Mississippi River and the captain would go to sleeve and he'd be like, oh, Robert, you'd take over, you know. And so Robert Small learned how to navigate a boat as a slave. Well what did he do? One night? The captain stupidly went to shore and left Robert Smalls and the other slaves, slave boys guys men on the boat and said, you know, hold down the flour for us. We're going for some shore leave. Just make sure no one comes and messes with anything. And Robert Smalls took that opportunity to steal the boat. He was like, Oh, I'm gonna ride this thing to freedom, because why because this guy told me how to sail a boat. As a slave, I learned how to save a boat, sail a boat. So what did he do? In what is a harrowing tale? By the way, I wanted to make this into a movie, and I was disappointed to find out someone has already optioned the story as a movie. I don't know if they'll ever get made, but should A harrowing tale of him escaping through Confederate waters, having to disguise himself putting a scarf around his face and his master's Confederate hat on and his master had left the captain had left the jacket there, and so he put the jacket on and just praying that as he passes by the watchtowers along the river, that no one sees that it's a black man navigating the boat. He ordered the other guys to put on whatever Confederate garments they could find because they had to pass by two Confederate forts along. It's an amazing story. There's a book about it. Wouldn't you say that that is one instance where the skills he learned as a slave he used to his personal benefit, which was to escape to freedom, which he did. By the way, congratulations, Robert Small, somebody please make that movie and make it right. Don't give me a stupid Harriet Tubman boring or like, make I'm a superhero or something. This is a superhero story. So when I read that line, I'm like, to me, I didn't think anything of it until people started making a stink about it. I really didn't because to me, it's obvious, like obviously if you were trained as a slave to you know, Like, what did Harriet Tubman do? She learned she was a nurse during the Civil War. Those are skills she learned while she was being forced to nurse her owners on the slave plantation. I mean, is she like, was she happy about that? No? Was she? Did she gain a skill that she eventually was able to use later on? Well? Yeah, I had a very traumatic childhood and one of the ways I learned how to cope with it is reading and writing, And in order to escape some of the things I was going through, I spent a lot of time in books with my head in books. I would not go back and relive my childhood. But one of the benefits of being a reader like that is that now I'm a writer and now I get to do really fun things like read two hundred and sixteen pages of curriculum to you. But that benefited me in the future, But it doesn't mean I look back and go, wow, I'm really glad that I was abused and neglected. So I just really feel this much ado about nothing, especially when you understand the building blocks of a good curriculum and that that's just a building block statement. And if you pick it apart, you take out your biases, and you pick it apart, you realize, oh, it makes absolutely sense. Like of course, because once you get to reconstruction, you can't pretend that you you can't pretend you can't just make up information to suit you, right, you have to know where how these people knew how to work and what their effect on the labor market was. You have to know that. You have to know that. So I'm with the Santis on this one. I really am. I think Byron Donald's was out of line to make that comment. I think that there are both on the same side and they recognize that. And DeSantis is running for president, so he's going to take a hard stance on anything. But I frankly I think he's right. He should not have. I saw my friend Lawrence on Twitter says kind of scolding to Santis and saying, Um, you know, you guys gave camel an easy w just take the line out. Why should they take the line out? There's nothing wrong with it and they didn't even write it. It was black people that wrote this, And I don't really want to get into well it wasn't the right kind of black person, because we don't do that on this show, right, we don't do that as conservatives. Um, but I saw I mean you can't. I'll post you in an interview on my sub second see the guy who wrote it. He's not even an RCLE. He's cool. So, UM, I don't I agree with the Santist. I don't think Byron Donald's remarks were helpful, and I think it was like taking it was sort of giving the Democrats cover when he did. Now, to be honest, we're doing the same thing with his statement, aren't we, or I am, which is I'm picking one portion of his statement to respond. But he did say that the curriculum was great and that it was robust. So that's my opinion on the dust up of this one sentence. I do not believe it needs to be taken out, But if the college board decides it would just be easier. Would it be easier if they replace the word benefits with result? Would that be different? I think it's the word benefits that people are hung up on. This feels like a submission argument, right, How Christians are always arguing about the definition of submission In that one line of scripture. They never read further. We're doing the same thing here, right, They don't put it in contexts why submit to your husbands? And all the progressives like, oh my gosh, patriarchy A No one ever reads further right, which after that it says, why submit to your husbands? And husbands love your wives as Christ love the church, and need I remind you that Christ died for the church. So it seems to me the heavier burden is on the guy. And the word submit is not even really the word, right. It doesn't mean what we think it means. It's it's the translation we see, but that's not what it means in the original Greek. So it has a different context, a different meaning. I feel like we're doing that with this word benefit. So if we replaced it with result, like, like, what if we said interaction includes how slaves develop skills which in some instances resulted in being used for personal benefits or something like that. I think it's the word benefit that people are hung up on, and I'm really nervous about let me say this before I move on to what I really liked about the curriculum. I'm going to read you some of it. I'm really nervous about us getting caught up in outrage culture. I'm starting to see it on the right. Well yeah, I'm starting to see it. My liberal friends would say, I guess it's already there, always been there. I just agree. I think we're succumbing to this action reaction social media thing, and we're falling into the trap that the left does, which is to even mention a thing is offensive. Right, So, like, look at Gina Krano getting fired because she made a really salient and important point about what happened during Nazism and how everybody there thought they were doing the right thing, and it wasn't like Hitler came in and was like, hey, now, we're all Nazis. What they did as they turned neighbor against neighbor, and that's how it started. And she was making COVID comparisons, but she was making a really good point about how bad the Nazis were. But because she just mentioned the word Hitler or the word Nazis, then cancel culture or leftists or whatever, go I'm offended, how dare you? And then they've extrapolated all of this other stuff and assigned all of these other bad motives to her when it was a really good point that she was making. But simply because they she simply mentioned those terms that in itself was offensive. And so there's nothing in this statement that says slavery was good for black people. But because the word benefit is mentioned in the same breath, people are taking that and like, we have to be careful that we can't police speech like this. It's a dangerous slippery slope because soon what will happen is what's happening with the Holocaust and Hitler and Nazism, which is now we're getting to the point where we can't mention it at all because just the very mention of it feels offensive. This is go back to my N word episode. This is why I was saying about the N word and why it's really important to preserve the right to hear it or at least read it. What we can't do is a race it because what happened then will happen is we won't be talking about it at all. And I don't want us to forget how welculy it was. We should never forget how ugly slavery was. So once we start, this is a slippery slope, and we're going to get to a point where even to mention it is offensive. That's my fear. I might be wrong, jail ty at protomail dot com. I might be unrealistic, jail ty at ProtonMail dot com. But that's how I see this. I don't have any problem with this. I'm taking the santis's point of view on this. By the way, he didn't write the curriculum and a lot and some people are like, he's distancing himself from the curriculum. No, he's being honest about who how the curriculum is made. Again, this is our poor understanding of American government, which, by the way, this curriculum does a great job of educating on government and the mechanics of government, and I think we need to start adopting these standards nationwide because people think that the governor or the president has some magic wand and then they do everything. Yeah, the buck stops with because you're a leader, but you don't do hardly anything. It's all other people. So there's anyways, I take another break, I want to come back. I'm going to tell you the things some of the things that were super cool about this curriculum. Hey, y'all, this is Ali Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that has been censored by big tech. So I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Alie Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Allie Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you getch podcasts. That's Ali a l II come check on my show. I'll see you there. Let me just read like African Americans, like clarify some of the African American stuff because I think when you read here the rest of it, you're gonna be like, Oh, if you think you read that sentence in the context of every other clarification that they make, I feel like it sounds a little better. So here's one. Here's what they are is part of the curriculum in the Social Studies African American section. Instruction includes the triangular trade and how this three tiered system encouraged to use of slavery. Instruction includes what made indentured servitude contracts or risky investment for colonists based on economic and social factors. Instruction includes how the desire of knowledge for land cultivation and the rise of the production of tobacco and rights, how to direct impact on the increased demand for slave labor and the importation of slaves into North America. Instruction includes the middle passage routes. Instruction includes the causes for the growth and development of slavery primarily in the Southern colonies. Instruction includes percentages of African diaspora in the New World colonies. Instruction includes the causes and consequences of England's force child migration to the colony. Instructions includes the living conditions of slaves in British North American colonies to Caribbean, Central America, and South America, including infant mortality rates. Instruction includes the harsh conditions and their consequences on British American plantations. Instruction includes their harsh conditions on Caribbean plantations. Instruction includes the history and development of the slave codes, including the John Punch case. Instruction includes how the slave codes in an enslaved person ended in enslaved persons becoming property with no rights. Instruction includes how different Africans resisted slavery. Instruction includes the contributions of key figures that contributed in the area of society, science, poetry, politics, oratory, literary music, dance, Christianity, and exploration, including from people like Prince Hall, Philis Sweetly, Benjamin Bannaker, Richard Allen, the Free African Society, a lot of quanto omar Eben said Kujo Lewis Annagi Kingsley. Instruction includes the role of black churches. Instruction includes early laws that impacted slavery and resistance. Instruction includes the varied experiences of Africans in the United States. Instruction includes how black men participated in both the Continental Army and the Army of the Free United States. Instruction includes how slavery increased through natural reproduction and the smuggling of human contraband. Instruction includes the trades of slaves. There we Go. Instruction includes where the slaves worked. Instructions includes how they say itself try to prevent slaves from escaping, and their efforts to end the underground railroad. And then here's an Instruction includes the Act, a comparison of the actions of Nat Turner, John Brown, Drederick Douglas and their direct responses and the efforts to end slavery. Instruction includes the mistreatment of slaves in British American colonies. Instruction includes examining the roles and efforts of black nurses, soldiers, spy, scouts, and slaves during the Civil War, including the US Colored Troops, Buffalo soldiers, William McCarney, Kathay Williams, Harriet Tubman. Instructions includes the founding of HBCUs. I mean, it goes on and on like and that's just that's just two pages that I read through. There are two hundred and sixteen pages of that, and they're highly detailed, highly detailed. The idea that we are getting hung off on this one line that barely says the thing people are saying. It says we are doing we are doing the efforts, the very valiant efforts that no one else is doing anywhere else. By the way, we are doing that at disservice. Like, this is a really good curriculum, everybody, It's really good. And I don't think we need to be getting wrapped up in this type of argument because again it's just comprehensive. I cannot believe the amount of stuff and information that they are going to allow the children to learn about, and it's very much a lot of it, very much is based in sort of Black pride celebrations. Again, I think that's reflective of who wrote the curriculum. Which this is why I tell you, guys, perspective is everything, right, It is important. It does matter that you are represented on different panels and in different areas of life an industry, because your perspective is going to be different. And it's clear to me reading the African American strands across the board that there were people who really cared about what children learn about the contributions of Black Americans in this country. And I love that this folds it into regular history, which is what we've been begging for all along, or at least what I have been that that Black history is American history and we shouldn't treat it as not a part of American history. So that's the other cool thing that this curriculum does. Is it a lot of time when well, this is how I remember it. But in school, this was like a unit, right, this was a separate thing. Here's the history of the United States. Oh yeah, and then here's this one. Here's this one chapter on slavery. Here's the thing that we did. But it's never like told chronologically, or at least it wasn't when I was a kid, and this folds it in chronologically, like, here's what was going on at the same time. This was happening for the founding fathers, this was happening for the slaves at the same time, this was happening in the Constitution. This wasn't happening in the Constitution. So it does a really good job of building and a folding in all the elements of American history. That's pretty impressed by that. Oh, let me go. Here's there's a lot of also, which I applaud. I think we need more of this as well Holocaust education. I'm starting to get a bit concerned, and I'm going to draw this back to my Gina Corano things. I'm beginning to get a bit concerned about the rise of anti Semitism in the Western world. And I believe this is coming from the progressive left because it's rooted in Marxism, and Holocaust denial is becoming it's like flat earth theory is becoming a big thing again, and that that's because of the Internet and whatever, and and Holocaust denial is sort of mainstreaming too, and I think it's going hand in hand with how we gloss over it in schools. And I do think that we should be teaching more about the horrors of the Holocaust. I do. But here's the thing. When we start saying that to even mention Hitler or Nazis is to trigger somebody, and so that's offensive, and that feels prejudice or racist or bigoted, so we'll just avoid it altogether. That's dangerous. What that then, that makes it easier for people to simmer in their views about all the Holocaust wasn't real, or it wasn't as bad as everyone thought it was, Like It makes it so much easier for people to be accepted with those points of view if you're not constantly teaching about the horrors of this, and it means we have to be honest about the horrors, and we have to be honest about the developments right after the war. Let's go back to that benefits conversation. After the war, Israel was formed, a horrific event happened, and then a result of that was the Western world coming together and saying, the Jews need a place to go. They've been displaced, they've been traumatized, they've been discriminated against, and they've been the victims of attempted genocide. And so we're gonna get together and we're gonna basically put them back in Israel. Gonna give them Israel where all most of us are going to agree. And Israel is a great nation and it has benefited many people. Israel is a great nation. So the result of this horrible act, unspeakable act, was and that's history. The result of twenty six hours of horrifying labor for me was the son, would I do the labor over again? Did I love? Was I so glad to be in labor now? Did it have did it result in something good down the road? Yeah? Yeah, So I just and I just I don't think that's controversial. I don't think find that to be controversial at all. And I'm getting really nervous at how willingly so many people, how willing so many people are to put aside nuance, especially people who in other contexts will talk about nuance and how important it is. But see, we all have our price. Everybody has a price. I play this game with my kids every day all the time. I everybody has a price for everything. And I know I I don't. I wouldn't I would. I'm not talking about your big things. I'm talking about everything. So if we pass, like yeah, like when we flew to Canada, and it was horrific because we were going from one side of the continent to the other. So it's like a twenty four hour or deal. And then you got to deal with Air Canada, which is the worst airline in history. So we made it home over twenty four hours of travel. It was just to travel from one side of Canada to the other side of the US. Thank you Air Canada. And we were and then when we get home, like we get we get into Lax at twelve thirty at night and we had been gone since the morning and the bags aren't there. They're lost. Well, everybody's bags are lost. So now my husband's got a stand in line for an hour at twelve thirty at night to make a claim. And it was And that was after we had already waited forty five minutes to find out that the banks weren't there. Anyway, it was horrible. It was horrific. And when we're on the ride home, I turned to my daughter and all it's like, how much would it take for you if we just turned the car around right now? You gotta get back on that plane, and you've got to go back to where we started today? How much? And I start the bidding. I started out a thousand dollars and I just go up. I go up and up until we find a price, because everyone has a price. Because in the kids, when they first started playing this game, they would always start the same way, Oh nothing, nothing, you can pay me to get back on that plane. Who would you do it for? A thousand? No? Two thousand, No, what about five thousand? Well? Can I stay overnight? No? You gotta you gotta get back you get on that plane, you go, and then you gotta turn right around and come right back, get do all this torture all over again. No, not for five thousand. Would you do it for ten thousand? Yeah? I do it for ten thousand. Everybody has a price. You have a price too, I do too. I've hit it a couple of times. No one's ever named my big price for my big thing, but yeah, everybody. Everybody has a price for something. And I feel that way about ideas too, Like we're all very principled, and we all have beliefs about what the other side does and that we would never do, but we might if the price was right. And maybe that's not money, but maybe that's clicks, or maybe that's just the satisfaction of feeling right or whatever. I'm really nervous sell. A lot of us have found the price we're willing to sell our principles down, our principles for because that's not there. Like, I don't know, I just I think a lot of people are turning into the thing that this show is about, which is like I'm going to make a judgment based on one thing, and I'm going to throw out the whole baby with the bathwater. We just have to be so careful because this is what I found. When I was I realized this is a huge sidebar, but by now I'm just going with my gut. This is what I found when I was running for school board. How before I got into the race, so many people were like, go run, we need you, will support you the whole way. And don't we hate it, like we hate it when people find something to pick apart good people with and you know voters are so thick on we hate that. And then the first time that you know, the Union pulled a picture off my social media and posted it out of context. You know, people were calling me, I'm so disappointed in Ukia. I thought you were someone I could trust, Like we are the people we complain about. We are those people, right we have that one thing comes along We're like, oh yeah, I thought he was a good bad guy, but he's not because he said this thing, and now I will never vote for him again. It's like we're we're doing what we hate. We're becoming what we hate. Worried getting worried. I'm trying really hard not to be that person myself. This show helps, but I have the same tendencies because I am a very passionate and reactionary person and so um it takes a lot it. I mean, honestly, I told you I didn't want to read this curriculum, be perfectly happy to be lazy about it. Anyways, I just and I noticed like that during my run, just how fickle people really worry, even the people who swore they're not. We got to be careful. So I just think we're taking this one section and of a really great like we're playing the game that the Democrats are making us play. Hey, y'all, this is Ali Michelle. I'm a conservative social media influencer that is been censored by big tech. So I broke away from the restrictions and started a podcast called pillow Talk with Ali Michelle. My show is a space to have real conversations about the issues that impact our everyday lives without the fear of being canceled by the big tech tyrants. Subscribe to pillow Talk with Ali Michelle and FCB podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get podcasts. That's Ali a l II. Come check out my show. I'll see you there now. Maybe Florida wants to take out the line to be done with it. I don't care. It's up to them. I really don't. I could care less. Taken out the line is not going to change a damn thing about the curriculum. Like it won't if you take out that line, what does it change about the curriculum. So what does leaving the line in change about the curriculum? Nothing? The curriculum is good. The curriculum is good. I'm going to ask Garvo to add the link to the pdf to the show note so you can read it yourself. You can just click on it and you can just skim it if you want, or whatever, or or you know what, just memorize what I said, pretend that you actually read the whole thing. But let's go on to what I liked. More about what I liked about this curriculum. There's a whole segment on financial literacy. You all, I love it. On eight page eight is the financial literacy strand. We are not teaching this in public schools and in America. And this strand is so detailed, it's so healthy. We need to be replicating this. I'm not going to read you all the Holocaust stuff. I know I was getting into that but there's a huge section on the Holocaust. I think it's really excuse me, comprehensive, really great. Oh hang on, I feel like the hiccups are trying to come on, and uh oh, there's no worse from being in the middle of a podcast and having to stop the hiccups. I think they're going. In the name of Jesus, here's the strand is great. I was so impressed to read it. I wish we could have it here in California. Evaluate and reflect on how values affect personal finance decision making. And here's one of those benchmark clarifications. So that's the segment, but then underneath you're getting more detailed benchmark one instruction includes how values may vary from person to person and how societal values impact personal financial decisions. What an incredibly intelligent and productive discussion to have with a teenager. I remember having those discussions as as a teenager. We didn't have them nearly enough, but we have one segment that was personal finances. I remember this. We learned out of balance a checkbook. We learned about making decisions, and that was one of the things we talked about, like what's important to you will determine what you spend your money on, and so if food and shelter are important to you, you'll spend your money on those. I love this idea of like bringing back how what you value, And this is something that I talk about with my Black friends and family all the time, especially when we're talking about the differences between our cultures and like other cultures that seem to be financially literate, and yet like black homeownership and black financial responsibility is still very low even among middle and upper class, Like this is not an income issue, but a mentality issue. And one of the things I was saying is like we don't have a culture of financial literacy, Like it's not something we talk about around the dinner table and Black families, but when I've been with my Asian friends, like money and responsibility, and maybe almost to a fault, those are the topics of discussion commonly, and the children are expected to think about those things and to know how they affect their own lives, and a lot of times they're going to work on their family businesses or they're required to work. And so financial literacy is something that I feel very passionate about in the Black community. So I love the idea that black students, in particular in Florida would be have the privilege of learning about this stuff. And it's too bad that it's shocking if this should be standard. Here's once that I explain what that loss. Aversion implies that loss is brought about by a decision, are weighed more than the gains which may affect the final decision. Isn't that cool? Earning income? There's a section on earning income here. Instruction includes how people's willingness to wait or plan for the future affects their decision to get more education or job training. And a dynamic are changing labor markets, so you're talking about risk rewards, delayed gratification. These are very important lessons to learn and if you ask yourself why we don't teach them in public schools anymore? And who benefits there's that word again, Who benefits from our kids not knowing how to save money? Delay gratification? Who benefits? Well? The people who make who pay out your student loans, the people who loan you money at the bank, people who sell you cars, the people who sell you houses, right, it benefits them. People who sell you your credit cards, It benefits them for you to be financially illiterate. These aren't. It's not accidents that a lot of this stuff has been bled out of our public education system. It's on purpose, and we're living out the real life consequences right now. I love this section. Explain that taxes are paid to federal, state, and local governments to fund government goods and services, as well as transfer payments from governments to individuals. So again, just learning how the taxes code works, learning how taxes work, learning how income works. It's a great part. And this is by the way, at every level. Now it's not the same, right, Your benchmark clarifications are different in K six than they are in six eight or nine to twelve. Talks about inflation, interest rates, how many of your teenagers know what interest rates are? Discusses the banking financial system, how to use credit analyze ways that consumers can compare the costs of credit by using the APR, initial fees charge, fees charged for late payments, or mispayment options, all of that. Honestly, when I was reading through this, this was one of my favor favorite sections. I was most impressed with this section. Oh and then, oh yeah, then there is I just came across the nine through twelve Holocaust education strands. It's on two o eight, page two o eight, So what's at the end? I forgot about that. I didn't write it down, but they go into great detail analyze the origins of anti Semitism, and it's used by the National Socialist German Workers Party. I honestly think that a big part of the rise of anti Semitism in this country is the decline of Holocaust education in this country. I genuinely believe that. And now you've got a lot of kids that are getting their historical information from Twitter and or excuse me, TikTok, not Twitter. It's so lame on Twitter's for old heads like me on TikTok. And I don't need to tell you what kind of idiots are running off at the mouth on TikTok. So really is important that we be very deliberate, and kudos to the Florida State Board of Education for getting this done. And you know it's no accident. There are a lot of Jewish people in Florida and that's being reflected in the curriculum that they're writing. And I'm all for it. This is a great curriculum. Actually, this part of it, it's very detailed and I think there's a lot of room for discussion in it. And how in critical thinking. That's the other thing. I'm looking at my notes here just to make sure I got everything I wanted to say. Critical thinking is huge in this. So eitherre are even portions of like, let's like the Holocaust section here, describe how the Nazis utilize various forms of propaganda to indoctrinate. Students will explain how opposing views were limited were eliminated. Students will explain how identification, legal status, economic status, and pseudos science supported propaganda. That's all. Critical thinking. Students will explain how eugenics, scientific racism, and social Darwinism provided a foundation for Nazi racial beliefs. Compare that to the flip side of what public schools are demanding our students learn about history, and history is so focused on white American whiteness right now that we are our knowledge banks are low. Like I'm all for well rounded, and I think this is well rounded. Byron Donald said it himself. I think this is well round. I'm all for well rounded, but we have overcorrected to the place where we're spending so much time focusing on the sins of white Americans, in particular, that we are diluting the historical horrors and the lessons we have to learn from those. We are diluting them in a way that is making our children not only ignorant, but dangerous. Because what do they say about history repeating itself? Well, they say it doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes. Overall, I've talked long enough. Overall, I think this is a great curriculum. Again, if you want to read it, I'll have Darby O. Lincott in the show notes. I have no problem with that line. I read it exactly as it was read like. I didn't read anything into it. I'm not adding anything. I believe I explained my points about the building blocks of education, about what that point is going to build up to during the reconstruction portion of the curriculum. And I think that's logical, and I agree with the stantus I think Byron gave. I think that wasn't the way to go. If he's a supporter and I don't, oh it's Byron Donald's supporting de Santis or Trump. Um, he's a Trump guy, isn't he? Which makes a little more sense why they'd be going back and forth like that. So maybe I shouldn't criticize Byron Donald's heart. Maybe he had a purpose for it, and part of it is supporting his guy. And I don't have a guy. By the way, I don't have a guy. Don't assume that because I'm, you know, talking about the Santis here that I'm like, yeay, raw Road is santis. I haven't made my decision, oh, because I'm gonna actually let the primary process play out. Folks call me crazy, but there for a reason. So and Trump's gonna have to navigate it like everybody else. He doesn't get to just waltz right in and pull that crown back on his head. He's gonna have to fight for it like everybody else. Anyways, that's a whole other show. But on this one point, I really do agree with the Santis. I think that there's nothing wrong with this. Everyone's making much ado about nothing. And if you read the entire criculum, and you read that one single line in two hundred and sixteen pages of words, to pull that out as if it is at all representative, ay, as if it means something nefarious, I do not see that be as if it at all represents the entire curriculum. I think it's irresponsible. So I know I'm going against some of my conservative friends out there, and so I want you to you to know that I'm making this argument in good faith. I am not this is a make or break argument. We're not splitting up. I'm just saying I disagree with you on this one. I don't see any problem with it. I'm in the stances Is camp on this one. Go Florida. This is great curriculum. We need to be replicating it across the United States for sure. What do you think? Give me ahala? J L t Y at ProtonMail dot com. J lt Y at ProtonMail dot com before I go. I hope you guys have stuck around long enough. I've meant to say this for months. There is a woman out there named Nancy who sent me a gift. You reached out to me, and I think I don't know which email account you did it from, because when I went back in to search my emails to thank you, I couldn't find it. So I don't know if I deleted it or it's it's in some other account like it got forwarded somewhere. I can't find it, and I can't remember your last name. I just remember that you were Nancy and you sent me up this beautiful gift. You guys know, I'm a collector of like older like black art. Basically there's darbil. I used to call it racist art, and she sent me a beautiful little little piece. And Nancy, I've never been able to thank you properly, so I want to say that I got it and thank you, and I'm so sorry that I didn't reach out right away, like I should have taken that packaging and taken the address off it, I should have archived your email. I didn't do any of that because I am the most unorganized person will ever meet. But I think about you all the time, and I think about how I really need to thank you, and I am so sorry that I haven't been able to reach you. So if anyone knows who this person is that sent me this gift, Nancy, thank you. I got it, I appreciate it, and it mental world to me, so thank you so much. I wanted to say that for the rest of you, if you would like to reach out to me. J lt Yatt ProtonMail dot com. Let me know what you think of this curriculum, the hubbub around it, your opinions of it. Don't forget to sign up for my substack. Just Cura Davis dot substack dot com buy my book. I got a desperate not a desperate, but a discouraging email from my publisher today called the state of the publishing industry. And the book industry, as you can imagine, is struggling. I mean, covid gave came with a paper shortage, and then people aren't reading as much anymore. People certainly are reading political books as much anymore. So a lot like the music industry is kind of getting weird and changing and people are struggling to make money there. Publishing is like that too. So if you have even the slightest notion of reading my book or gifting my book to someone, please go do that. Go to Amazon dot com and search drawing lines by Kiera Davis and I'll pop up and um, you can get a signed version of that book. But you'll have to email me for that because that's a private transaction. So uh, jail Ty at proteonmail dot com. All right, I'm taking off now until you meet it every once in a while, just stop and listen to your day. That we won't said, and we won't said all we gotta does no one get tatto? Is gonna be okay that we won't and we won't said all we got it? Does no one get Tatoka. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network where real talk lifts. Visit us online at FCB podcasts dot com.
