Dear Editor,
Another Florida headline passed by the screens of millions last week, making waves with captions like “a big step backwards” and “new teaching standards say that African Americans benefited from slavery.” These standards have changed the narrative of slavery into an incorrect message that undermines the brutality of the time. They not only contend that enslaved people gained skills, but even go as far as teaching that acts of violence such as the Race Riots in Atlanta and D.C. as well as the massacres in Tulsa and Rosewood were perpetrated by African Americans, according to NBC news.
The far reaching splash of these education standards is felt by many, including the students at VSARN. Although the Vermont Student Anti-Racism Network is geographically distanced from the sunshine state, nevertheless, we are all united as Americans; we stand with all the teachers, activists, organizations, and Floridian students currently battling with these extreme conditions.
At VSARN, our goal is to put students in charge of their social education, and make it so that they can see themselves in the real world. Between the outlawing of teaching current events, to now the glorification of slavery as an economic endeavor for the better of all society, we are deeply saddened. The reason these vast legislative efforts are employed is not for the benefit of the students, in fact it is at their expense. Instead, it is the easy way out. It is easier to simplify history than to teach the complexities of its lasting effects. These new education standards simplify history to make it fit into a cookie cutter mold with linear correlations such as equating indentured servitude to slavery — when one was a choice and the other was a brutal force.
We must not underestimate the youth. If we can handle the pressure of college applications, the weight of family struggles, and the interconnectedness of social media, we are more than capable of learning that Thomas Jefferson was a hypocrite.
Keep up the good fight.
Hudson Ranney and Lydia Beaulieu, Vt Student Anti Racism Network
