Editor, The Beacon:

We have experienced a noticeable decline in journalistic integrity in recent years, but MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell has plumbed new depths in dishonest reporting. During her interview with Vice President Kamala Harris Feb. 17, Ms. Mitchell prefaced a question with the astounding claim that Gov. DeSantis has said that “slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren.” Despite vociferous protests from the governor’s office, as of this writing several days later, she has issued no apology for this malignant falsehood.

In fact, Florida has required by law that Black history be taught in public schools since 1994, one of only seven states to do so. Gov. DeSantis not only has supported this law, but in 2020, signed into law an expansion of the curriculum to include the 1920 Ocoee election-day riot and the lynching of a Black man for trying to vote. He added accountability requirements for local districts to assure that Black history is being taught.

Recently, DeSantis rejected the proposed advanced-placement course on Black studies, not because he opposed additional Black-history instruction, but because the course syllabus contained several highly objectionable elements, including abolishing prisons, “queer studies,” intersectionality (ranking people by race, wealth, gender and sexual orientation), and “the white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy.”

This woke nonsense has nothing to do with the study of history, and is a naked attempt to indoctrinate, not educate, our kids. His office has made clear that the curriculum should be revised and resubmitted.

I am reminded of the famous retort by a lawyer representing a victim of Joe McCarthy’s witch hunt in the 1950s: “Have you at long last no shame whatsoever?” The folks at MSNBC apparently have none.

John DiChiara

DeLand 

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