See? Even the President is tired of Gov. DeSantis’ anti-CRT nonsense. At the White House reception Monday, celebrating the close of Black History Month, President Joe Biden responded to Florida’s block of a new Advanced Placement African American studies course from being taught in schools, per The Associated Press.
“It’s important to say from the White House for the entire country to hear: History matters. History matters and Black history matters. I can’t just choose to learn what we want to know. We learn what we should know. We have to learn everything, the good, the bad, the truth, and who we are as a nation. That’s what great nations do,” said Biden.
Vice President Kamala Harris echoed Biden’s remarks saying we cannot build a better future for America by trying to erase its past. “American history, living history, breathing history, history that we create every day,” she said.
Despite the book bans and restrictions on anti-racist learning, DeSantis claimed erasing Black history was not his motive. Back in January, the governor touted that Black history should be taught “cut and dry” with all the basic facts and figures, per CNN. He must be referring to the white-washed and watered down version because the topics he worries might make white people feel guilty are in fact basic “facts and figures.”
What his real problem is stems from what he said is the use of Black studies as a ploy to push a political agenda and “queer theory” onto children, per CNN. Little does he know (or acknowledge), he’s the one pushing the political agenda.
Biden didn’t harp too much on the Florida foolery but used most of the time to acknowledge the administration’s recognition of the Black community.
Read more about the reception from ABC News:
He boasted of his administration’s diversity, of his selection of the first female Black vice president and female Black Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and of appointing more Black women to federal circuit courts than “than every other president in history combined.”
At one point, Biden began talking about his ties to the “Divine Nine” — the National Pan-Hellenic Council formed of African American sororities and fraternities — throughout his life in politics.
“I may be white boy, but I’m not stupid,” he said to a round of laughter.
“I know where the power is ... I learned a long time ago about the ‘Divine Nine.’ That’s why I spent so much time in Delaware State campaigns and organizing my campaign in Delaware,” he said, nodding to his time organizing at Delaware State University, a historically Black institution.