Marvin Dunn, a professor emeritus at Florida International University and author of “A History of Florida: Through Black Eyes,” said DeSantis would gain no political advantage from his argument because “it is so outrageous that people are going to reject it.”

“These children know in their hearts and in their minds that slavery was evil,” he said.

“One of the main things about slavery, beyond the physical damage that it did to people of so many generations, was that it prevented people from becoming what they could have become,” he said.

“So what if you became a carpenter or a blacksmith or a good maid? Your chances of that were not determined by you, it was determined by somebody else. That’s not a rationalization for enslavement.”

Well said

~~That didn't happen.~~ <-- Removing slavery from history lessons.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad. <-- We are now here.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it.

Anne Frank probably never would have become a famous author if not for the Holocaust. It could be said that she actually benefitted from being murdered.

Piss up a rope, DeSantis.

This is one of those things you could only argue in a vacuum

But literally the moment you step out of that it's the stupidest thing you could possibly say. A slave would rather obtain skills that would benefit them towards not being a slave

The diabetes induced amputation of my uncles leg was beneficial to his weight loss goals

That is an unbelievably stupid thing to say.

He knows damn well that this is a stupid stance on the subject, but he also knows damn well that his voting base is made up of some of the dumbest people in America and they’ll believe whatever he says.

His entire platform is based on this exact thing, which is lying to idiots.

Even if there were a non-zero amount of African slaves that somehow had a better life (and to be absolutely clear, they're weren't any), that in no way absolves the practice of slavery for the millions of slaves who's lives were irrevocably harmed. And that's not even touching on the centuries of damage that had and continues to have on the class structure of the US, but I suppose that's the point of statements like this - they want to pretend nothing happened and nothing is wrong now. What an absolutely shit take.

Doing blacksmithing helped develop skills.

The deprivation of humanity, dignity, compensation, etc did not. You know, the slavery part.

Next Desantis will start extolling the benefits to the Jews from the holocaust

Is it me, or does this kind of shit smell like a Trump techniques to get attention, and make libs mad? It's that or pushing the Overton Winslow, or racist and fascist, or now that I wrote this, all of the above.

Maybe we should start making absurd claims from the left, to counteract this kind of crap.

Maybe something like, this argument from DeSantis is a classic repressed homosexual cry for help. We will redirect the next pride parade to go shower him in the asschaps and male thong energy he needs to recover.

There were lots of blacksmiths in Africa and some really advanced metalwork. Go to a museum.

Props for posting the archived article link. Also: Fuck Ronny D.

Bring back the guillotine!

"some blacks"

I am from the Netherlands and read Uncle Tom in school early in my teens, must be desantis favorite "some blacks".

We should help Republicans in Florida the same way

I pray for someone with the access to jump his Homelander-lookin ass