Opinion | There Is a Reason Ron DeSantis Wants History Told a Certain Way

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has recently signed another bill that restricts teaching on racism and racial inequality; this bill specifically applies to colleges and universities, and bans divisive concepts from general education courses. Historian Donald Yacovone’s book, “Teaching White Supremacy: America’s Democratic Ordeal and the Forging of Our National Identity,” highlights the link between history education and the formation of white supremacist ideologies. Pre-Civil War textbook production was dominated by writers from New England, but some Southerners were frustrated by the “Yankee-centric” quality of the historical narratives by the 1850s. Southerners demanded “pro-slavery pedagogy” and textbooks that presented a favorable view of “the institution of Negro slavery.” The rise of pro-slavery ideology among slaveholders, whose lives and livelihoods were tied to the institution of slavery, contributed to Southern elite frustration, and education became the tool by which slaveholding beliefs and ideologies were reproduced in the next generation. Anything that emphasized the equality of all people and challenged existing hierarchies as unnatural and unjust was considered a threat. It appears that for DeSantis and his political allies, history must be told a certain way as well; his signing of the aforementioned bill preventing divisive concepts from being taught in classrooms is part of a broader Republican effort to give public institutions the freedom to censor.

Author: OpenAI