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The Opposite of Stockholm Syndrome
After Florida issued its new social studies academic standards for 2023, the following lesson was opposed: Students will examine the various duties and trades performed by slaves. The instruction will include how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.
The new standards, according to critics on both sides of the political aisle, “require middle school students to be taught that the experience of slavery was beneficial to African Americans because it helped them acquire skills.” Critics called the new standards revisionist history, done on purpose to minimize the brutal conditions of slavery.
In order to draw that conclusion, the critics performed what theologians call an eisegesis. That is, reading into the text a meaning that is not there.
Workgroup members of Florida’s African American History Standards, Dr. Willian Allen and Dr. Frances Presley Rice, told the media, “It’s disappointing, but nevertheless unsurprising, that critics would reduce months of work to create Florida’s first ever stand-alone strand of African-American History Standards to a few isolated expressions without context.”
Dr. Allen noted in an interview that the new standards do not declare that slavery was beneficial. He also stated, “We’re talking about the experience of…