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A top Democratic U.S. Senator is furious over “racist, right wing indoctrination” videos produced by a unaccredited conservative organization which downplay or defend slavery, and are now allowed to be used in Florida public school classrooms.
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) on Tuesday called the videos “Abhorrent.”
“The videos,” PEOPLE reported last week, “are the creation of PragerU, an organization founded by conservative radio host Dennis Prager. While the videos are not considered required content in Florida schools, the state’s Department of Education has said the PragerU material ‘aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards’ and ‘can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.’”
One video features an animated Christopher Columbus saying, “Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world. Even amongst the people I just left.”
“Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no?” the animated Columbus continues in the PragerU video. “Before you judge, you must ask yourself, ‘What did the culture and society of the time treat as no big deal?’”
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Senator Murphy says he watched several of the PragerU videos with his young teenaged son. He is now denouncing them.
“My 14 year old heard about these and asked me to sit down a watch a few full videos. There is no context to save these clips,” the Senator said.
“This is racist, right wing indoctrination being piped straight into the bloodstream of schoolchildren. Abhorrent.”
My 14 year old heard about these and asked me to sit down a watch a few full videos. There is no context to save these clips. This is racist, right wing indoctrination being piped straight into the bloodstream of schoolchildren. Abhorrent. https://t.co/Xx2ZxOmrcq
— Chris Murphy ? (@ChrisMurphyCT) August 15, 2023
Earlier this month WUSF, the Tampa NPR station owned by the University of South Florida, reported, “Despite Gov. Ron DeSantis’ repeated assertions that Florida backs ‘education not indoctrination,’ conservative radio host Dennis Prager, the founder of PragerU, has said the content is meant to indoctrinate, showcasing pro-American, Judeo-Christian values.”
NBC News last week noted that “some of the lessons included in PragerU Kids videos” include: “Slavery was a compromise. The Black Lives Matter movement led to more crime. Masculinity helped win World War II.”
One PragerU video includes an animated Frederick Douglass saying, “Children, our founding fathers knew that slavery was evil and wrong. And they knew that it would do terrible harm to the nation. They wanted it to end. But their first priority was getting all 13 colonies to unite as one country.”
Asked if he was “ok with that,” the animated Douglass says in the PragerU video: “The founding fathers made a compromise to achieve something great.”
People are sounding the alarm on the “supplemental curriculum” created by PragerU, an unaccredited right-wing group, that has been approved by Florida schools
Frederick Douglass is depicted in a video, saying founding fathers had to “compromise” on slavery & urges kids to work… pic.twitter.com/kogQSuQL39
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 8, 2023
Watch the videos above or at this link.
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