That Which Does Not Kill Us…

Last week, Vice President Kamala Harris gave a fiery speech attacking Florida’s new standards for teaching African American history, in particular, the teaching about slavery. She said, "just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it." When you have absolutely no ability or skill as a politician, and you are completely unlikeable, your only resort is to try to enflame the racial divide in the country, and she has succeeded in doing so. NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson piggy-backed on Harris’ speech, calling the legislation "an attempt to bring our country back to a 19th century America where black life was not valued, nor our rights protected."

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called Harris's remarks "absolutely ridiculous, totally outrageous", and defended the legislation that he signed into law by stating, “these are the most robust standards in African American history, probably anywhere in the country. Anyone who reads that will see that it's very thorough, very factual, and for them to try to demagogue it... Nobody is buying their nonsense anymore."

Dr. William Allen, a black professor and a member of the Florida African American History Standards Workgroup, who co-authored Florida’s educational curriculum told Fox News that the newly approved curriculum that teaches students about slavery and black history, and “is devoted to telling the truth whereas Kamala Harris has retold a lie.”

At what point in our country did stating observable truths become racist and bigoted? We saw this last week with Robert Kennedy Jr when he stated known facts about the origins of Covid-19 and was called a “racist” and an “antisemite”. When the curriculum says that slaves benefitted in some way from slavery, that was not an endorsement of slavery, it was stating a fact. We all know as human beings that going through hard and difficult times creates a strength and a resiliency in us. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “that which does not kill us, makes us stronger.”

It has been said that Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles musical careers, most likely benefited from being blind. The fact that they could not see caused their other senses, mainly their sense of hearing to become that much more acute, sensitive and nuanced, which they both used to express their musical genius. By stating that fact, no one is claiming that the best thing we can do for young people who are interested in pursuing a music career, is to poke their eyes out. Nobody believes that the fact that Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles were blind, was good for them. They overcame a hardship and turned it into a positive in their life. It is a testament to the human spirit. We can make the observation about how deprivation of one sense, can enhance other senses, without glorifying the loss of the original sense.

A similar observation is made about Jewish people all the time. The long history of suffering and persecution that the Jewish people have endured in their existence, has created a strength, a resiliency, a resourcefulness, and intelligence, which is very beneficial to them today. And it is not non-Jews who are making that observation. I’ve heard many Jewish people make that very observation themselves. The struggles that their people have suffered through for thousands of years has made the Jewish race stronger. It is not racist or bigoted to make that observation. And making that observation is not glorifying nor advocating for the persecution of other people.

That observation only makes sense. Our hardships make us stronger. And that applies to individuals as well as a race of people. Suffering, if we can endure it, makes us stronger. Most people who go through extreme hardships in life, either wither away or are strengthened by it. That’s why going to a weight room and pushing your muscles through pain until failure, makes your muscles stronger. And, conversely, avoiding suffering, avoiding pain, the life of leisure, makes us weaker. To quote from the movie, the Dark Knight Rises, “victory has defeated you.” Former President Teddy Roosevelt once said, "A soft, easy life is not worth living, if it impairs the fibre of brain and heart and muscle. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage."

But Democrats never miss an opportunity to demagogue, though. Andrew Spar, the president of Florida’s Teachers’ Association said, "How can our students ever be equipped for the future if they don't have a full, honest picture of where we've come from?" Wouldn’t Mr. Spar want black children to be taught that members of their race, their ancestors, in particular, who endured unimaginable evil and suffering came through it stronger and victorious? Wouldn’t that build them up, especially since it's true? No, Mr. Spar wants black kids to be taught that they are perpetually victims and can only succeed in life with a handout from the government or some benevolent liberal.

In her speech, Harris also said, "when we send our children to school as parents, we want to know that they're being taught the truth. It is a reasonable expectation." That is coming from one of the leaders of the party which is promoting Radical Gender Ideology to be taught in public school from the earliest ages, teaching kids that boys can be girls, advocating for pornography in elementary school libraries and endorsing grown men dressed in women’s lingerie to read stories to 6-year-olds. When I send my children to school, I want to know that they will not be sexualized by pedophiles and sexual predators. But Kamala Harris’ party is pushing for child sexualization to become the norm.

But if Harris and the rest of the Democrats want children to be taught the truth about slavery, let’s teach the children the truth about slavery. Let’s teach about how the overwhelming majority of the Democrats in Congress in 1864 voted against the 13th amendment to abolish slavery. In 1868, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the 14th amendment to give freed slaves United States citizenship. And in 1870, the Democrats overwhelmingly voted against the 15th amendment which gave black people the right to vote in American elections. All three of those amendments were passed and ratified primarily by Republicans and Republican votes.

While we are at it, let’s teach the children the real truth about America’s history of racism. Let’s teach them about how the Democrats were the party that passed the Jim Crow laws in the South which legalized segregation, and it was the southern Democrats who started the Ku Klux Klan which terrorized and lynched countless black people for decades. The history of racism in America is the history of the Democrat party. But the Democrats are the ones who are teaching a white-washed, revisionist history version of slavery to school children. It’s a fair bet to say that very little of the Democrat sponsored curriculum cares to mention the fact that the Democrats were the party that perpetrated the evil of slavery and segregation on to the black population.

The Democrat party is so intertwined with slavery, that’s the name of the Democrat party should be as reviled of a word as the “n-word” is. The Democrat party stood for everything that the “n-word” represents. We have people going around the country, tearing down statues of Robert E Lee, because he was a general for the Confederate army. The Democrat party was the Confederacy. And the Democrat party’s legacy of racism is still present today. The Democrat party continues to lie to black people. Joe Biden once demagogued an audience of black people, telling them that if Mitt Romney is elected President, he’s “gonna to put you’ll back in chains.” But black people are still in chains. They are chained to the Democrat party who destroyed their past, controls their present and will continue to rob them of their future.

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Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.