JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Duval County School Board member is at the center of a post that’s going viral on social media following the Florida Department of Education’s changes to African American studies curriculum.
The photo shows District 4 Board Member Darryl Willie holding up a shirt that reads: “SLAVERY DID NOT BENEFIT BLACK PEOPLE”.
It’s been viewed by millions of users and hit 80,000 likes on Twitter. Some people are even asking where they can buy the shirt.
Willie told First Coast News he made the shirt himself in his garage this weekend, but he didn’t expect it to get so much attention.
We caught up with Willie Friday ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ visit to Jacksonville, where she condemned the new standards.
“Anytime you have a district like ours where you have over 40% of our students identify as African American,” Willie said, “and then you have standards that don’t align to tell their full history. We could do better, and I think we have to realize that, as a community, as a country.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis defended the Department of Education while campaigning in Utah, saying scholars and educators wrote the new instruction. He also distanced himself from the standards by saying he had nothing to do with it.
“These are the most robust standards for African American history probably anywhere in the country,” DeSantis said. “Anyone who reads that will know it’s very thorough, very factual and for them to try to demagogue it, that may have worked in the past, but nobody is buying their nonsense anymore."
The education work group members who wrote the curriculum issued a statement, saying in part quote: “The intent of this particular benchmark clarification is to show that some slaves developed highly specialized trades from which they benefited. This is factual and well-documented.”
Willie says he thinks it’s up to constituents on a state and local level to make change by reaching out to elected officials and the department of education about the curriculum.
“As far as Duval County goes,” Willie said, “we’re going to do everything we can to make sure we, of course, hit those standards. We’re going to do everything we can, too, to make sure we’re fighting to see how we can get even more of that history to our kids.”