Christopher Columbus Says Slavery Was ‘Better than Getting Killed’ in New Videos Approved for Florida Students

First Landing of Christopher Columbus.Photo:Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty

Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty

One of the videos, which has recently gone viral on social media, utilizes Columbus as a means of instructing students about slavery.

“Slavery is as old as time and has taken place in every corner of the world,” the fictional Columbus says in one of the videos. “Even among the people I just left.”

The video continues: “Being taken as a slave is better than being killed, no? Before you judge, you must ask yourself, ‘What did the culture and society of the time treat as no big deal?'”

ThePensacola News Journalreports that in another PragerU video, two children travel back in time to meet Frederick Douglass, the most famous leader of the abolitionist movement to end slavery. In the video, the animated version of Douglass — who was enslaved himself and recounted being brutalized numerous times — seemingly sympathizes with the notion of slavery, calling it a “compromise.”

“I’m certainly not OK with slavery, but the Founding Fathers made a compromise to achieve something great, the making of the United States,” the animated Douglass says in the video, adding: “It was America that began the conversation to end it.”

TheNews Journalreports that another video in the PragerU Kids collection compares protesters in the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement “to Mexican cartel members.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks in Tampa on July 22, 2022.Joe Raedle/Getty

DeSantis himself hasdefended the state’s new education standards around slavery, saying the lessons are “probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.”

In recent months and years, Florida state officials have alsobanned the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in K-12 schools— a move that has led to a battle between the state and The College Board over thenational AP Psychology class, which the company has said cannot count for credit in Florida without the inclusion of lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation.

And a result of a rule implemented in July, Florida students will now berequired to get their parents’ consentbefore using a nickname or alternate name in schools, a move that critics say targets the LGBTQ+ community and could extend well beyond.

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Infootagefrom a 2023 conference in Philadelphia, Prager spoke about a conversation he had with protesters, saying he asked them. “‘I really wanted to hear what evidence do you have that I am despicable?’ And all I heard was, ‘Well, because you indoctrinate kids.’ Which is true. We bring doctrines to children. That is a very fair statement. I said, ‘But what is the bad of our indoctrination?’"

source: people.com