DeSantis hits back at Kamala Harris in Black history feud

Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis is hitting back at Vice President Kamala Harris for criticizing the state’s curriculum that includes the claim that African-American slaves actually benefitted from their own enslavement.

The Republican presidential candidate called out Harris for “perpetrating a hoax” when she accused the Sunshine State of whitewashing the history of slavery and racism in America.

“She’s here to push a fake narrative,” DeSantis said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News’ Jesse Watters. “She (came) to Florida to spew this hoax.”

Harris jetted into Florida last week to denounce the new curriculum along with other efforts DeSantis has made to roll back teaching of Black history in public schools.

The nation’s first Black vice president called the claims “propaganda” being foisted on children.

“They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us, and we will not stand for it,” Harris said Friday in Jacksonville.

Harris accused DeSantis of covering up the true horrors of slavery for political gain.

“Adults know what slavery really involved. It involves rape. It involves torture. It involves taking a baby from their mother,” Harris said. “It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world.”

Harris and President Biden both referred to the issue indirectly again Tuesday at a ceremony establishing a national monument for lynching victim Emmett Till.

DeSantis has declared war on so-called “woke” progressive ideals and has sought to prevent Florida schools from teaching topics that conservatives consider to be negative.

He derides much of teaching about racism as a way to make white children uncomfortable about their place in the nation.

“We’ve got to stop indoctrinating kids in this country,” he told Watters. “We can’t be teaching them to hate America.”

DeSantis scrapped an advanced placement African-American jistory course, claiming it was not rigorous enough.

The broadsides on Black history are part of the broader DeSantis “war on woke” campaign that has included the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law that restricts instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools and attacks on Disney, the state’s largest private employer, for supposedly promoting gay rights.