Governor Ron DeSantis sent a letter to Vice President Kamala Harris to extend an invitation to discuss Florida’s black history education in schools. The letter includes just the right amount of subtle snark.

The reason there is an opportunity for DeSantis to appear to take the high road in an ongoing war of words about black history curriculum is because Kamala inserted herself into the political hot potato issue. Democrats deliberately distorted new standards in education in Florida because the wildly popular governor is running for president. Kamala and the Democrats want one red state’s school curriculum to be a part of the presidential campaign. The distortion revolves around teaching middle school students that black people got some personal benefits from skills learned while they were slaves.

DeSantis invited Kamala to come and meet with him and Dr. William Allen, one of the black scholars who created the new history curriculum.

“I am prepared to meet as early as Wednesday of this week, but of course want to be deferential to your busy schedule should you already have a trip to the southern border planned for that day,” DeSantis wrote in the letter. “Please let me know as soon as possible. What an example we could set for the nation – a serious conversation on the substance of an important issue! I hope you’re feeling up to it.”

“Over the past several weeks, the Biden Administration has repeatedly disparaged our state and misinformed Americans about our education system. Our state pushed forward nation-leading standalone African American History standards – one of the only states in the nation to require this level of learning about such an important subject. One would think the White House would applaud such boldness in teaching the unique and important story of African American History,” the letter reads.

“It’s past time to set the record straight.”@GovRonDeSantis is inviting @VP to Florida to discuss our new African American history standards with him and Dr. Allen.

Read Governor DeSantis’ letter below: pic.twitter.com/o2W69iJ5il

— Jeremy Redfern (@JeremyRedfernFL) August 1, 2023

Kamala made a big deal of dropping everything (assuming that she actually had something on her schedule) and flying down to Florida on Air Force Two to speak with black Floridians about the new curriculum. Not the curriculum in general, which is setting a new level of learning about black history, but keeping the focus on the distortion being spread for political purposes. She called the curriculum propaganda.

Imagine if Kamala had such determination about finding ways to secure the southern border.

The Florida Board of Education approved a new set of standards for how Black history should be taught in the state’s public schools in July. It wasn’t good enough for the usual suspects – the teacher unions and civil rights advocates. They want the “full truth” about slavery to be taught in schools. The state board rejected a preliminary pilot version of an AP African American Studies course for high school students. It claimed the course lacked education value. That determination set off the current kerfuffle between the DeSantis administration and Democrats, including Kamala.

The new standards require instruction for middle school students to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” a document listing the standards and posted in the Florida Department of Education website said.

When high school students learn about events such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the new rules require that instruction include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” The massacre is considered the deadliest Election Day violence in US history and, according to several histories of the incident, it started when Moses Norman, a prominent Black landowner in the Ocoee, Florida, community, attempted to cast his ballot and was turned away by White poll workers.

Similar standards are noted for lessons about other massacres, including the Atlanta race massacre, the Tulsa race massacre and the Rosewood race massacre.

“Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement condemning the new standards. “It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history.”

Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for the Florida Department of Education, noted the standards were created by a group of 13 educators and academics. One of those academics is Dr. William Allen, a black man. Come on down to Florida, Kamala. Learn about what really is going on by one of the people who put the curriculum together. There is no indication that Kamala has ever read the new curriculum. She is known for not doing her homework before speaking. This is probably another example of her lazy preparation process.

Kamala will be in the state today. She is delivering remarks at the 20th Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Quadrennial Convention. How about meeting with the governor and Dr. Allen tomorrow, Kamala? She could get this phony baloney political hit job all straightened out. She could deliver the truth to the rest of the country with her national platform but the truth isn’t her what she is interested in. She’s campaigning for Old Yeller to keep his job and she can remain just a heartbeat away from the presidency herself. The ugly smear against a red state’s education curriculum is all about holding on to power for Biden, Kamala, and the Democrats in 2024.

Unfortunately, a couple of black Republicans have publicly sided with Kamala in order to ding DeSantis. It’s politics. Republican Rep. Byron Donalds from Florida is a Trump supporter and Senator Tim Scott is competing for the Republican nomination.

On Thursday night, Scott, one of DeSantis’ biggest rivals in the 2024 GOP presidential primary and the only Black Republican running for president spoke out on the new history standards in Florida.

“There is no silver lining in slavery,” he told a reporter, saying that “anything you can learn” while enslaved could also have been learned in freedom.

“Slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating,” Scott said.

I like Tim Scott and he is inching up in polls but did he take the time out on his campaign schedule to read the Florida middle school curriculum? I doubt it.

Does anyone think that there might be a meeting between DeSantis, Dr. Allen, and Kamala to get everyone on the same page? Color me skeptical. Democrats aren’t interested in the truth. They are too busy labeling Republicans as racist and all the other “ists.” It’s good DeSantis is pushing back, though. He should have done it as soon as the phony narrative began. He could have denied Kamala her moment of righteous indignation.