When Maggie’s mother was a young RN in Virginia, she was assigned to attend to an extremely ill patient. In Nursing, you do not get to choose your patients. Her mother found out that the man was a KKK member. Maggie’s mother attended to him in his final days up until his death. Her mother shared this brief story with her when Maggie was in Nursing School many years later. She disclosed to Maggie that her dying patient, in his final moments, had shared with her the KKK mission and his vow of secrecy. Sworn to patient confidentiality, she never shared that with Maggie but only that both existed.
Our understanding is that the original Ku Klux Klan consisted of Confederate veterans not pleased with the results of the Civil War and the end of slavery. Much later in the 1920’s, Klan members re-emerged and united to restore white supremacy. Their means was by intimidation and violence aimed at Black and Brown persons.
Today, we believe that we are seeing the Klan agenda of white supremacy played out by Ron DeSantis. He and the Florida State Board of Education recently made major changes to the Florida education standards for African American history. It was announced this week that schools in Florida will now teach that Black people “benefited” from slavery because slavery taught them skills. Schools are advised not to teach about the White mobs that massacred Black people when they tried to register to vote or develop successful communities. It will not teach about the lynching and dismemberment of innocent Black men and women and children while their only crime was being Black and Brown.
Yes, they will teach about slavery that “benefited” an entire culture of people who were torn from their homeland, dragged onto ships where some were sickened and others died. Yes, slavery that taught those Black men who survived the voyage to pull a plow like a mule and to be chained and beaten like animals if they did not comply. And women who were taught and forced into wet nursing for rich white southern women and to succumb to being raped and torn from their families. And many times, a victim of rape had to bear the white man’s babies. Slaves were taught to be fearful and compliant. Yes, what a hell of an education that was!
The summons in Florida today for educators to communicate to their students that slavery was beneficial is disgusting and its only purpose is to whitewash history. How cruel it is for DeSantis and his accompaniment of whites to bring us back to a time when Black and Brown men, women, and children were enslaved because of the color of their skin. What has become of our society that we cannot teach, talk, and learn from all of our history? We have heard of Holocaust deniers and we now are also living through the pain of slavery being pawned as advantageous. How can any one person with a conscience support such cruel actions towards others?
Today’s KKK has merged with Neo-Nazi and other right-wing extremist groups. Violence and other forms of discrimination have once again erupted. We are sickened by this horrid movement led by Ron DeSantis and his wretched followers. It is time to rise up and be heard and be counted. And may we suggest that it is time for the Florida Governor to place himself in the role of an enslaved worker and see how it benefits him!
Rosewood Massacre 1923, Rosewood, Florida
This blog is dedicated to all those who have worked to bring people together and for social justice
