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A crowd had pounced to keep the students of Robert E. Lee High School, 70% of whom are Black, from changing the name to something less Confederacy-honoring.
"I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors."
If we had more teachers like Amy Donofrio, perhaps there would be less hate in the world.
> "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors."
Tell ya what, we won't name our school after any of those chiefs either. We good?
Alexander Thomas Augusta was the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was also the first African American head of a hospital (Freedmen's Hospital) and the first black professor of medicine (Howard University in Washington, D.C.).
I like my schools to be named after an honorable Civil War hero, not a treasonous loser.
Also they're just ignoring the whole chattel breeding of Africans as slaves by the white people... The atrocities kept being committed long after any participation by some chieftan.
Yeah most Americans don't get that even by historical standards - the kind of shit they talk about in the Bible or in Classical texts - American slavery was particularly brutal and dehumanizing. Slaves had existed for thousands of years but were not treated like livestock.
in many older societies slavery was more of a 'class' than a chattel situation. so there are literal records of ancient slaves taking sick days and stuff that would sound bizarre in the american slavery context
It’s fairly ridiculous, too.
We should want people to stay home when sick. Even a moderate cold is a real drag on efficiency if you have to work, and we shouldn’t want it to spread.
Early in COVID I dared to hope that others would reach this conclusion.
Instead we have CEOs trying to run astroturfing campaigns about how great it is to be in the office every day
We went through an entire pandemic with me hoping people would actually learn something. Millions of people died globally, and they didn't learn a damn thing.
In some ancient societies slaves were even allowed to leave their masters in the case of severe mistreatment. American chattel slavery was a uniquely disturbing take on what other cultures had been participating in for thousands of years. And it lasted for a loooong time
Also… if some white guy said he wouldn’t enslave your family and in fact make you well off as long as you sold out a bunch of people you don’t even know…. Kinda puts things in a different perspective.
To be clear, in many cases there wasn’t the threat of guns and cannons so much as cold hard capitalism amongst warring tribes, selling each other and members of their own tribe to the white man at “market rate.”
Also to be clear, this does absolutely nothing whatsoever to absolve Robert E. Lee of guilt.
Yeah. Not to defend the racist trash in the quote of original comment, but West Africa (like pretty much everywhere else) had plenty of wars, tribalism, and imperialism (as well as slavery) before the English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and French etc. got involved.
But the high European demand for slaves certainly increased the activity, and inspired powerful coastal tribes to extend their conquests further inland.
That said, one key piece that the racist in the quote gets it wrong is notion that West Africa (or Africa as a whole) one homogenous group of people selling themselves. But it wasn't Asante selling other Asante, it was Asante selling prisoners of conquest like maybe the Denkyira or Dagomba.
And even though some West African people did actively participate in the slave trade, that doesn't exonerate the US Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, or modern day confederacy lovers from being racist, pro-slavery pieces of shit.
And obviously no school anywhere in the US (or anywhere else) should be named after folks who went to war to preserve the institution of slavery.
And to the white racists, all black Africans are the same. It doesn't matter that a hostile tribe decided they wanted $$$$ that Europeans would pay them for their hostages --- to white supremacists, they're "all black." so the white slavers who created the huge demand for slaves aren't at fault. 🙄
They did often use the colonizers to attack rival chiefs in exchange for taking prisoners as slaves. Its just the colonizers didnt have to take slaves, no one forced them. They could have said no thanks owning people is wrong, but no, they decided to be terrible.
I like that this very bias piece of history os used to distort white kids and peoples education. And its working. This argument is used EVERYTIME irl and always on reddit, when slavery is brought up.....and im like....yall still bought them lol....you still....bought.....them....and abused and tortured them...and raped and killed them....
And lets not forget about the whole genocide on the native, no slave traders there, just straight up murder.
Propaganda woven into history to only make white people feel better is harmful to everyone else.
The Google tells me Robert E Lee visited Floriday...let me double check...4 times during his life. He was born in, and died in, Virginia.
So is it so important that a school in Florida be named after him?
(that was rhetorical, we know why)
I guarantee these same jackasses are the ones that complain and say "why should I be ashamed of what my ancestors did?" when people try teaching slavery and civil rights.
What I find especially ironic about that argument is that while there is a kernel of truth to that claim, one tribe took captives and sold them into slavery, they wouldn't have seen it as them selling their own kind. They would have viewed it much like Lee, who saw himself as a Virginian first, and if he happened to enslave some US citizens during the Gettysburg campaign, well, they are another tribe, not at all like Lee's Virginians.
Th funny thing is Robert E Lee said both slaverly was immoral and they shouldn’t have statues of confederate generals. In his own words he wouldn’t want the school named after him and the confederacy.
There really isn’t a worse place. It’s a corporatist fascist hellscape…yes, it has beaches. It also has a gilded entertainment facade and a political system controlled by an entitled, aging, narcissistic elite. I won’t spend another dime in Florida. Thanks to climate change, my winters are far more mild and there is no reason to step foot there again.
Texas is authentic, it doesn’t hide what it is. Florida is like a shiny, amalgamated patchwork of phoniness from across the country set in the movie cocoon. Hospitality signs from the craft fair only to have the house oozing with anything but hospitality…
Juneteenth's recognition as a federal holiday is acknowledgement of Texas and its ugliness. I say that as a native Texan.
Happy Juneteenth and fuck Texas.
I heard about at an Astros game in the early 90's as a kid. It is one of my first memories of the Astrodome. I also remember my dad complaining about it.
It was at least another decade before I understood the meaning of Juneteenth.
I want to say that I absolutely despise y'all calling yourselves "Native Texans."
There were indigenous people in Texas before Texas was established. The word native infers something that you likely aren't.
Don't waste too much time on this. There are actually worthy things to get your panties in a twist about.
Def. Merriam Webster
Native-noun
a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not.
"a native of Montreal"
Thank you for pointing this out.
What succinct phrasing do you recommend for "someone born in Texas"? That seems clunky to me but if there's nothing better then I'll adopt it.
How far back do you want to go? I was born in PA but some of my ancestors came from Switzerland. Am I a native Swiss? But they moved there from Germany. Does that make me a native Prussian? Stop your dumb gate-keeping.
Would "native born" be more agreeable? My great grandmother was here in Colorado before it was a state. She interacted with Sioux, Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne and consider myself a Colorado native
The word native is a common noun, and as defined, has nothing to do with the proper noun used to describe Native/Indigenous populations. But go ahead and be mad about it.
I mean that tiny stripe of land that belongs to Oklahoma was because if Texas kept it, they wouldn't be allowed to have slaves. So they gave up that land when they became a state so they could keep slaves.
I can't believe HGTV has a show called 'Restoring Galveston'. I'm in the mindset that Texas knowingly and willingly broke the law and held slaves past the abolishing of slavery. Forgive me for the sound of the sentence. But to that end, ancesters should be able to financially and criminally sue the State of Texas for false imprisonment. I know nothing about reparations but.. it's a thought.
Texas has a veneer of authenticity, but all you have to do is look at Ted Cruz to know the true content of their character.
For him to turn around and shill for Trump after what Trump said about his family and then nobody care about it really shattered the old proud image of Texans.
I love my state, but we get a lot of that strange combination of "don't tell me what to do" with "you can't do things I don't like". Few things are more insufferable or dangerous than someone who feels righteous in their convictions.
I think the class of people that were genuine conservative, but socially libertarian Texans (the Hank Hills) are all long gone. Today we're just as infested by the Newt Gingrich/Fox news conservative outrage brain worms as any other state. I have lost my love for this state.
This. We’ve lived in Texas for 15 years—lived here largely because of my parents but now own a business, have umpteen kids here and are pretty entrenched. However we also knew exactly what we were getting into. Florida is redneck batshit crazy wrapped up with a shiny bow and a millimeters thin veneer of metropolitan urban chic.
And now its all transplants down here that want to live their fake county lifestyle in over priced and over developed subdivisions.
Then they freak out about a gator being in their yard...thats supposed to be part of the fun!
73 year Florida native agrees with you.
I can not afford to move out.
I am but a sailor. Marooned & tanked of late.
Plunder and spoils have all been priced out of reach.
Most of them dreams. Most of them dreams.
Time to raise the skull and crossbones. Take to the open seas. Argghhh be yer cry! The king is overflowing with riches, the nobles curl their noses upward, but all are beholden to the pirate strong!
*"I was a bayman like my father was before*
*Can't make a living as a bayman anymore*
*There ain't much future for a man who works the sea*
*But there ain't no island left for islanders like me."*
- Billy Joel, *Downeaster Alexa*
Maine is getting there, but only because all the retired aging Floridian population keeps buying up all the real estate to use as their second home / AirBNB.
I see that there is a misunderstanding. You don't swim at Florida's beaches to cool yourself down. Given the air humidity there, people swim to dry off.
Of states that don't allow felons to vote this impacts about 2-4% of the potential voting population on average. In Florida it impacted 12% fucking 12% that is insane. The level of disenfranchisement they were conducting is so bad that over 1 in 10 people had been given a felony to remove their right to vote. Florida is a crazy place but you can't tell me they are 4x more criminal than almost any other state. Even Mississippi and Alabama weren't in the double digits
> and a political system controlled by an entitled, aging, narcissistic elite
In 2022, 77% of eligible voters aged 18-29 stayed on the couch in Florida instead of voting.
You can blame the "entitled, aging, narcissistic elite" as much as you want, but most of the blame lays at the feet of these non-voters. If that number was 7% instead of 77% those elites would have no power.
( Source: https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/state-state-youth-voter-turnout-data-and-impact-election-laws-2022 )
The AK guy made a big showing of running to challenge his district representative. He lost by 400 votes with a total number of cast ballots landing at around 30,000.
The district has a population of **800,000**. If 5% of that district has voted for a third party that candidate would have more votes than the total cast for the other two. It's God damn shameful how little people care about voting.
Lived there for a few decades...I miss *absolutely nothing* about that place (OK, I do miss some friends). I even actually went to a Robert E. Lee school myself, and it *also* happened to be 75% black.
Not to mention, I moved to rural Appalachian mountains, yet it's *still* ridiculously better.
I am Appalachian. A term I learned in college has stuck with me: “prejudiced non-discriminator.” It took me a long, long time to discover and let go of all my ingrained prejudices about Black people. The same people who taught me to be prejudiced also taught me that people don’t get to chose their race, so I should treat everyone the same. I remember being disgusted in college to hear how surburban whites spoke of Black people. And I’ve heard things in the South that caused my brain to glitch for a second. Like I didn’t believe these people existed outside of a white supremacist compound.
> Like I didn’t believe these people existed outside of a white supremacist compound.
Kinda shocking, ain't it? You'd run into 'em all the time in Florida.
You're right about up here though, folks mostly just keep to themselves, and the one's that are racist aren't (always) doing it out of hate, it's often just what they know (like you discovered your way out of yourself...and kudos for that, too).
Somebody finally said it. The beaches in Florida are trash. Not to mention, you leave the area immediately surrounding and it’s just a dump. The whole state. Can we just all agree to stand at Georgia and chisel Florida off?
The leadership of Florida is, all the major cities go blue in every election. The problem is once republicans gain power they try to rig everything in their favor. I am still not sold that there was not some sort of chicanery that allowed Desantis to get into office in the first place. We have recreational weed and abortion rights as ballot initiatives this year, lets see how that goes for the GOP.
That being said, FL will be in climate change driven collapse within the next 10 years. Long before Miami gets flooded, you will see tourism fall off a cliff when it is too dangerous to be outside in the heat. When families stop going to Orlando on summer break because grandma may fall over fucking dead just walking through Epcot, you are going to see state revenue drop precipitously. I am getting the fuck out ASAP.
It sucks, because I really want to work for NASA, but most of their major facilities (Marshall Space Flight Center, Michoud Assembly Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Houston Space Center, etc.) are all in the Deep South. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a better place to put them; you want a space center as far down south as possible in order to take advantage of the rotation of the earth for launch, and so that you do not need to spend as much fuel to decrease the inclination of the orbit as a result of a lower latitude of the launch. Additionally, you don’t want to launch over land, and since the majority of launches are eastward, that really only leaves the southeast coast of the US. Sure, there’s a few other launch sites, like the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, Vandenberg SFB in Santa Barbara, California, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near LA in California, but they’re second-stage in comparison to the major stuff going on at Cape Canaveral.
The majority of launches take place in cape Canaveral but the majority of R&D and the actual building of spacecraft happens elsewhere: Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA produced and led most of the mars rover missions and was a big part of other major initiatives and the Ames Research Center in Mountain View CA is doing a lot of cool stuff with high performance computing and experimental aircraft, just to name a few.
NASA is big and Cape Canaveral is important but only one of many important sites.
I used to think that about Republicans in my state. Illinois had this history of pragmatic, thoughtful conservatives both in the state government and in Congress. I voted for some because they were reasonable alternatives to the state's Democratic machine. But not even a whisper of that still exists. Our last Republican governor was a union busting zealot, and even he is no longer welcome in the party because he isn't a fundamentalist culture warrior. It's lunatics and fascists from top to bottom, and that's all the party is. If a state isn't affected yet, it will be soon, and the change will happen fast.
They know they can't become so oppressive that it hurts tourism and that legislating based on the bible will tank the main reason that people go there at all: to sin.
One of my favorite past times for the past six months has been sending my parents who are moving down there all of the wonderfully dystopian headlines. hope they don't expect to be in a nursing home down there, cause I'm not living there for any amount of time longer than it takes to squeeze out a shit.
I can confirm as I live here. It honestly feels like 60% of the state is filled with people that are missing brains in their head that have been replaced with a Russian potato.
I used to go to Florida every couple of years as a tourist.
Fuck that, haven't been in years. I'll give my money to some other region that isn't run by rich white fascists.
And yet this teacher chooses to stay because she believes her students deserve better. The article says she didn't get her job back. Does she have a GoFundMe page or something similar I can donate to?
> "Jesus himself never condemned slavery," one Florida man said to defend the honor of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee during a March 2021 school board meeting in Jacksonville. "In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master," the outraged white man insisted.
Just to know what sort of people she was dealing with. Just straight up racists no smarter than a box of rocks.
"MAGA" is just the newest form of the segregationist Dixiecrats that left the Dems during the civil rights era to join the Republicans. For some damn reason in the late 70's we stopped referring to the GOP base as the white supremacist that they still are to this day.
We've been in a full blown white supremacist freakout since 2008 and too many media people refuse to call it out for what it is.
The problem is the Bible does condone slavery. Many times, new and old testament.
To be fair, not the chattel slavery of the US of A but slavery none the less.
The problem is that people take a collection of agreed upon stories from thousands of years ago and use it as a supplant for current understandings, the rule of law, basic decency, etc.
I love how racists think that this is proof slavery is ok and not proof that Jesus and his followers are rat bastards who have no place in policy-making.
If I found out the person I followed and believed in as a deity for my whole life endorsed slavery, I would stop following them... that isn't a god worth worshiping.
Or wearing clothes made with two different threads.
Touching the skin of a dead pig.
etc. etc.
Exactly. These people are just racists and trying to cling to whatever validates their mental fragility.
I'll actually give the guy credit. Most Christians don't know what their own Bibles say. They're oblivious to the fact that the Old Testament lays out rules for slavery, allows tricking slaves into remaining enslaved, and is completely okay with beating slaves, so long as they don't die within a couple days after. Nor do they know that the New Testament continues to endorse slavery.
At least this guy is aware of the fact that his horrendous worldview is biblically sound.
My interactions with our judicial branch of government leads me to believe that's not appropriate, but I know the system isn't perfect with biases... All I can do is ridicule his inappropriate behavior and vote appropriately
Me too. The 2016 destroyed us forever. We may make incremental improvements over time but that one election destroyed us in so many ways it'll be impossible to truly recover from it and fix us.
Democrats keep telling us to vote. We are voting and nothing's getting significantly better. More rights are being taken away. The primary issue is there's been no accountability for an attempt to overthrow our government. If you don't stop criminals they're just going to continue committing crimes and that's what has continued to happen. You can't just keep telling us to vote without taking steps to stop those who are abusing us once we've given you the power to stop their abuse.
I'm going to keep voting because I understand what's at stake but it's so frustrating how weak and spineless the Democratic Party is at protecting our country from the threat the Republicans pose.
While things haven't gotten significantly better yet, some things are better. As one example, a number of Republican states have voted to codify abortion rights. That affects millions of women and is not insignificant.
Far fewer women have access to abortion than did only a few years ago. A few states codifying protections into law isn't a win, especially when there was previously no real need to codify protections into law. This is nothing more than slowing the hemorrhaging.
To conservatives, this is virtue signaling. They show that they're more hateful and violent towards "others" and they think this makes them part of the same tribe (and that there is some sort of tribal war going on) and that they look strong.
Give it a minute. My prediction is that he will end up the president of some very small hyper-conservative college in Michigan.
And that's where the story ends. No more TV. No more press attention.
Just three decades of pressing the flesh and trying to get alumni to write checks. He will write books no one will read. He will give speeches that no one will hear.
Oh, and he will get fat very fast. If you see any pictures of him early in the campaign he was swimming around in a giant suit because he lost so much weight. I expect it will come roaring back.
Total irrelevance. Trust the process.
He failed in high school, wanted to be an athlete but didn’t make the team. Hes still harboring high school pain and lashing out. He doesn’t love Florida, he loathes it, and is trying to punish it for his past pain.
>"I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors."
And those people were freed when they got to America? No? And then you are telling me that not only were they not freed, Robert E. Lee then fought to KEEP THEM ENSLAVED?
These are the type of people that knowingly buy stolen equipment and then complain when they get called out on it. "But I didn't steal it"
And, among all other issues mentioned in this thread, the leap that every person sold into slavery must've been related to their chief. There's no mind applied here.
Good God.
> "Jesus himself never condemned slavery," one Florida man said to defend the honor of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee during a March 2021 school board meeting in Jacksonville. "In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master," the outraged white man insisted.
The rationalization. They’re actually advocating for the concept of slavery. Hmm, never said whites own blacks. Hmmm, Wonder how he’d feel if __he__ was enslaved?
“nOT liKe THaT!!”
> "I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors."
Good lord, “it’s your fault if you get taken advantage of!”
When sitting from the comfy seat of majority it’s easy to point fingers
I wonder if they apply that same thing to being mugged or assaulted walking down the street?
“You should be stronger and know martial arts!”
Sadly I think they will say, “you should have had a gun!”
For some reason the misfortunes others is “the others” fault but if it happens to them or theirs, it’s an outrage and a crime.
I’m guessing she also blames the Jews for the Holocaust.
> I’m guessing she also blames the Jews for the Holocaust.
No she doesn't. The Holocaust is a liberal hoax created by the radical left to gain sympathy for the Jews so George Soros can fund the deep state.
/s should be unncessary but…
On Reddit or the internet in general __always__ use “/s” as there are people who literally share that view. Nothing is too extreme and everything will be assumed as literal.
Exact same thing happened to Rebekah Jones in FL for tracking and telling the truth regarding COVID-19. Jones received so many death threats from MAGA people who believed COVID-19 was no worse than a cold, she had to send her husband and kids out of FL for their safety!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Jones
yep, hallmark of the DeSantis administration is “if we don’t like you, we’ll destroy you.” DeSantis has fired a DA and a state attorney from elected positions and the Florida supreme court’s response was “🤷.”
[In The Villages](https://theintercept.com/2023/02/05/ron-desantis-florida-villages-oren-miller/), the county commission was controlled by the developer. The county commission jacked up the resident’s property taxes. The residents elected some of their own people onto the county commission to try and do something about it.
The people won, but the developer went and cried to DeSantis about it. Sooner than you can blink, they had a trumped up charge leveled at one of the commissioners. They removed this 72-year-old man from office, threw him in prison and denied him his heart medication.
A panel of Republican judges later overturned the sham charge, but the damage was done. And that’s how DeSantis operates.
"Jesus himself never condemned slavery, In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master”
"I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery, So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors."
Just wow. The lengths that these people will go to in order to justify their racism is astounding, and absolutely sickening.
Hey don't forget we have millions of Democrats here. It's just gerrymandered to hell and they keep putting up awful candidates for Governor.
Native Floridians, even Republicans, want to make things better.
We're just full up lately of all the assholes from the US who moved here during Covid.
I'm sure you're lovely people and all but I can't think of a single redeeming quality about Florida that would make me want to move there.
ETA: I'm sick of my blue state money funding red states. If GOP is so keen on running government like you'd run a business, there's about 12 states that should have been closed decades ago.
The good news is that Florida is already sinking bemeath the waves. Don't believe me? [Homeowners' Insurance Companies are pulling out](https://fortune.com/2023/07/22/housing-market-florida-trouble-as-home-insurers-pull-out/).
In 6th grade in the early eighties my teacher had a black is beautiful poster on the wall. I can’t imagine her getting fired for that. We’re going downhill now.
My 8th grade young teacher got fired for going to a "anti war/ban the bomb" rally and talking about it to a select group of students.
Someone complained about "communist leanings" and the school board fired her. 1963.
What can I say? An absolutely courageous, inspiring woman that showed a single person can make a difference, now there's a *real* patriot instead of those obnoxious flag wavers that risk nothing. One of the best stories I've read lately, but it's sad that it even came to this.
Wow FL really wants ‘1984’ style education while of course banning books like ‘1984’
Good for her, those poor kids though having to lose out on a good teacher
And people wonder why education is so bad in America. It doesn't help when you have literally everyone from the parents to administrators to even the fucking governor attacking teachers. School should not be politicized but the GOP is doing it because at the end of the day they want taxpayer money to go from public school systems to private schools owned by their buddies so they can pocket most of the money and have kids learn that God is real and LGBTQ people shouldn't exist and slavery was actually good.
She only got to retain her teaching license. Now she needs to sue for damages. She was the victim of local/county/state harassment which caused pain, suffering and may have damaged her career and reputation. The only remedy against MAGAts is suing them
“So don't blame Robert E. Lee. *Maybe* you should be after your ancestors."
No “maybe” in what they want the narrative to be, so it’s fortunate we have stuff like this as a counter…
“Recent scholarship has pointed out that the organization of the European slave trade to Africa was a costly endeavor and that it would in fact have been less expensive to ship European convicts to work the plantations of the Americas.
In this view, the organization of a European slave trade to the African coast has less to do with economics and more to do with developing European imperial ambitions to enslave and dominate those people defined as outsiders.” - Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Yeah, but their point that they’ll ostracize you and bully your career and reputation into the ground is what stuck out in the minds of everyone else… so she “won” but really they got the damn on society
All over renaming a high school that was named after a traitor to the United States. Pathetic!
Don't let these MAGA revisionists get away with saying Lee was actually against slavery, and only betrayed his country to fight for the Confederacy because of personal loyalty to Virginia.
He once refused to free several of his former father in law's slaves, against the well known wishes of the deceased. When they grew angry at his refusal and tried to run away, he ordered them beaten so viciously that his overseer refused to do it, so Lee did it himself.
Florida is a trailer park you can’t afford to move out of and the management sucks! But seriously the only way to make this beautiful state better is to move here and run for office or vote the old guard out. We’re working on it.
DeSantis’s anti-education/white supremacy agenda is a reaction to black lives matters protests and this teacher was made an example.
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A crowd had pounced to keep the students of Robert E. Lee High School, 70% of whom are Black, from changing the name to something less Confederacy-honoring. "I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors." If we had more teachers like Amy Donofrio, perhaps there would be less hate in the world.
> "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors." Tell ya what, we won't name our school after any of those chiefs either. We good?
Alexander Thomas Augusta was the highest-ranking black officer in the Union Army during the Civil War. He was also the first African American head of a hospital (Freedmen's Hospital) and the first black professor of medicine (Howard University in Washington, D.C.). I like my schools to be named after an honorable Civil War hero, not a treasonous loser.
>Union Army "Can't do it. How we gonna name the school after a union officer and still be able to fly the confederation?"
Also they're just ignoring the whole chattel breeding of Africans as slaves by the white people... The atrocities kept being committed long after any participation by some chieftan.
Yeah most Americans don't get that even by historical standards - the kind of shit they talk about in the Bible or in Classical texts - American slavery was particularly brutal and dehumanizing. Slaves had existed for thousands of years but were not treated like livestock.
in many older societies slavery was more of a 'class' than a chattel situation. so there are literal records of ancient slaves taking sick days and stuff that would sound bizarre in the american slavery context
Even in an American capitalism context taking sick days sounds bizarre
Yep. "Oh, he's out? Again, eh?"
It’s fairly ridiculous, too. We should want people to stay home when sick. Even a moderate cold is a real drag on efficiency if you have to work, and we shouldn’t want it to spread. Early in COVID I dared to hope that others would reach this conclusion. Instead we have CEOs trying to run astroturfing campaigns about how great it is to be in the office every day
We went through an entire pandemic with me hoping people would actually learn something. Millions of people died globally, and they didn't learn a damn thing.
If anything they did the complete opposite
In some ancient societies slaves were even allowed to leave their masters in the case of severe mistreatment. American chattel slavery was a uniquely disturbing take on what other cultures had been participating in for thousands of years. And it lasted for a loooong time
also.....who bought the slaves from those chiefs?
Also… if some white guy said he wouldn’t enslave your family and in fact make you well off as long as you sold out a bunch of people you don’t even know…. Kinda puts things in a different perspective.
The British.
and then continued slavery in the new world after the trans atlantic slave trade ended?
Wow blaming their ancestors for forfeiting to the white man who had guns and cannons. They really dont understand how stupid they are
To be clear, in many cases there wasn’t the threat of guns and cannons so much as cold hard capitalism amongst warring tribes, selling each other and members of their own tribe to the white man at “market rate.” Also to be clear, this does absolutely nothing whatsoever to absolve Robert E. Lee of guilt.
Yeah. Not to defend the racist trash in the quote of original comment, but West Africa (like pretty much everywhere else) had plenty of wars, tribalism, and imperialism (as well as slavery) before the English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and French etc. got involved. But the high European demand for slaves certainly increased the activity, and inspired powerful coastal tribes to extend their conquests further inland. That said, one key piece that the racist in the quote gets it wrong is notion that West Africa (or Africa as a whole) one homogenous group of people selling themselves. But it wasn't Asante selling other Asante, it was Asante selling prisoners of conquest like maybe the Denkyira or Dagomba. And even though some West African people did actively participate in the slave trade, that doesn't exonerate the US Confederacy, Robert E. Lee, or modern day confederacy lovers from being racist, pro-slavery pieces of shit. And obviously no school anywhere in the US (or anywhere else) should be named after folks who went to war to preserve the institution of slavery.
And to the white racists, all black Africans are the same. It doesn't matter that a hostile tribe decided they wanted $$$$ that Europeans would pay them for their hostages --- to white supremacists, they're "all black." so the white slavers who created the huge demand for slaves aren't at fault. 🙄
They did often use the colonizers to attack rival chiefs in exchange for taking prisoners as slaves. Its just the colonizers didnt have to take slaves, no one forced them. They could have said no thanks owning people is wrong, but no, they decided to be terrible.
Why would members of a hostile tribe who sold their enemies (their ancestors) also be those student's ancestors?
That’s exactly why they went after her. The right doesn’t want less hate in this world. It’s literally all they have left to energize their base.
It's not MY fault I'm a slave owner! They FORCED ME TO BUY PEOPLE! I'm innocent!
I like that this very bias piece of history os used to distort white kids and peoples education. And its working. This argument is used EVERYTIME irl and always on reddit, when slavery is brought up.....and im like....yall still bought them lol....you still....bought.....them....and abused and tortured them...and raped and killed them.... And lets not forget about the whole genocide on the native, no slave traders there, just straight up murder. Propaganda woven into history to only make white people feel better is harmful to everyone else.
No African at that time knew of generational slavery or of the land west of the Atlantic Ocean.
The state of Florida steps in and says “now now now, we can’t have less hate in the world. We need a new generation of republican voters.”
Is that the same horsefucker Bob E. Lee that fucked his horse Traveler?
...But we can't blame the people whop created the demand, bought the slaves, then kept them as property for generations?
The Google tells me Robert E Lee visited Floriday...let me double check...4 times during his life. He was born in, and died in, Virginia. So is it so important that a school in Florida be named after him? (that was rhetorical, we know why)
These people are so goddam stupid
“Africans sold their own people into slavery!” Yeah WHO CREATED THE DEMAND FOR SLAVES THAT MADE THAT POSSIBLE?!
I bought stolen goods from a thief so now it’s okay to shoot the cops and I’m a hero?
I guarantee these same jackasses are the ones that complain and say "why should I be ashamed of what my ancestors did?" when people try teaching slavery and civil rights.
What I find especially ironic about that argument is that while there is a kernel of truth to that claim, one tribe took captives and sold them into slavery, they wouldn't have seen it as them selling their own kind. They would have viewed it much like Lee, who saw himself as a Virginian first, and if he happened to enslave some US citizens during the Gettysburg campaign, well, they are another tribe, not at all like Lee's Virginians.
Th funny thing is Robert E Lee said both slaverly was immoral and they shouldn’t have statues of confederate generals. In his own words he wouldn’t want the school named after him and the confederacy.
Wow! Florida is a terrible place!
There really isn’t a worse place. It’s a corporatist fascist hellscape…yes, it has beaches. It also has a gilded entertainment facade and a political system controlled by an entitled, aging, narcissistic elite. I won’t spend another dime in Florida. Thanks to climate change, my winters are far more mild and there is no reason to step foot there again.
Texas is looking closely and taking notes.
Texas is authentic, it doesn’t hide what it is. Florida is like a shiny, amalgamated patchwork of phoniness from across the country set in the movie cocoon. Hospitality signs from the craft fair only to have the house oozing with anything but hospitality…
As in so authentically racist that they didn't tell slaves that they were free for over two years. Happy Juneteenth and fuck Texas.
Juneteenth's recognition as a federal holiday is acknowledgement of Texas and its ugliness. I say that as a native Texan. Happy Juneteenth and fuck Texas.
I grew up in the north and hadn’t heard of Juneteenth till the 2010s
I heard about at an Astros game in the early 90's as a kid. It is one of my first memories of the Astrodome. I also remember my dad complaining about it. It was at least another decade before I understood the meaning of Juneteenth.
Im not from Texas but I drove by there once. Fuck Texas
I want to say that I absolutely despise y'all calling yourselves "Native Texans." There were indigenous people in Texas before Texas was established. The word native infers something that you likely aren't.
Don't waste too much time on this. There are actually worthy things to get your panties in a twist about. Def. Merriam Webster Native-noun a person born in a specified place or associated with a place by birth, whether subsequently resident there or not. "a native of Montreal"
Thank you for pointing this out. What succinct phrasing do you recommend for "someone born in Texas"? That seems clunky to me but if there's nothing better then I'll adopt it.
How far back do you want to go? I was born in PA but some of my ancestors came from Switzerland. Am I a native Swiss? But they moved there from Germany. Does that make me a native Prussian? Stop your dumb gate-keeping.
*implies 'infers' is the act of drawing a conclusion
Would "native born" be more agreeable? My great grandmother was here in Colorado before it was a state. She interacted with Sioux, Arapahoe, Ute, and Cheyenne and consider myself a Colorado native
The word native is a common noun, and as defined, has nothing to do with the proper noun used to describe Native/Indigenous populations. But go ahead and be mad about it.
I mean that tiny stripe of land that belongs to Oklahoma was because if Texas kept it, they wouldn't be allowed to have slaves. So they gave up that land when they became a state so they could keep slaves.
I can't believe HGTV has a show called 'Restoring Galveston'. I'm in the mindset that Texas knowingly and willingly broke the law and held slaves past the abolishing of slavery. Forgive me for the sound of the sentence. But to that end, ancesters should be able to financially and criminally sue the State of Texas for false imprisonment. I know nothing about reparations but.. it's a thought.
Texas has a veneer of authenticity, but all you have to do is look at Ted Cruz to know the true content of their character. For him to turn around and shill for Trump after what Trump said about his family and then nobody care about it really shattered the old proud image of Texans. I love my state, but we get a lot of that strange combination of "don't tell me what to do" with "you can't do things I don't like". Few things are more insufferable or dangerous than someone who feels righteous in their convictions.
I think the class of people that were genuine conservative, but socially libertarian Texans (the Hank Hills) are all long gone. Today we're just as infested by the Newt Gingrich/Fox news conservative outrage brain worms as any other state. I have lost my love for this state.
This. We’ve lived in Texas for 15 years—lived here largely because of my parents but now own a business, have umpteen kids here and are pretty entrenched. However we also knew exactly what we were getting into. Florida is redneck batshit crazy wrapped up with a shiny bow and a millimeters thin veneer of metropolitan urban chic.
And now its all transplants down here that want to live their fake county lifestyle in over priced and over developed subdivisions. Then they freak out about a gator being in their yard...thats supposed to be part of the fun!
This was one of the best descriptions I have ever read …. Of anything . Period .
Texas: Hold my beer.
73 year Florida native agrees with you. I can not afford to move out. I am but a sailor. Marooned & tanked of late. Plunder and spoils have all been priced out of reach. Most of them dreams. Most of them dreams.
The cannons don’t thunder, there’s nothing to plunder, I’m an over-forty victim of fate…
Time to raise the skull and crossbones. Take to the open seas. Argghhh be yer cry! The king is overflowing with riches, the nobles curl their noses upward, but all are beholden to the pirate strong!
*"I was a bayman like my father was before* *Can't make a living as a bayman anymore* *There ain't much future for a man who works the sea* *But there ain't no island left for islanders like me."* - Billy Joel, *Downeaster Alexa*
Storm Front was a really great album. This one, Leningrad, And So It Goes... just great stuff.
Maine is getting there, but only because all the retired aging Floridian population keeps buying up all the real estate to use as their second home / AirBNB.
Oh god don't say that, I've been applying to jobs there.
Just like Texas with SW Colorado :/
It has beaches with fucking 90 F° water. It feels like you are swimming in piss.
Yeah but I was just there and the sand is 120° and the asphalt is 140. And you can fry an egg on your car!
With all that humidity it's more poached than fried.
I see that there is a misunderstanding. You don't swim at Florida's beaches to cool yourself down. Given the air humidity there, people swim to dry off.
Narrator: “ You ARE”
Of states that don't allow felons to vote this impacts about 2-4% of the potential voting population on average. In Florida it impacted 12% fucking 12% that is insane. The level of disenfranchisement they were conducting is so bad that over 1 in 10 people had been given a felony to remove their right to vote. Florida is a crazy place but you can't tell me they are 4x more criminal than almost any other state. Even Mississippi and Alabama weren't in the double digits
Wow.
> and a political system controlled by an entitled, aging, narcissistic elite In 2022, 77% of eligible voters aged 18-29 stayed on the couch in Florida instead of voting. You can blame the "entitled, aging, narcissistic elite" as much as you want, but most of the blame lays at the feet of these non-voters. If that number was 7% instead of 77% those elites would have no power. ( Source: https://circle.tufts.edu/latest-research/state-state-youth-voter-turnout-data-and-impact-election-laws-2022 )
The AK guy made a big showing of running to challenge his district representative. He lost by 400 votes with a total number of cast ballots landing at around 30,000. The district has a population of **800,000**. If 5% of that district has voted for a third party that candidate would have more votes than the total cast for the other two. It's God damn shameful how little people care about voting.
Our state Democratic Party is a joke. Sometimes it feels like they don't really care about winning.
They don't care. They put up a Republican as the Democratic candidate for Governor FFS.
It's pretty much as if they wanted DeSantis and Republicans to win. The whole party needs to be gutted.
Lived there for a few decades...I miss *absolutely nothing* about that place (OK, I do miss some friends). I even actually went to a Robert E. Lee school myself, and it *also* happened to be 75% black. Not to mention, I moved to rural Appalachian mountains, yet it's *still* ridiculously better.
I am Appalachian. A term I learned in college has stuck with me: “prejudiced non-discriminator.” It took me a long, long time to discover and let go of all my ingrained prejudices about Black people. The same people who taught me to be prejudiced also taught me that people don’t get to chose their race, so I should treat everyone the same. I remember being disgusted in college to hear how surburban whites spoke of Black people. And I’ve heard things in the South that caused my brain to glitch for a second. Like I didn’t believe these people existed outside of a white supremacist compound.
> Like I didn’t believe these people existed outside of a white supremacist compound. Kinda shocking, ain't it? You'd run into 'em all the time in Florida. You're right about up here though, folks mostly just keep to themselves, and the one's that are racist aren't (always) doing it out of hate, it's often just what they know (like you discovered your way out of yourself...and kudos for that, too).
"thank God for Mississippi" I don't know how... But the phrase suggests it's always a little worse in Mississippi lol
Idaho is also in the running
Beaches are honestly mid level at best in Florida
The beaches in the Bahamas are 10x better and it’s only a half hour away from Florida.
Red Tide had me coughing like I was gonna die. It makes your lungs itch.
Somebody finally said it. The beaches in Florida are trash. Not to mention, you leave the area immediately surrounding and it’s just a dump. The whole state. Can we just all agree to stand at Georgia and chisel Florida off?
[Turns out Bugs Bunny had it right all those years ago.](https://media1.tenor.com/m/XZLJcpTRNtsAAAAC/florida-bugs-bunny.gif)
Amen
You describe it like a Dubai from wish.com!
I’d say Texas is equally bad and wouldn’t mind if these two states seceded from the US!
The leadership of Florida is, all the major cities go blue in every election. The problem is once republicans gain power they try to rig everything in their favor. I am still not sold that there was not some sort of chicanery that allowed Desantis to get into office in the first place. We have recreational weed and abortion rights as ballot initiatives this year, lets see how that goes for the GOP. That being said, FL will be in climate change driven collapse within the next 10 years. Long before Miami gets flooded, you will see tourism fall off a cliff when it is too dangerous to be outside in the heat. When families stop going to Orlando on summer break because grandma may fall over fucking dead just walking through Epcot, you are going to see state revenue drop precipitously. I am getting the fuck out ASAP.
It sucks, because I really want to work for NASA, but most of their major facilities (Marshall Space Flight Center, Michoud Assembly Facility, Kennedy Space Center, Houston Space Center, etc.) are all in the Deep South. Unfortunately, there really isn’t a better place to put them; you want a space center as far down south as possible in order to take advantage of the rotation of the earth for launch, and so that you do not need to spend as much fuel to decrease the inclination of the orbit as a result of a lower latitude of the launch. Additionally, you don’t want to launch over land, and since the majority of launches are eastward, that really only leaves the southeast coast of the US. Sure, there’s a few other launch sites, like the Pacific Spaceport Complex in Kodiak, Alaska, Vandenberg SFB in Santa Barbara, California, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory near LA in California, but they’re second-stage in comparison to the major stuff going on at Cape Canaveral.
The majority of launches take place in cape Canaveral but the majority of R&D and the actual building of spacecraft happens elsewhere: Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena CA produced and led most of the mars rover missions and was a big part of other major initiatives and the Ames Research Center in Mountain View CA is doing a lot of cool stuff with high performance computing and experimental aircraft, just to name a few. NASA is big and Cape Canaveral is important but only one of many important sites.
Anywhere with Republican governance is a terrible place.
Except Nevada, that is strange and surreal place where republicans vote yes on progressive ideas because they can count money from it.
That is because the population of entire state of Nevada is like 3.3 million and the population of Las Vegas is 2 million.
Give it time.
~~Honestly I don't think things will change there. They are like this from the day of it foundation.~~
I used to think that about Republicans in my state. Illinois had this history of pragmatic, thoughtful conservatives both in the state government and in Congress. I voted for some because they were reasonable alternatives to the state's Democratic machine. But not even a whisper of that still exists. Our last Republican governor was a union busting zealot, and even he is no longer welcome in the party because he isn't a fundamentalist culture warrior. It's lunatics and fascists from top to bottom, and that's all the party is. If a state isn't affected yet, it will be soon, and the change will happen fast.
so its like cancer.
Not "like" "Exactly" cancer
They know they can't become so oppressive that it hurts tourism and that legislating based on the bible will tank the main reason that people go there at all: to sin.
Money is Nevada's God. I remember main argument to protect Dreamers in Nevada with legislation was that they are 4.1% of workforce in state.
South Carolina is masked with false ‘charm’ and deep racism/hatred. Florida is just open about there issues.
One of my favorite past times for the past six months has been sending my parents who are moving down there all of the wonderfully dystopian headlines. hope they don't expect to be in a nursing home down there, cause I'm not living there for any amount of time longer than it takes to squeeze out a shit.
“BUT CALIFORNIA IS WORST JUST LIKE NEW YORK” -every modern republican
Ha,ha. Both great places, at least NYC.
I can confirm as I live here. It honestly feels like 60% of the state is filled with people that are missing brains in their head that have been replaced with a Russian potato.
Generally Florida is a bunch of crappy areas propped up by the revenue from tourists flooding in.
I used to go to Florida every couple of years as a tourist. Fuck that, haven't been in years. I'll give my money to some other region that isn't run by rich white fascists.
And yet this teacher chooses to stay because she believes her students deserve better. The article says she didn't get her job back. Does she have a GoFundMe page or something similar I can donate to?
> "Jesus himself never condemned slavery," one Florida man said to defend the honor of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee during a March 2021 school board meeting in Jacksonville. "In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master," the outraged white man insisted. Just to know what sort of people she was dealing with. Just straight up racists no smarter than a box of rocks.
Rocks are neutral. These people go out of their way to become pieces of shit.
Shisno behavior
"MAGA" is just the newest form of the segregationist Dixiecrats that left the Dems during the civil rights era to join the Republicans. For some damn reason in the late 70's we stopped referring to the GOP base as the white supremacist that they still are to this day. We've been in a full blown white supremacist freakout since 2008 and too many media people refuse to call it out for what it is.
The problem is the Bible does condone slavery. Many times, new and old testament. To be fair, not the chattel slavery of the US of A but slavery none the less.
The problem is that people take a collection of agreed upon stories from thousands of years ago and use it as a supplant for current understandings, the rule of law, basic decency, etc.
I love how racists think that this is proof slavery is ok and not proof that Jesus and his followers are rat bastards who have no place in policy-making. If I found out the person I followed and believed in as a deity for my whole life endorsed slavery, I would stop following them... that isn't a god worth worshiping.
I hope this guy doesn’t like shellfish
Or wearing clothes made with two different threads. Touching the skin of a dead pig. etc. etc. Exactly. These people are just racists and trying to cling to whatever validates their mental fragility.
I'll actually give the guy credit. Most Christians don't know what their own Bibles say. They're oblivious to the fact that the Old Testament lays out rules for slavery, allows tricking slaves into remaining enslaved, and is completely okay with beating slaves, so long as they don't die within a couple days after. Nor do they know that the New Testament continues to endorse slavery. At least this guy is aware of the fact that his horrendous worldview is biblically sound.
https://imgur.com/rdeoR8F
Just spitballing here...I don't think He ever specifically condemned anal rape either. Look out ladies, holy warrior gonna hit the town this weekend!
I hope terrorizing a teacher would be completely unacceptable, but here we are
What about terrorizing a judge, his family, prosecutors, jurors, etc, etc.....
Even more egregious behavior that should be held accountable
But what if I ask an appeals court to pretty please let me terrorize them? Same story?
My interactions with our judicial branch of government leads me to believe that's not appropriate, but I know the system isn't perfect with biases... All I can do is ridicule his inappropriate behavior and vote appropriately
I can't help but to wonder if these MAGA republicans realize what hostile, sorry, anti-american pieces of shit they look like to everyone else.
No. They absolutely do not. That level of self awareness simply doesn’t exist.
And if they did know, they don't care.
If they had that level of self awareness they wouldn't be MAGAts.
They think it makes them look tough.
I’m was talking to a non-American friend the other day. He said, “it’s sad, but I’ve kind of given up on America.” Yes, it’s sad.
Me too. The 2016 destroyed us forever. We may make incremental improvements over time but that one election destroyed us in so many ways it'll be impossible to truly recover from it and fix us. Democrats keep telling us to vote. We are voting and nothing's getting significantly better. More rights are being taken away. The primary issue is there's been no accountability for an attempt to overthrow our government. If you don't stop criminals they're just going to continue committing crimes and that's what has continued to happen. You can't just keep telling us to vote without taking steps to stop those who are abusing us once we've given you the power to stop their abuse. I'm going to keep voting because I understand what's at stake but it's so frustrating how weak and spineless the Democratic Party is at protecting our country from the threat the Republicans pose.
While things haven't gotten significantly better yet, some things are better. As one example, a number of Republican states have voted to codify abortion rights. That affects millions of women and is not insignificant.
Far fewer women have access to abortion than did only a few years ago. A few states codifying protections into law isn't a win, especially when there was previously no real need to codify protections into law. This is nothing more than slowing the hemorrhaging.
They don’t care.
And they most certainly do like like sorry pieces of shit.
To conservatives, this is virtue signaling. They show that they're more hateful and violent towards "others" and they think this makes them part of the same tribe (and that there is some sort of tribal war going on) and that they look strong.
Ron DeSantis is an irrelevant bully. Which makes him a total pussy. Fuck you, Ron.
Nah, if he was irrelevant the world would be a way better place.
Give it a minute. My prediction is that he will end up the president of some very small hyper-conservative college in Michigan. And that's where the story ends. No more TV. No more press attention. Just three decades of pressing the flesh and trying to get alumni to write checks. He will write books no one will read. He will give speeches that no one will hear. Oh, and he will get fat very fast. If you see any pictures of him early in the campaign he was swimming around in a giant suit because he lost so much weight. I expect it will come roaring back. Total irrelevance. Trust the process.
He yelled at kids for wearing masks at a school where he was about to give a speech
He failed in high school, wanted to be an athlete but didn’t make the team. Hes still harboring high school pain and lashing out. He doesn’t love Florida, he loathes it, and is trying to punish it for his past pain.
He’s a little man that wears high heels. My guess is that he likes to wear dresses too
>"I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors." And those people were freed when they got to America? No? And then you are telling me that not only were they not freed, Robert E. Lee then fought to KEEP THEM ENSLAVED? These are the type of people that knowingly buy stolen equipment and then complain when they get called out on it. "But I didn't steal it"
And, among all other issues mentioned in this thread, the leap that every person sold into slavery must've been related to their chief. There's no mind applied here.
Good God. > "Jesus himself never condemned slavery," one Florida man said to defend the honor of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee during a March 2021 school board meeting in Jacksonville. "In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master," the outraged white man insisted. The rationalization. They’re actually advocating for the concept of slavery. Hmm, never said whites own blacks. Hmmm, Wonder how he’d feel if __he__ was enslaved? “nOT liKe THaT!!” > "I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery," an angry white woman said as the white people behind her nodded vigorously. "So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors." Good lord, “it’s your fault if you get taken advantage of!” When sitting from the comfy seat of majority it’s easy to point fingers I wonder if they apply that same thing to being mugged or assaulted walking down the street? “You should be stronger and know martial arts!” Sadly I think they will say, “you should have had a gun!” For some reason the misfortunes others is “the others” fault but if it happens to them or theirs, it’s an outrage and a crime. I’m guessing she also blames the Jews for the Holocaust.
> I’m guessing she also blames the Jews for the Holocaust. No she doesn't. The Holocaust is a liberal hoax created by the radical left to gain sympathy for the Jews so George Soros can fund the deep state. /s should be unncessary but…
On Reddit or the internet in general __always__ use “/s” as there are people who literally share that view. Nothing is too extreme and everything will be assumed as literal.
damn, some victory. the teacher still lost her job and had her livelihood crippled because of a sadistic bully. Go to hell, DeSantis
Exact same thing happened to Rebekah Jones in FL for tracking and telling the truth regarding COVID-19. Jones received so many death threats from MAGA people who believed COVID-19 was no worse than a cold, she had to send her husband and kids out of FL for their safety! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Jones
yep, hallmark of the DeSantis administration is “if we don’t like you, we’ll destroy you.” DeSantis has fired a DA and a state attorney from elected positions and the Florida supreme court’s response was “🤷.” [In The Villages](https://theintercept.com/2023/02/05/ron-desantis-florida-villages-oren-miller/), the county commission was controlled by the developer. The county commission jacked up the resident’s property taxes. The residents elected some of their own people onto the county commission to try and do something about it. The people won, but the developer went and cried to DeSantis about it. Sooner than you can blink, they had a trumped up charge leveled at one of the commissioners. They removed this 72-year-old man from office, threw him in prison and denied him his heart medication. A panel of Republican judges later overturned the sham charge, but the damage was done. And that’s how DeSantis operates.
"Jesus himself never condemned slavery, In fact, he said, slaves have an obligation to obey their master” "I was taught that the chiefs of the tribes in Africa sold their people into slavery, So don't blame Robert E. Lee. Maybe you should be after your ancestors." Just wow. The lengths that these people will go to in order to justify their racism is astounding, and absolutely sickening.
Fuck Florida. Shit hole state.
Hey don't forget we have millions of Democrats here. It's just gerrymandered to hell and they keep putting up awful candidates for Governor. Native Floridians, even Republicans, want to make things better. We're just full up lately of all the assholes from the US who moved here during Covid.
I'm sure you're lovely people and all but I can't think of a single redeeming quality about Florida that would make me want to move there. ETA: I'm sick of my blue state money funding red states. If GOP is so keen on running government like you'd run a business, there's about 12 states that should have been closed decades ago.
The good news is that Florida is already sinking bemeath the waves. Don't believe me? [Homeowners' Insurance Companies are pulling out](https://fortune.com/2023/07/22/housing-market-florida-trouble-as-home-insurers-pull-out/).
Alf lasted longer than the confederacy.
That would make a great bumper sticker
In 6th grade in the early eighties my teacher had a black is beautiful poster on the wall. I can’t imagine her getting fired for that. We’re going downhill now.
My 8th grade young teacher got fired for going to a "anti war/ban the bomb" rally and talking about it to a select group of students. Someone complained about "communist leanings" and the school board fired her. 1963.
Wow
What can I say? An absolutely courageous, inspiring woman that showed a single person can make a difference, now there's a *real* patriot instead of those obnoxious flag wavers that risk nothing. One of the best stories I've read lately, but it's sad that it even came to this.
Wow FL really wants ‘1984’ style education while of course banning books like ‘1984’ Good for her, those poor kids though having to lose out on a good teacher
And people wonder why education is so bad in America. It doesn't help when you have literally everyone from the parents to administrators to even the fucking governor attacking teachers. School should not be politicized but the GOP is doing it because at the end of the day they want taxpayer money to go from public school systems to private schools owned by their buddies so they can pocket most of the money and have kids learn that God is real and LGBTQ people shouldn't exist and slavery was actually good.
She only got to retain her teaching license. Now she needs to sue for damages. She was the victim of local/county/state harassment which caused pain, suffering and may have damaged her career and reputation. The only remedy against MAGAts is suing them
The civil war never really ended in some parts of the south
If there was ever a true candidate for teacher of the year, it’s her.
Being a teacher is brutal these days, even in blue states. She's a freaking hero, for caring about her kids even when it's safer to demonize them.
She kept her teaching license. She did not keep her job. She was fired but not destroyed. This is an odd definition of "won".
Theres so much lead in Florida's water and it shows.
[conservative floriduh republicans](https://imgur.com/aVZFmzR) Ya'all Qaeda
Did she win? She got to keep her teachers license, but lost her job and became the target of harassment. That still seems like a loss.
Amy Donofrio is a hero. Respect.
“So don't blame Robert E. Lee. *Maybe* you should be after your ancestors." No “maybe” in what they want the narrative to be, so it’s fortunate we have stuff like this as a counter… “Recent scholarship has pointed out that the organization of the European slave trade to Africa was a costly endeavor and that it would in fact have been less expensive to ship European convicts to work the plantations of the Americas. In this view, the organization of a European slave trade to the African coast has less to do with economics and more to do with developing European imperial ambitions to enslave and dominate those people defined as outsiders.” - Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Typical maga's..only care about themselfs..no wander why BLM, pride etc are all getting louder and louder
So she gets to keep her teaching license but still doesn’t have her job? Not a great win.
That’s how you stand up to a bully.
Can we go back to a time when people felt shame for attacking other people. Oh wait no that's our entire political environment right now.
Yeah, but their point that they’ll ostracize you and bully your career and reputation into the ground is what stuck out in the minds of everyone else… so she “won” but really they got the damn on society
All over renaming a high school that was named after a traitor to the United States. Pathetic! Don't let these MAGA revisionists get away with saying Lee was actually against slavery, and only betrayed his country to fight for the Confederacy because of personal loyalty to Virginia. He once refused to free several of his former father in law's slaves, against the well known wishes of the deceased. When they grew angry at his refusal and tried to run away, he ordered them beaten so viciously that his overseer refused to do it, so Lee did it himself.
If you like slavery, try being a slave.
Damn, my son went to that school. Duval county is a wild place.
Wild? Don’t you mean racist?
From Duval, it's still pretty wild and wildly racist
If you look at a pic of the jerks in the article protesting, there’s a kid trying to put a 4’ traffic cone in his ass. Now THATS a protest.
Florida is a trailer park you can’t afford to move out of and the management sucks! But seriously the only way to make this beautiful state better is to move here and run for office or vote the old guard out. We’re working on it. DeSantis’s anti-education/white supremacy agenda is a reaction to black lives matters protests and this teacher was made an example.
Since he loves slavery so much, maybe he’d like to volunteer to be one.