Step into the heart of Florida, where communities are coming together not just to
defy state imposed educational constraints, but to honor and elevate Black history. From
the vibrant streets of Miami to the cultural hubs of Orlando, a groundswell of
grassroots activism is reshaping the narrative of education. In the face of legislative hurdles
and political maneuvers, Floridians are forging new paths to ensure that the rich tapestry
of Black heritage is not just preserved, but celebrate. Join us as we
explore how these diverse communities are turning adversity into opportunity, rewriting the script of
education in the Sunshine State. This is a little bit of a nice twist
on our last segment from this week, Helen, have anything good to say
the time, I'm sorry Cross, We'll start with you. Actually, I'm
sorry. Okay, Yeah, So this story is about how because the Florida
has a bunch of bands on teaching black history and all sorts of you know,
controversial issues like facts that Florida churches are picking up the slack on teaching
black history. Right. So, when I first read this, all I
could think of was I am so tired, I am so exhausted, I'm
so sick, and I don't know how, but I am still so surprised
by Florida. Forgive me, Helen, of course you live there. I
feel embarrassed, quite frankly, prior to Obama being elect for me, do
you feel embarrassed for me? For our country? Because prior to Obama being
elected, I was so naive. I, like a lot of my friends,
felt we were making good progress towards trying to become a post racial society.
And then Obama happened, and then the backlash that is MAGA and the
Trump administration happened, and then we get things like DeSantis in Florida, and
all this gave Tacit permission to all of the Nazis who had been hiding as
our neighbors around the country to start speaking their mind. And developments like this
story are the end result. The Nazis, where they have a majority,
have driven our friends and neighbors, whether they be black, or Asian,
or gay or trans are different in any way, They've driven them underground.
Right, this is like the old underground railroad that ran through churches. They've
driven them out of the public square that is public schools, and forced them
to resort to community institutions like churches. So they're getting their basic education on
their own history, not from their community, their tax dollars, their schools,
but from their churches. We should be ashamed as a nation. This
should not be a one off story. This should be a national disgrace,
and I do feel like it will be a disgrace generations. Hence people will
look back and think, how did they not learn from World War Two?
At least the citizens who supported Hitler were kept ignorant by the fact that there
was no Internet. They relied on a national press to feed them the images
and the stories that the government wanted. But the Maga crowd had access to
every single piece of human knowledge right in their pockets on their phones, and
they woke up and chose racism instead of facts. And I think that's what
my grandchildren going to think. They're going to look back at this time and
not understand, because I don't even understand it now and I'm living through it.
Out of all the stories we covered, this is the one that makes
me the saddest. In some respects. It means that at least for now,
the Nazis are winning. I don't know, Kelly, is there a
way for us to beat the Nazis? I hope it's not by taking it
to the churches, to be honest. That was the first thing that that
I thought of when I read this story was this is a freaking problem.
We are leaving what should be a secular education. We're pushing it out of
the schools, like you said, and literally forcing it to be taught in
religious settings from a religious point of view. And this is happening because these
pseudo religious Christian nationalists have been passing laws in Florida that are driving away any
point of view, but they're own and just just like you said, it's
like it's almost like we were reading each other's notes for this episode Crossing,
and I thought it was pretty interesting that both sides of this debate are sheltered
again, both sides of the debate are sheltering under a religious umbrella, just
like one of our earlier the first story we did this week. And with
all my heart, I want to say good things about these churches. I
am so happy that at least somebody stepped up to fill this gap. But
at the very least they're teaching something that the laws of Florida, that the
Laws of Florida have the schools afraid to teach because of the wording. The
wording of the laws again are overly broad. They're confusing. But I just
have trepidations that a secular topic is being taught by a church. And can
you imagine if this happened to other topics at school? Did I don't want
to go to Sunday School get drust on otherwise God won't be able to teach
you how to find a common denominator. So, like, I did find
one particular thing about this particular article, like very touching that the presenter,
Levon Bracy, had gone to Africa and collected soil and brought it back to
people that were attending her talk and was giving members of the congregation that came
to listen to her talk files of soil from you know, from Africa,
which I thought was beautiful. But it is a church, and I hate
to say it, and yeah, like I have problems with this because,
as you were saying, like, this is this is just education, This
is just giving people information about their history, their heritage, which should be
taught in a secular organization like a school, weird, but I live in
the stay with meat. While Ron I really love that name name. I'm
sorry, like I really do, and he just basically like, well,
I like racism and being a bigot is really working for me, So I'm
just going to lean in. And it just gets very frustrating because I because
like this is such like reading this article, I had so many mixed feelings
because there's this wonderful story about an activist you know, that was passionate about
you know, where her people came from, wanting to present that give people
that education. But it's still done in a church. And and that's the
thing that's so frustrating because even as a white person like I would love to
like hear someone's experience. I love learning about something that about people that are
not me, you know, are outside of myself. And that's that's how
you break down. Stop people from being bigoti, stop people from being assholes,
is to hear other people's experiences, their journeys, to connect with them
as human beings. And because Ron is like pushing everybody you know into the
churches, those conversations can't are not happening as much you know, and it's
not just you know, it's not just happening here. This is happening in
podcast throughout the country of people being forced back into their churches to even get
a basic education of their own culture. And it's just I have a lot
of mixed feelings like great, okay, like this is a really beautiful story
but also kind of shitty. So it's Florida secass Week. Everybody this week
and they're non profits. Everybody yay for me? Well I limited it to
one week. Yeah, yeah, there's going to be more Florida sex stories
because that's what we do on the show. It would go ahead, you
like, I'm basically we're all on the same page. It seems like I
couldn't have said what I'm going to say better than any of you said it.
But I the idea of churches being involved in education was that was like
my first sort of like oh, hold on, and then you start realizing,
okay, no, like the state of Florida is actually making it really
difficult for schools to do this appropriately properly, and not just the state of
but like I like your nickname there, this meatball ron bandis is really making
it difficult for people to do things the way that they ought to done.
I clicked on a couple of the other articles linked in this article, and
it talked about how like he's already like he has already made it clear that
he's not on board with teaching anything except basically white heteronormativity in Florida schools.
He even went so far as to push new teaching standards. I think they
said this was from twenty twenty two new teaching standards that suggested that enslaved Africans
benefited from the America like the slave trade in the United States, And that
is the thing that he suggested, or that the teaching standards that he wanted
to implement, And I just can't help but think what an absolute piece of
trash. And I going beyond that, I did start to think, like,
okay, we know how like faith based charity works. Right, where
people receiving this charity, receiving this service from the church, they are more
often than not required to hear a religious message or be proselytized too in order
to receive that service. And I would hate to know that that is also
true for these black history lessons. So I did actually find the faith in
Florida toolkit that was linked in the article, and I went to look at
it and I didn't see anything there was, like, other than the name
of the organization Faith in Florida, there is no proselytizing, there's no scripture,
there's no you know, I was really concerned that these messages they were
going to teach were going to be more focused on the religious journey of these
you know, particular individuals, these significant individuals in American history, more focused
on their religious journey than their actual signific can contributions to society and the world.
And it just doesn't seem to be the case. So that for me,
I felt like a little bit of a silver lining, But it is,
I I gotta agree with a cross examinar. It just really when you
start to think like, oh, okay, now we have to like hide
in the churches, so to speak to to learn not just it's it's not
only back history, it's American history as well, And that just doesn't sit
right. That feels little just kind of Jim Crowry, Yeah, Jim Crowe,
Yeah, I agree. I you know, being a student of history
to some degree, I know that this pendulum will swing swing at some point
in our country it will inevitably swing to an enlightened country. It just takes
time. But it's time that I may not see to live or I don't
know about my kids, Probably they'll see it. So while I do have
hope, I'm just sad that I won't have that. I have to walk
the earth when the Nazis feel comfortable in their racism and entitle in their bigotry.
Really is what I'm I'm and I did have that side point that everybody
else had. I didn't. I didn't get to it first, But I
do want to follow up where everybody was sort of like being taught in a
church. I had the same exact reaction as everybody. It's I get it.
I understand that churches are community centers in much of our country. While
I don't really want to harp on that aspect, I do feel compelled to
mention you know things like you guys do. It worries me that if not
in this particular case, ELI did the research to say what's being taught here,
then in the next case right that where where we have to revert because
our schools are not meeting our community's needs, because our politicians are not legislating
for their entire constituency, only the people who agree with them. The people
who are in the minority, are left to go to their churches for these
solutions because that's the only community that they have left. I worry that it
might the history might be taught through a mystical lens. I worry that God
might get mentioned and mixed up along with the facts, so the kids can't
distinguish between the God and the facts. And I worry that the church will
potentially whitewash the role of Christianity in slavery. Right right, christ watch very
good. Now. I'm a middle aged white atheist cis male, so I
get nervous opining on, hey, how should black people to learn their own
history? But I will quote Chris Rock who said, quote a black Christian
is a black person with no fucking memory. And I think that that's one
of the deepest things that he has said that can really do a lot to
help that community or any other community that was sort of subjugated by Christianity.
Why is Christianity so popular around the world. As the Catholics usually like to
quote, it was done by the edge of a sword, just like slavery.
So in the end, I want to say I'm sad. I want
to say I'm glad that they're doing it, but yeah, it's it's going
to take time to to defeat the forces. Yeah it is. I agree,
it's complicated, and that's the thing that's so frustrating about this. Yeah,
I agree. That was what I feared the most too, was history
being taught through a mystical lens. You know. I could see something like,
you know, God enlightened George Washington Carver to go to the peanut that
the Lord had provided to him. You know, yeah, I could see
something like that being taught, and that's bullshit. I mean, we're taking
something that's historical and potentially turning it into religion, and that that's definitely a
problem I think. Yeah, I was turning around and looking for my textbook.
I have one I was going to pull off my shelf from a Christian
school. It was a science textbook for elementary kids. And the very first
chapter is the Moon and the first thing. The first sentence in this science
book is God gave us the moon and blah blah blah blah blah blah.
You know, that's what I'm worried about Oh yes, right, exactly right.
Personally, I think we should pass a lot to make every Floridian plant
two trees a year to make up for all the oxygen in that that status
as a resident of Floridian. I do apologize for all the air all the
options sucking that has happened. Helen. I guess I kind of understand.
I'm getting old too, And I know you and Todd arm You want to
stay in the largest retirement home in the United States, want to move out
money everywhere. You should think about moving away though, and joining us,
Like listen, if if, if, if, if anyone wants to give
me all the atheist money to move out of Florida, I'll go. But
there's something I do want to point out about we did, like the last
last time was on the show, we did a we did it on atheist
churches and that they're sprouting up throughout the country. And I would love like
if we're okay, like okay, but like we're going to take you back
to the churches, okay, whatever, Like if we're going to do these
educational sort of talking points, can we do it in like the secular part
of like you know, churches that are propping up, like, let's not
do it in like a Christian church, Let's do it with like there's someone
that's actual historian that knows facts like presentation. I would love that. Do
you think Floridians would have a problem with Black History Month being taught at the
Satanic Church? I think they just don't like us, like and there's it's
just going on with the TST right now. So that's that. That could
be another conversation on the nonprofits. But but it would be a problem because
we're not we're considered we're still considered less than because we don't believe in the
true God. You know, we are atheists and we're and we're you know,
liberal and you know, and we're trying to brainwash everybody. That's the
goal at this whole show. Everybody's to brainwash you and to be a free
singer. So silly. Really, the problem is that we have one extreme
side of our political spectrum that that's creating a government that's not serving the benefits
of all of the country or in this case, the state's citizens strictly because
of extreme political or religious, or or even historical reasons. Then when it's
doing that that government isn't serving the people, it's only serving some of the
people. And I really find it entirely ironic that the very people who are
pushing this kind of thing are also the same people screaming about upholding the constitution.
Yeah, constitution though. That's why I'm always like, have you read
have you read that document? Have you? Cause the way you're talking about
it tells me you haven't read this. I I like most of it.
I'm going to say that I do. I mean, we had problems,
problems with some of its outdated, but for the most part, I think
it was a pretty good, pretty good thing. I think it should be
a little bit easier to change it. But other than that, Okay,
I've been feeling around that for Eli because we're very viny people like I want
I want to get more of Eli's thoughts because we are we're very like talking
talkie. Yeah. Well, no, I just I thought that my closing
thought was just that I there's no reason Florida residences shouldn't be allowed to learn
blackest and we've covered that earlier this week as well. My aversion to church
based education aside, I'm actually on board with with this particular instance, and
I think Cross was right to specify this time. It seems like it's being
done appropriately, at least based on the toolkit online. Who knows what's going
on in the actual buildings. If it was just the church's volunteering their buildings
to be used to conduct seminars or presentations, that's one thing entirely. Like
I said, there's no reason Florida residents shouldn't be allowed to learn about black
history. And if Meat Baldasantis is going to do his level best to prevent
that, then I'm glad someone is picking up the baverbial torch. And I'm
glad to see religious institutions actually fighting a good fight for once across you see
that. I agree with you. I do agree, I just want I
did find my my let's say, Science for Christian Schools textbook that I bought
on eBay and was written by the Bob Jones University if you're familiar with them.
Very first page is history of the Moon, and it starts any God
and God made two great lights, the greater light to rule to day and
the lesser light to rule the night. He made the stars. Also Genesis
one sixteen. That's the start of a Christian science class book, and it
goes on to say science can be defined as information gained using our senses.
Faith means holding beliefs without seeing, hearing, tasting, blah blah, blah
blah. When the moon came into being, were there any people there to
get the facts through their senses? And then it goes on to talk about
science is faith. It's the classic Young Earth creationist bullshit that says you weren't
there to see evolution, You weren't there to see the moon how it was
created, which is important to them because when you date the moon and how
it's been receding from the Earth, you come up with a universe or an
earth it's four billion years and they don't like that. So right off the
bat, this quote unquote science book is teaching the religious kids that science is
faith. They're sort of dragging science down to their level to say, oh,
well, if it's all faith, then you should go with us.
And that's my concern when you say the community has to turn to churches,
then even if it's in small ways, it could be it could be history
history, history, history, and oh, by the way, don't let
gays get married, or history history, history, abortion should be illegal,
like all of these things that get sort of plugged into class, which a
trained public school teacher knows to avoid. Right. That's the other question is
at the churches, what sort of training they have on educating kids and handling
disruptive kids and all that sort of stuff. So that's my rant Kelly foul
thoughts opinions. I think I've pretty much said everything I have to say.
Again, I really think we got to be careful about I think it's really
great somebody's stepping up to teach this. I just think we have to be
careful about who we're letting teach it and make sure that they're teaching it in
the correct way and not with religious overtones. That's but we live. But
we live in a country where they're allowed to do this, and that's the
opposite of what the conservatives want, right. They want this to be the
rule and nobody else can do it, where we're like, well, I
hope they're not, but they're allowed to because it's their life.