FLORIDA, USA — Clips of an animated lesson from PragerU, a conservative content producer recently approved as an official vendor for public schools by the Florida Department of Education, began circulating online and sparking a public outcry with some calling the clips "indoctrination" and "white supremacist propaganda."
Some of the fiercest backlash involved a clip featuring two kids who are confused by news reports of public protests against systemic racism and go back in time to meet an animated depiction of Frederick Douglass.
Douglass is regarded as one of the foremost leaders of the antislavery movement in America. After escaping from slavery, his public speeches and writing about his life as a former slave made him a prominent activist in the U.S. and internationally. He published his own antislavery newspaper called The North Star and led movements to abolish slavery in New York and Massachusetts.
The educational website Black History in America says Douglass was "internationally recognized as an uncompromising abolitionist, indefatigable worker for justice and equal opportunity, and an unyielding defender of women's rights."
PragerU's lesson
In the PragerU video, the animated depiction of Douglass tells two kids that slavery "was a part of life all over the world" and that it was "America that began the conversation to end it."
He also criticizes William Lloyd Garrison, a fellow antislavery activist from his time, in the PragerU video: "William refuses all compromise, demands immediate change, and if he doesn't get what he wants, he likes to set things on fire."
"Sounds familiar," the kids reply. "We've got that type in our time," an apparent reference to the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests against police brutality in Minneapolis, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and other major cities.
Douglass then urges the kids to stay away from "radical" activists who want "a complete fundamental change of everything." He says activists "have to be willing to work inside our system, and they have to understand that change usually requires compromise and patience."
Ultimately the children tell Douglass they are just going to focus on "surviving middle school" and "being kids," much to Douglass' approval.
Douglass' real teachings
In real life, Douglass famously said that progress never came without a struggle.
"The struggle may be a moral one or it may be a physical one, or it may both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will," Douglass said.
Douglass' real speeches featured no praise to America for "beginning the conversation to end" slavery. In his words, slavery was a stain on America's legacy of freedom and independence.
"O! had I the ability, and could I reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke," he famously said, "For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced."
The backlash
The video clip received intense criticism with some accusing Florida of exposing students to "whitewashed revisionist history" and others calling the lesson "disgusting."
PragerU, founded in 2011 by conservative radio host Dennis Prager, describes itself as "a free alternative to the dominant left-wing ideology in culture, media, and education."
Cassandra Palelis, deputy director of communications for Florida's Department of Education said PragerU's materials were approved for use in Florida's schools "after the state's Department of Education reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards.
"PragerU Kids is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.”
