Kamala Harris, the Vice President of the United States, has made outrageous claims at a recent speech to the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority National Convention in Indianapolis. Speaking to one of the largest historically black sororities in the US, Harris made an unfounded assertion that schools in Florida will be teaching students that slavery brought a personal benefit to black people.
This claim is patently false, and it is concerning that someone in such a high-ranking position would use their platform to spread blatant lies. The suggestion that black people in any way benefited from the abhorrent and inhumane practice of slavery is not only offensive, but it is dangerous. This kind of revisionist history is a slippery slope towards the normalization of the horrific treatment of black people throughout history.
Can you help fact-check @KamalaHarris. She says, "In the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught enslaved people benefited from slavery"pic.twitter.com/Obnz2gVZTG
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) July 20, 2023
Furthermore, it is important to note that Kamala Harris’s own ancestors owned slaves. Her father, Donald Harris, has written about their family’s ties to an Irishman who owned a slave plantation in Jamaica. The fact that Harris would make such incendiary comments while ignoring her own family’s history of benefiting from slavery is hypocritical and egregious.
Hamilton Brown, the plantation and slave owner and founder of Brown’s Town, is on record as a member of Harris’s family tree. Jamaican records indicate that at one point in 1817, Brown owned scores of slaves, the majority of whom were brought in from Africa. Brown also owned many Creole slaves.
It is time for Kamala Harris to stop spreading lies and rhetoric that is meant to stoke division and ignites the flames of racial tension. The fact that she is using her position of power to promote misinformation is a disservice to the American people. It is time for her to be held accountable for her words and actions, and for the media to fact-check her statements before disseminating them to the public.
As a nation, we must come together to ensure that our children are taught the truth about our country’s history, including the horrors of slavery and the ongoing effects of systemic racism. We cannot afford to let political agendas and personal biases cloud the truth. It is only by acknowledging our past and educating future generations that we can move forward towards a more just and equitable society.
