DeSantis says Black people benefited from slavery when questioned about new school standards

July 23 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis argued that Black people benefited from slavery when he was questioned about new standards for teaching Black history in his state.

DeSantis, who is running in the 2024 presidential election, made his remarks during a campaign stop in Utah after Vice President Kamala Harris criticized new Black history standards adopted by the Florida Board of Education.

The standards specifically outline instruction on "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit."

The standards also include the instruction of "violence" perpetrated by African Americans, the kidnapping of Europeans and selling them into slavery in Muslim countries and how slavery of indigenous people was utilized in the Americas before European colonialization.

When pressed to talk about the newly adopted standards, DeSantis told reporters to speak with education officials because he "wasn't involved in it."

"They're probably going to show some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into, into doing things later in life," DeSantis said.

"The reality is, all of that is rooted in whatever is factual. They listed everything out. And if you have any questions about it, just ask the Department of Education. These were scholars who put that together. It was not anything that was done politically."

Far-right political commentators like Fox News' Jesse Watters tried to defend the Florida governor and education officials from criticism.

"No one is arguing slaves benefited from slavery," said Watters, who has been tapped to replace Tucker Carlson upon his exit from Fox News.

"No one is saying that. It's not true. They are teaching how Black people develop skills during slavery in some instances that can be applied for their own personal benefit."

Florida State Rep. Fentrice Driskell called DeSantis's remarks a continuation of his "assault on Black history," the Washington Post reported.

"Let's really dissect what he's saying here," said Driskell, who last year became the first Black woman to become the Florida House Democratic Leader.

"He's saying that to be ripped away from your homelands and brought to another country against your will, or to be born into the atrocity of the dehumanizing institution that was slavery, that those horrors are some way somehow outweighed by the benefit that you get a trade. Are you kidding me?"