The Quasi-White Nationalist Content Coming to Florida's Public Schools (PragerU)

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-quasi-white-nationalist-content-coming-to-florida-s-public-schools/ar-AA1eB4qY


Take, for example, its “Leo & Layla” series, in which an animated tween girl and her kid brother travel through time to meet historical figures. In the video in which they meet Booker T. Washington, the animated Washington—who in real life was born enslaved—plays down America’s culpability in slavery. When Layla asks Washington if he wished he’d lived in another country, he responds that slavery has “been a reality everywhere in the world” and that “I am still so proud and thankful to be an American” because the U.S. was “one of the first places on earth to outlaw slavery.”

Then, when Layla expresses her sorrow over segregation and racism, he reassures her: “You have nothing to be sorry about. You and Leo have done nothing wrong. Future generations are never responsible for the sins of the past.” Layla then vows to “never feel guilty about historical stuff.”

In another video, Frederick Douglass teaches the children the virtues of patience and compromise in activism. The children get upset when seeing activists call for abolishing the police and protesters destroying cars on TV. (Leo also complains that his math teacher has given him a social justice assignment.) Douglass—another person born into slavery—reassures the children that “our founding fathers knew that slavery was evil and wrong and they knew it would do terrible harm to the nation” but that they were forced to be patient.



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Perhaps PragerU’s oddest videos are its “how-to” lessons on “embracing your femininity” and masculinity. “Most gender stereotypes exist because they reflect the way men and women are naturally different, and those differences aren’t bad,” one host explains. She encourages girls to “master the art of makeup,” not “expose parts of your body that would send the wrong message,” not to “develop the reputation of being a gossip,” “be grateful when a man goes out of his way to show you respect,” and smile. Teen boys, on the other hand, are told to be proud of their ambition and strength.

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We don’t yet know how this curriculum will be used. PragerU’s more religious content may not make it into schools. But the CEO’s deep belief in “Judeo-Christian values” as essential to America pervades the lessons. God is mentioned occasionally. Some of Leo & Layla’s adventures take them to meet biblical characters. Prager is Jewish, so the curriculum isn’t Christian, but there’s a clear political alliance here with Christian nationalists.

According to the American Prospect, students have already, for years, reported being assigned PragerU content. (A teacher at a Catholic school in Missouri was fired in 2019 for showing a PragerU video titled “Why You Can’t Argue With a Leftist.”) PragerU’s campaign to get into schools has also already reached thousands of home-school parents and teachers in private and religious schools.

But some activists worry that if PragerU is officially recognized, it could easily expose children to the program’s more extreme material for adults—content that contends there is no gender wage gap, that “Blacks in power don’t empower Blacks,” that Islam is holding society back, and that Muslims naturally hate Jews.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-quasi-white-nationalist-content-coming-to-florida-s-public-schools/ar-AA1eB4qY

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

1. At PragerU, the gender wage gap doesn't exist and systemic racism is a fairy tale.

Conservative Group PragerU Says Florida Is First State to Approve Its "Curriculum"
At PragerU, the gender wage gap doesn't exist and systemic racism is a fairy tale.

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PragerU Kids is marketed as "content for your child's mind to fight the leftist lies." One advertisement features a child watching kids' programming on a tablet at the dinner table when he says, "Hey, Dad, did you know America is racist?"

With the camera fixed on a flabbergasted father, the voice-over is heard saying in a sing-songy tone, "Your mind goes numb, your skin turns pale, your heart aches with fear: Your child's head is being filled with lies." (George Washington then presents the child with PragerU Kids content.)

Responding to a request for comment, the Florida Department of Education says it "reviewed PragerU Kids and determined the material aligns to Florida's revised civics and government standards."

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In one episode, the duo hears about riots on the news and attempts to "abolish the police," prompting the characters to travel back in time and speak with a cartoon version of abolitionist Frederick Douglass. The video equates modern-day rioters with William Lloyd Garrison, an abolitionist with whom the real-life Douglass debated how to fight slavery.

"William refuses all compromises, demands immediate change, and if he doesn't get what he wants, he likes to set things on fire," the Douglass character says, referring to Garrison's protesting slavery by burning a copy of the U.S. Constitution and the Fugitive Slave Act.

"Yeah, we've got that type in our time," Leo responds.

At one point, the Layla character appears concerned when her brother tells her that his math class is "spending a lot of time learning about the stuff they talk about in the news."

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With titles such as "Playing the Black Card" and "Blacks in Power Don't Empower Blacks" and a roster of hosts that, in addition to Owens, features right-wing personalities Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, and Charlie Kirk, PragerU's videos have tallied more than a billion views.

https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/prageru-says-florida-schools-to-adopt-its-conservative-curriculum-17481537

[Lonestarblue]

2. What a bunch of garbage history Florida is now pushing.

No public school should ever be using PragerU materials. As just one example of a lie, the US was not one of the first nations to outlaw slavery. Many European countries and some in South American banned the slave trade and slavery well before the US. But of course PragerU and Florida Republicans are not interested in accuracy. They interested in programming more white supremacists who think slavery was good for Black people.

[DBoon]

9. Mexico abolished slavery well before the USA

Which motivated American slaveholders who settled in what is now Texas to break off from Mexico

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

3. Here are some examples of what PragerU is pushing into schools, courtesy of Media Matters:

Here are some examples of what PragerU is pushing into schools, courtesy of Media Matters:

The climate denialist!
In a series from their “Around the World” collection, a character from Poland learns about climate change in her school. However, her parents talk to her about climate denialism and the girl thinks yeah, that makes more sense! With her newfound beliefs, her peers start to turn against her and not talk to her. Poor girl! But that’s not enough … the story goes on to compare her *bravery* to that of the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic act of antifascism against the Nazis. The character is said to be courageous in fighting oppression. Brava!

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Anti-anti-racism
Another example from PragerU consists of Mateo, a Mexican immigrant who doesn’t support Black Lives Matter (already problematic). He and his family feel that their lives are becoming more chaotic because of the George Floyd protests. They take it further, describing Floyd as someone who “resisted arrest” (a lie of course). They say that racial targeting is “false” but nonetheless, anti-cop sentiment has just continued to cause more anger and violence. Mateo goes on to befriend a “resource officer” at his school and simply doesn’t understand how cops have gotten such a bad image in the media! Now I could go on for weeks about what is so wrong, disingenuous, divisive, and racist about this storyline, but I will just highlight a few here.

Making Mateo a boy from a Mexican immigrant family seeks to stoke division between Latinos and Black people. Yes, PragerU could have been trying to purely show diversity by having main characters of different races and ethnicities, but I think they were more strategic and sinister in their decision. Mateo is from Los Angeles, where there has been a long history of racial tensions. Making the video’s lead anti-BLM and pro-cop tries to show that other minorities got it right, implying Mateo’s Black peers are media-brainwashed and misguided at best.

Also, PragerU tries to condemn the murdered George Floyd—a go-to talking point for the right. If you can dehumanize people then it is easier to justify their killing. This has been going on since the beginning of racism and is largely how and why racism has been so successful throughout time. Floyd was not resisting arrest at the time of his death. We all saw the video of that callous cop with his knee on his neck for 9 minutes and 29 seconds. It was impossible for Floyd to resist, EVEN IF he had wanted to (which was also not the case.) But facts aren’t important to propagandists like PragerU and the “anti-woke” agenda. The goal is to make Black people the enemy and sustain white supremacist structures no matter what.


Rewriting history
At play here is the larger issue of what students should and should not be taught in public schools. Certain parents and activists feel like their kids will be unduly burdened by learning about certain horrors, like redlining or how the GI Bill didn’t benefit black people. On the other hand, they could care less about how Black students may feel about seeing videos that make the continued protests against racial violence by the state seem nefarious and violent.

https://www.themarysue.com/florida-public-schools-teaching-outrageous-prageru-curriculum/

[Initech]

4. Totally disgusting. Fuck PragerU and Ron DeSantis.

[lambchopp59]

5. Holy hypocrisy cannoli, batman...

These jerks label factual education "indoctrination" and present this slanted bullshit under the category of "university"?
Beam us up, Jordy.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

6. Dennis Prager is as racist as that Amy Wax, Upenn professor, he just speaks his racism with a soft

voice.

[TheRealNorth]

7. And I am sure when they have these historical figures spout their propaganda.....

There is a reference to a speech or letter where they actually said that.

[Eugene]

8. Frederick Douglass is famous for civil disobedience in fighting both slavery and Jim Crow.

This is turning the facts on their head.

I started watching their Christopher Columbus video, but it was just too outrageous. The basic theme is "Columbus was only mean with the savages."

[DBoon]

10. Columbus was imprisoned for excessive cruelty while governor of Jamaica

Now try to imagine how bad he must have been to be imprisoned for cruelty in 16th century Spain.