# "Florida Schools Will Teach How Slavery Brought ‘Personal Benefit’ to Black People" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 20, 2023, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304 "2023-07-20T14:46:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/21 "2023-07-20T18:03:30Z")
So, concentration camps were good because they taught the Jews the skill of how to live in tight quarters? Built their work ethic? I mean, there were those gates that said “Arbeit macht frei.” [![](https://media.defense.gov/2015/Apr/14/2001040996/1200/1200/0/150414-F-TE211-001.JPG) ](https://media.defense.gov/2015/Apr/14/2001040996/1200/1200/0/150414-F-TE211-001.JPG) ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/22 "2023-07-20T18:03:34Z")
I’m proud to be a descendant of the Jews who were fortunate enough to become adroit factory workers due to the benevolence of the concentration camps. … or something like that. ETA: Shit. Ninja’d ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/23 "2023-07-20T18:04:40Z")
Nah, confirmed, not ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/24 "2023-07-20T18:07:05Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > I’m proud to be a descendant of the Jews who were fortunate enough to become adroit factory workers due to the benevolence of the concentration camps. Florida teachers two years from now: “Here we see contemporary accounts of descendants of concentration camp employees admitting that they appreciate the time their ancestors were allowed to work in the camps…” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/25 "2023-07-20T18:11:16Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > We can’t blame Florida voters for either letting themselves be duped and/or voting DeSantis? With Florida’s massive disenfranchisement (enacted by Republicans of course) we can’t really blame Floridians for who gets elected when so many of them aren’t allowed to vote. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/26 "2023-07-20T18:12:26Z")
Fair point. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/27 "2023-07-20T18:13:35Z")
> [@susan](#): > > So, concentration camps were good because they taught the Jews the skill of how to live in tight quarters Or as I mentioned in the other thread: ”Sort of like how the holocaust provided an immersive learning experience on thermal and combustion properties, chemistry, medicine, and team-building under stress." I too don’t quite get Thudlow’s viewpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/28 "2023-07-20T18:40:52Z")
I think I get the point, but I suspect it’s not particularly well thought out. Teaching prisoners trade skills, for example, could potentially be applied for their personal benefit after they are released. The missing part, of course, is that slaves weren’t as a general rule later released to be free to use those skills to their personal benefit as they saw fit or generally able to use their personal skills to make money for themselves (perhaps to later buy their own freedom - which did happen but only in some jurisdictions and cases and many times late in life). The benefit of those skills went overwhelmingly to their owners. To the extent they may have received any personal benefit, it was relative standing/importance compared to other slaves and may have resulted in somewhat better treatment. But better treatment than other slaves isn’t much of anything to tout. They would have been better off not enslaved in the first place. This is very much missing the forest for the trees ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/29 "2023-07-20T18:45:58Z")
So…you would submit to being a slave if you could learn a skill that might later benefit you? ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/30 "2023-07-20T18:46:57Z")
Of course not, which was my point. Getting a minor benefit out of it is missing the forest for the trees. It’s the tarnished silver lining on a shit cloud. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/31 "2023-07-20T18:49:57Z")
Gotcha…thanks…I didn’t parse your post correctly (my bad). ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/32 "2023-07-20T18:52:22Z")
If I recall correctly, once the emancipation proclamation went into effect, ceremonies were set up in the various town squares where the slaves would be formally and ceremoniously freed, whereupon they would be handed their skills equivalence certificate (on a fine parchment), shake hands with their former masters, who would slap them good-naturedly on the back, and welcome them to freedom. Everyone had a grand time and, during the serving of refreshments after the ceremony, tales of zany hijinks would be exchanged and laughter abounded. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/33 "2023-07-20T18:53:03Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > So…you would submit to being a slave if you could learn a skill that (might) later benefit you? Some people have made that decision. If you agreed to an apprenticeship you were agreeing to work for a craftsman for several years in exchange for being taught the craft. You can argue the same agreement is being made by people who enlist in the armed forces for the educational benefits. The point is that in these arrangements a person is voluntarily agreeing to submit to servitude for a period of time in order to learn skills that will benefit them after that period of servitude is over. Which points to the major distinctions these arrangements have with slavery. The slave was never asked if he or she wanted to enter into the arrangement. And any skills they learned as a result of being enslaved benefitted their master not themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/34 "2023-07-20T18:54:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Which points to the major distinctions these arrangements have with slavery. The slave was never asked if he or she wanted to enter into the arrangement. And any skills they learned as a result of being enslaved benefitted their master not themselves. Nor did they have a defined end to their servitude (hinted at in your post). So, apprenticeships are not slavery. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/35 "2023-07-20T18:54:50Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > If I recall correctly, once the emancipation proclamation went into effect, ceremonies were set up in the various town squares where the slaves would be formally and ceremoniously freed, whereupon they would be handed their skills equivalence certificate (on a fine parchment), shake hands with their former masters, who would slap them good-naturedly on the back, and welcome them to freedom. Everyone had a grand time and, during the serving of refreshments after the ceremony, tales of zany hijinks would be exchanged and laughter abounded. …and then the murders began. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/36 "2023-07-20T18:57:45Z")
The “arbeit macht frei” vibes are strong, too. Very much “learning the value of a day’s work” thought process going on. In my childhood, I thought people were only somewhat naive when they claimed we would never have gone down the path of the Nazis or considered a return to slavery. Now I realize I wasn’t cynical enough about how common and how despicable such people were and currently are. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/37 "2023-07-20T18:58:06Z")
This bizarre take on slavery apologetics smacks of the ancient racist argument that slavery improved Blacks by giving them Civilization and Christianity. Is this really just another version of The White Man’s Burden? It’s incredible that anyone would raise such an argument unironically. I had to check to make sure the link wasn’t to The Onion or the like. ---
**Author:** ![Akaj](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/akaj/32/145_2.png) [@Akaj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akaj)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/38 "2023-07-20T18:58:49Z")
> [@velomont](#): > > If I recall correctly, once the emancipation proclamation went into effect, ceremonies were set up in the various town squares where the slaves would be formally and ceremoniously freed, whereupon they would be handed their skills equivalence certificate (on a fine parchment), shake hands with their former masters, who would slap them good-naturedly on the back, and welcome them to freedom. Everyone had a grand time and, during the serving of refreshments after the ceremony, tales of zany hijinks would be exchanged and laughter abounded. Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/39 "2023-07-20T19:03:55Z")
Sometimes I wish I could upvote SDMB posts. This is such a time. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2023, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304/40 "2023-07-20T19:07:41Z")
Being an indentured servant, however, was rather different from being an apprentice, and often did not look much different from being enslaved, including the possibility of beatings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/florida-schools-will-teach-how-slavery-brought-personal-benefit-to-black-people/987304.md?page=3)