There's one major problem with Louisiana State Rep. Ray Garofalo Jr. (Republican) suggesting schools need to teach the good things about slavery. There was nothing "good" about it! What the hell is wrong with this man? How was he elected to serve the people of Louisiana? How is it Mr. Garofalo did not know that slavery (the practice of owning human beings for the sole purpose of servitude against their will) was not a bad thing?

This man has a position to change Louisiana law and pass new legislation. He is in a position of power and yet doesn't understand that kidnapping an entire race of people, forcing them to work, separating families, selling human beings like cattle, raping, beating, and murdering them was somehow not a bad thing?!

To be fair, Rep. Garafalo did backtrack on his comment and admit there is no good side to slavery, but the fact that he even suggested such a thing in the first place tends to indicate at least some part of him thinks otherwise.

Thank goodness Rep. Stephanie Hilferty (Republican) immediately pushed back on the idea that somehow there was anything good about slavery. She said, “There’s no good to slavery, though.”

Mind you, Garofalo represents St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans. It's really mind blowing because this is a huge minority community. This is why we must pay attention to all elections and participate by voting. People like Rep. Garofalo are supposed to work for the people they campaign to represent. If they do not uphold their oath the serve the people, the people should vote them out office and out of power. Elections have consequences, and the sooner voters understand that, the better.

About six days ago, on April 27, state Rep. Garofalo proposed an education bill that would ban Louisiana schools from teaching history that might depict either Louisiana or the country as systemically racist or sexist. Translation: let's completely omit the mistakes of the past because I don't want kids to know what we did to people. Let's rewrite history. Let's pretend the bad things we did never happened. What shocks me the most is the erosion of the truth. That more and more lawmakers are touting absolute lies and being allowed to do so. That so many lawmakers (people in the position of power), are in total denial of the facts. In my opinion, what Rep. Garofalo is suggesting is that we teach our children the ends justify the means.

The only good thing that came from the Tuesday debate where Rep. Garofalo introduced his education bill was that it got shot down. He claimed the legislation would would "keep politics out of the classroom" and stop the teaching of "divisive concepts" and said acknowledging institutional racism and sexism should be banned. Thank heavens other Louisiana lawmakers in the House didn't agree with Garofalo's idea of trying to slap a smiley face on the dark history of slavery.

Get the facts. Educate yourself and your children about the past so they can not only learn from it, but also do better and avoid the mistakes that were made. Here's a great start: Slavery In French Colonial Louisiana.

LOOK: Here are the biggest HBCUs in America

More than 100 historically Black colleges and universities are designated by the U.S. Department of Education, meeting the definition of a school "established prior to 1964, whose principal mission was, and is, the education of black Americans."

StudySoup compiled the 20 largest historically Black colleges and universities in the nation, based on 2021 data from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. Each HBCU on this list is a four-year institution, and the schools are ranked by the total student enrollment.

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