According to Casper Star-Tribune, freshman representative Jeremy Haroldson (R-Wheatland) raised eyebrows this week with his statements on slavery.
The Wyoming-based politician said that there are two sides to slavery and that African-Americans are “stuck” in a mentality that is “worse than slavery.” Haroldson made the statements during a hearing of the House Education Committee on HB-177. The bill aims to rewrite the curriculum for Wyoming public schools.
Haroldson claims that his concern for the lack of social studies knowledge among the state’s high school students inspired the bill. He also expressed consternation that curriculums are too left-leaning.
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“Slavery was something that shouldn’t have happened in America, but it did. But we’ve created slavery into a place that has created a position of being stuck, in my opinion, for a people group,” Rep.Haroldson said. “It [slavery] needs to be brought forward and the different views, that slavery was not maybe what it has been painted in this nation completely.”
The daft man’s hubris backfired on him, however, when Rep. Connolly (D-Laramie) asked him if he knew what the 19th Amendment says. Haroldson admitted that he did not. The 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. It is unknown if Haroldson was taught the same curriculum about which he was questioned.
In the past, Haroldson, a pastor, has made other questionable declarations like comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust. The bill also refers to “identity politics,” “the political extremisms of fascism and communism,” and religious discrimination.
Haroldson’s bill failed to advance in a 7-2 vote, but some committee members still showed interest in the bill’s ideas. One of those people is Jill Ballow, Wyoming Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Local educators from both the Wyoming School Board Association and Wyoming Education Association opposed the bill because it failed to cover a wide range of curriculum topics like math and science.
Rep. Connolly was the only lawmaker who directly spoke against the wayward politician’s comments on slavery, calling them “very, very problematic.”
