Credit: WikimediaA key member of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ battle against the Walt Disney Company has been teaching debunked and false history about American slavery.
As part of his campaign against the “woke” forces of Disney World and its parent company, Ron DeSantis recently struck against one of Disney’s most important assets: the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which gave the iconic media corporation special tax consideration and (basically) free reign over its land.
Ron DeSantis dissolved the Reedy Creek Improvement District, renamed it the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, and installed a board of his own handpicked members, who swiftly went on to accuse the Walt Disney Company of wasting millions in taxpayer dollars and hogging all the police in Central Florida.
However, now it has emerged that one of his Central Florida Tourism Oversight District board members has been teaching fake information that White people were slaves in America.
Related: DeSantis Doubles Down on Fight Against Disney World
DeSantis, Disney, and Ron Peri
One of the five board members that Governor Ron DeSantis appointed to allegedly punish the Walt Disney Company is Ron Peri, the CEO of The Gathering, a Christian ministry group. Per CNN, Peri taught debunked information that Irish immigrants were slaves in America and that “significant” numbers of Black people owned slaves as recently as 2021.
The Orlando-based pastor taught a YouTube seminar titled “Cunningly Devised Fables” that stated (among other things) that White people were legally slaves in America in the 1600s, that 300,000 Irish people were sold into slavery in Antigua and Montserrat, that Irish women were forced to “breed…with African men to produce slaves with a distinct complexion,” and that a “large number” of free Blacks in the 19th century owned slaves.
All of these are false and have been heavily criticized and debunked by historians and numerous major publications.
In fact, the article that Ron Peri cited in his seminar had already been updated to indicate that it contained factual errors, which apparently did not stop the DeSantis appointee from presenting it as history.
Related: Disney’s Basketball Team Just Switched Sides to DeSantis
Facts of Slavery in America
To summate actual history very briefly, the scholarly consensus and factual documentation are clear, White people have never been slaves in America.
A number of White people (including a large number of Irish immigrants) have suffered harsh conditions under indentured servitude, a legal status of non-inheritable debt bondage for a fixed period of time.
In contrast, most Black slaves of the time period were under chattel slavery, in which human beings were legally property for life, and any children inherited their status as lifelong slaves.
Ron Peri’s seminar also included numerous factual errors, like that the British King James II made the “proclamation of 1625 [which] required Irish political prisoners be sent overseas and sold to English settlers in the West Indies.”
King James II did not issue any such proclamation and, in fact, was not born until 1633.
Similarly, census records indicate that approximately 0.006% of free Blacks in 19th century America owned slaves, rather than a “large” number. Many historians also argue that most of the slaves they owned were actually their own family members, a common strategy to provide legal protection to them in a slave-owning society.
Ron Peri’s statement on the matter is that “Slavery is a moral wrong wherever it exists or existed and is one of America’s great historical wrongs… Similarly, racism is likewise wrong. I countenance neither to any degree, so the criticism of the belief that thousands of people being held in slavery was significant and a terrible wrong is severely misplaced. Even one person in slavery is egregious and morally reprehensible, regardless of race.”
Related: Disney States Ron DeSantis Is a Major Threat to Business
DeSantis Disney Lawsuits
Since Ron DeSantis appointed Ron Peri and the other board members to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, there have been numerous controversies.
One member of the board has already stepped down, and DeSantis has been forced to state that he was not defunding the police in retaliation to Disney after the board claimed it was taking action against Disney World. Not coincidentally, the board also recently outlawed all diversity initiatives within the district.
Currently, there are two different lawsuits between DeSantis and Disney over the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District, the company’s First Amendment rights, and the ability of the Florida government to be able to be sued.
At the very least, this new information on DeSantis’ allegedly anti-Disney board members cannot help the conflict.
What do you think of Pastor Ron Peri’s statements? Let us know in the comments below.