Award #2: The Most Astonishingly Stupid Reference to Slavery in 2023 – Florida’s Education Board for issuing new Black History standards that claim African Americans derived a “benefit” from slavery. Story
Runner-up: Rev. Mike Keller for claiming that enslaved Blacks chose not to “go to Washington D.C. and have a rally 200 years ago to protest against slavery [like BLM]” and instead became Christians and “sought God’s face and they turned from their wicked ways.”​

​Award #4: Best History Crash and Burn Related to a Business or Institution in 2023 – Education publisher STUDIES WEEKLY for deleting references to racism and race from a lesson about Rosa Parks’ arrest, in an attempt to placate Florida’s Gov DeSantis Story

​Runner up: The Museum of American Revolution for hosting an event for “Moms for Liberty,” an organization that promotes bans on US history books.

​Award #3: Most Absurd Claim About the Founders in 2023 – Ohio state rep Mike Loychik for claiming the AR-15 is “the exact type of weapon the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the 2nd Amendment.”
Story
Runner Up: Kayleigh McEnany, former White House press secretary, for claiming the Founders never intended separation of church and state. 

​



Award #7: The Biggest History Fail in 2023 That Defied Categorization – Eric Trump for asserting that “The only family in, probably, United States history that didn’t enrich themselves when they went into government is the Trump family.” Story
Runner-up: Oklahoma superintendent of education Ryan Walters for stating the 1919 Tulsa Race Massacre in which a white mob murdered hundreds of African Americans wasn’t due to color of anyone’s skin 

Award #6: The Most Bonkers Claim about the Civil War in 2023 – Commentator Charlie Kirk for insisting Juneteenth “is not about emancipation…It’s about creating a summertime, race-based competitor…[to] July 4th” Story
Runner-up: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for saying “If I were Black people today and I walked by one of those [Confederate] statues, I would be so proud.”

The 2023 Weemsy Award™ winners!

​(see the video announcement below)

​Award #5: The Most Ridiculous Reference to a Civil Rights Leader - Sen. Ted Cruz for asserting that MLK would have decried the NAACP’s travel advisory to African Americans considering visiting Florida due to the state’s “aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools” Story
Runner-up:Podcaster Joe Rogan for decrying anti-racist policies as a “woke, guilt-ridden ideology” that run counter to the “Martin Luther King notion that we should treat people by the content of their character, not the color of their skin”​

Award #1: The Weemsy of the Year - The Person Who Said the Most Ridiculous and/or Demonstrably False Statements About U.S. History– Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for claiming African Americans should be "proud" when they see Confederate monuments and for comparing former President Trump’s arraignment to the arrest of Nelson Mandela and Jesus.
​Note: MTG was the runner up in this category in both 2022 and 2021
Runner-up: Sen. Josh Hawley​