Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has scored a historic win over the Democrats by forcing the College Board to cave on its new A.P. curriculum for African American Studies.
After DeSantis pointed out some glaring problems with the course, the Board removed “black queer studies” from the coursework, along with black writers and scholars associated with Critical Race Theory (CRT).
The topic of Black Lives Matter is now optional, and “black conservatism” has been added as a potential research subject.
DeSantis said earlier when he objected to parts of the course: “Our state education standards not only don’t prevent but they require the teaching of black history.
“All the important things. That’s part of our core curriculum.”
“It’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is somehow linked to black experience, that’s what black people want.
“I don’t think that’s true at all. I think they want law and order, just like everyone else wants law and order.”
“When you try to use black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
Many Democrats are furious, with Illinois Governor JB Pritzker (D) saying:
“Illinois will not stand for watering down our nation’s history.
“And I urge the @CollegeBoard to do the same.
“We reject any change to AP African American Studies in order to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his Republican allies.
“Our students expect any AP course to include the facts — the honest and accurate history of our nation.
“Anything less is bound to lead to a repeat of the mistakes of the past, furthering the Florida Governor’s racist and homophobic agenda.”
Our students expect any AP course to include the facts — the honest and accurate history of our nation.
Anything less is bound to lead to a repeat of the mistakes of the past, furthering the Florida Governor's racist and homophobic agenda.
Read the full letter here: pic.twitter.com/ue0XkDhyXk— Governor JB Pritzker (@GovPritzker) January 26, 2023
But one African American Democrat politician, who has been a fierce critic of the Florida governor, agrees with DeSantis.
Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor said:
“There is grave concern about the tone and the tenor of leadership’s voice from the highest spaces in our state being hostile to teaching of African American history. Well frankly I’m against the College Board’s curriculum.
“I think it’s trash. It’s not African American history. It is ideology.
“I’ve taught African American history, I’ve structured syllabuses for African American history.
“I am African American history.
“And talking about ‘queer’ and ‘feminism’ and all of that for the struggle for freedom and equality and justice has not been no tension with queerness and feminist thought at all.”
Whoopi decries Western Civilization as not great and argues that black American inventors are not part of Western Civilization.
She lashes out at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and claims he's trying to stop the teaching of black contributions to America. pic.twitter.com/QWta2YjVJ7— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) February 1, 2023
READ MORE: DeSantis Announces Crackdown on ‘Woke’ College Funding and ‘Deadweight’ Professors
