Florida’s withdrawal from black history course sparks controversy

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday confirmed the state’s rejection of a proposed nationwide advanced course in African American studies, saying it is advancing a political agenda — something that three writers cited in the state’s criticism accused him of responding . .

DeSantis said his administration rejected the African American Studies Course of the Advanced Placement Board College Board because “we want education, not indoctrination.” It was revealed last week that the Florida Department of Education recently told the College Board that it would ban the course unless changes were made.

Then late Friday night, the state released a chart saying the course promotes the idea that contemporary American society oppresses blacks, other minorities, and women, includes a chapter on “Black Wanderer Studies” that the administration finds inappropriate, and uses articles from critics of capitalism. . .

The governor said the course violated the Stop WOKE Act, which he signed into law last year. It forbids regulations that define people as necessarily oppressed or privileged based on their race. At least some of the authors cited in the course believe that contemporary American society favors white supremacy by oppressing racial minorities, gays, and women.

“This course is black history, what is one of the lessons about? Strange theory. Who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? It’s someone pushing the agenda,” said DeSantis, a possible 2024 Republican presidential nominee.

Florida Democratic Party leader Fentris Driskell called the administration’s move away from the course “cowardly” and said it “sends a clear message that the history of black Americans doesn’t matter in Florida.”

“Imagine how boring and introverted we would all be if we only met ideas that we agree with,” she said on Monday.

The College Board, after ten years of development, is testing the African American Studies course in 60 high schools across the country. No school or state is required to offer it after the planned rollout.

The organization offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social science, foreign languages, and visual arts. Students enrolled at the college level who score high enough on the final exam for a course usually receive credit for the course at their university.

The College Board has not been responding to emails or calls since Friday. He released a statement last week saying he encourages feedback and will consider changes.

The state criticized five living authors in its Friday schedule. The Associated Press emailed them and the three responded.

— The Black Gay Studies section includes readings by Roderick Ferguson, Yale University Professor of Women, Gender, and Sexual Studies. The state says it “exclaims, ‘We must encourage and develop practices where queerness is not a rejection of the status quo of race, class, gender, and sexuality.’

Ferguson said the quote comes from an interview he gave about his book One-Dimensional Queer. The book, he says, discusses “employment discrimination, anti-LGBTQ+ laws, suppression of progressive movements in the US, police violence against minorities, restrictions on immigration (and) anti-black racism.”

“These are real stories. The arguments about them are based on scientific research and research – as are the arguments of the other scientists on this list,” Ferguson said. “Unfortunately, we are at a moment when right-wing forces are mobilizing to suppress free discussion of these realities. If we need an example of this mobilization, we could probably just turn to the forces that have come together to reject this course.”

— The State Calls for the inclusion of a 2016 article by UCLA history professor Robin D. G. Kelly in the course “Black Exploration, Black Struggle,” stating that it “asserts that activism, not the university system, is the catalyst for social transformations”. Kelly called this description too simplistic.

His article calls on student activists to move their efforts off campus and denounces racism, inequality, capitalism, militarism and police brutality. But he also said that activists should love everyone, “even those who may have once been our oppressors,” and read and understand Western literature if they want to criticize it.

He said one point is that “we shouldn’t focus so much on trauma and victimization, but instead should understand how we fought for justice, not just for blacks, but for the entire nation (yes, including struggling white people). ), despite the violence and oppression we have experienced.”

The state also points out that Kelly wrote the 1990 book The Hammer and the Hoe, which chronicles the history of communism in Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

“It has received several awards and accolades, including from several conservative anti-communist historians, because it is based on thorough research that DeSantis people are not familiar with,” Kelly said.

— The state criticized the inclusion of a section on the Black Lives Movement, a coalition of over 50 groups including Black Lives Matter and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. It says the group wants to abolish prisons and claims there is a “war” against black gays and transgender people.

The staff criticizes the inclusion in the reading section of Leslie Kay Jones, an assistant professor of sociology at Rutgers University. He cites her quote: “Black people produce an incalculable amount of content for the same social media corporations that reproduce the white supremacist superstructure that overwhelms us.”

Jones said she found no indication that the Black Life Movement had ever advocated abolition of prisons. She is surprised that DeSantis’ staff attacked her for criticizing social media, as he does the same thing.

She said that’s why students should be able to “come to their own conclusions by evaluating primary and secondary texts.”

“Does Ron DeSantis claim that Florida students can’t form their own opinions?” she said. _

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