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Ron DeSantis Efficiently Bullies the Faculty Board Into Tailoring AP African American Research to the Wants of Fragile White Folks

Earlier this month, as a part of his dystopian try and dictate the matters folks can and can’t focus on within the state of Florida, Ron DeSantis’s administration despatched a letter to the Faculty Board rejecting a brand new AP course on African American research, claiming the category is “opposite to Florida regulation” and “considerably lacks academic worth.” Later, the governor elaborated on the state’s objections in a press convention, saying: “This course on Black historical past, what’s one of many classes about? Queer concept. Now who would say that an essential a part of Black historical past is queer concept? That’s any individual pushing an agenda on our children. And so whenever you look to see they’ve stuff on intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda.”

The entire thing was ridiculous and disturbing, however by no means shocking on condition that DeSantis has spent his time in workplace signing one absurd regulation after the following, together with one whose apparent intent is to ban conversations that might lead to white folks feeling dangerous about systemic racism, and one other that was actually nicknamed “Don’t Say Homosexual.” What is shocking, you ask? That Faculty Board utterly bowed to his calls for—and very shortly at that!

Per The New York Occasions:

After heavy criticism from Governor Ron DeSantis, the Faculty Board launched on Wednesday an official curriculum for its new Superior Placement course in African American Research—stripped of a lot of the subject material that had angered the governor and different conservatives. The Faculty Board purged the names of many Black writers and students related to crucial race concept, the queer expertise, and Black feminism. It ushered out some politically fraught matters, like Black Lives Matter, from the formal curriculum. And it added one thing new: “Black conservatism” is now supplied as an thought for a analysis undertaking.

In its revised 234-page curriculum framework, the content material on Africa, slavery, reconstruction, and the civil rights motion stays largely the identical. However the research of up to date matters—together with Black Lives Matter, incarceration, queer life, and the talk over reparations—is downgraded. The themes are not a part of the examination, and are merely supplied on a listing of choices for a required analysis undertaking. And even that checklist, in a nod to native legal guidelines, “might be refined by native states and districts.”

In accordance with the Occasions, among the many writers and teachers faraway from the curriculum are Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, a Columbia professor whose work has been “foundational in crucial race concept” (i.e., soiled phrases to DeSantis and Co.); Roderick Ferguson, a Yale professor who has written extensively about queer social actions (see “Don’t Say Homosexual”); and Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated writer who has made a robust case for reparations. Gone, too, is bell hooks, the writer and activist whose work centered on the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender.

The pinnacle of the Faculty Board insisted to the Occasions that the modifications to the curriculum had nothing to do with political strain, saying, “On the Faculty Board, we will’t look to statements of political leaders,” and that the tweaks got here from “the enter of professors” and “longstanding AP rules.” In a Medium publish revealed on Tuesday, greater than 200 African American research academics condemned DeSantis and his administration, calling their actions “censorship and a frontal assault on tutorial freedom.”

Sadly, the outcry inside academia is unlikely to discourage the governor, who this week continued his campaign towards free thought (and anybody who isn’t straight) with the announcement that he plans to defund variety, fairness, and inclusion applications at each public school within the state. Whereas claiming the aim of the transfer is to get rid of “ideological conformity,” he additionally stated programs on Western civilization could be mandated if his proposal is enacted. Sure, it’s virtually as if he didn’t take a category on “What it means to be a colossal hypocrite” at Yale.

In the meantime, the Occasions has chosen to border this as a branding train and never the actions of a would-be authoritarian attempting to suppress information as a result of he doesn’t just like the details.

Completely satisfied Black Historical past Month.

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