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Florida’s rejection of Black history course stirs debate
AP News – By TERRY SPENCER and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reiterated Monday the state’s rejection of a proposed nationwide advanced African American studies course, saying it pushes a political agenda — something three authors cited in the state’s criticism accused him of doing in return.
DeSantis said his administration rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course because “we want education, not indoctrination.” It was revealed last week that the Florida Department of Education recently told the College Board it would bar the course unless changes are made.
The state then issued a chart late Friday that says the course promotes the idea that modern American society oppresses Black people, other minorities and women, includes a chapter on “Black Queer Studies” that the administration finds inappropriate, and uses articles by critics of capitalism.
“This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda,” said DeSantis, a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2024.
Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell called the administration’s rejection of the course “cowardly” and said it “sends a clear message that Black Americans’ history does not count in Florida.”
“Imagine how boring and closed minded we’d all be if we only met ideas that we agreed with,” she said Monday.
The College Board, after a decade of development, is testing the African American Studies course at 60 high schools nationwide. No school or state would be required to offer it after its scheduled rollout.
The organization offers AP courses across the academic spectrum, including math, science, social studies, foreign languages and fine arts. Taught at a college level, students who score high enough on the course’s final exam usually earn course credit at their university.
The state, in its Friday chart, criticized five living authors. The Associated Press emailed them and three responded.
— The section on “Black Queer Studies” includes readings by Roderick Ferguson, a Yale University professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies. The state says he “exclaims, ‘We have to encourage and develop practices whereby queerness isn’t a surrender to the status quo of race, class, gender and sexuality.’”
Ferguson said that quote comes from an interview he did about his book, “One-Dimensional Queer.” The book, he said, is a discussion of “employment discrimination, laws against LGBTQ+ people, the suppression of progressive movements in the U.S., police violence against minority communities, restrictions on immigration (and) anti-black racism.”
— The state calls out the course for including “Black Study, Black Struggle,” a 2016 piece by UCLA history professor Robin D.G. Kelley, saying he “argues that activism, rather than the university system, is the catalyst for social transformation.” Kelley called that description oversimplified.
His piece challenges student activists to move their efforts beyond campus and decries racism, inequality, capitalism, militarism and police brutality. But he also said activists must love everyone, “even those who may once have been our oppressors,” and read and understand Western literature if they are to criticize it.
The state also points out Kelley wrote the 1990 book “Hammer and Hoe,” a history of communism in Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
“It won several awards and accolades, including from a few conservative anti-Communist historians, because it is based on thorough research — something DeSantis’s people are not familiar with,” Kelley said.
— The state criticized the inclusion of a section about “Movement for Black Lives,” a coalition of more than 50 groups including Black Lives Matter and the National Conference of Black Lawyers. It says the group wants to abolish prisons and that it alleges there is a “war” against gay and transsexual Black people.
Jones said she found no indication that the Movement for Black Lives has ever advocated for prison abolition. She is surprised DeSantis’ staff attacked her for criticizing social media companies, as he does the same.
She said this is why students should have the ability “to come to their own conclusions through an evaluation of primary and secondary texts.”
“Is Ron DeSantis claiming that Florida students are unable to formulate their own opinions?” she said. ___
Izaguirre reported from Tallahassee, Florida.