Desantis is waging war against Black history
The College Board kicked off the first day of Black History Month not by celebrating it — but by becoming a pawn in a cultural war aimed at suppressing the nation’s history of racism and oppression.
The educational institution was founded in 1900 to create greater access to higher education and promote equity, but it has failed.
The College Board, administrator of the SAT and Advanced Placement Program, caved to political pressure from Florida Gov. Ron Desantis.
Texas and Greg Abbott are never far behind.
Desantis is so hungry for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination that he’s always finding new ways to feed a cultural war and far-right voters who’d like to see African American Studies and its scholars attacked.
That goes for Mexican American Studies, feminist studies and other coursework that diverts from course material that’s European-centered in its historical and educational framework.
Though the College Board has denied revising the Black Studies coursework to satisfy Desantis, news reports have found similarities in the College Board’s revisions and the governor’s criticisms.
The Advanced Placement course on African American Studies was already being piloted across the country.
Scholars say the College Board revised the course to eliminate the discussion of slavery reparations and the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought and Black LGBTQ or queer scholarship.
The BLM movement, for example, was reduced to being listed as a potential research project, alongside Black conservatism.
Several authors were removed in the College Board’s revisions, including Kimberlé W. Crenshaw of Columbia Law School who writes about racism and civil rights; and the late bell hooks, whose first book was “Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminist” and who taught at Stanford and Yale Universities.
Such specifics illustrate an ongoing culture war.
It’s an intentional, aggressive attack on freedom, academic freedom in particular, and on the futures of students who should be encouraged to become knowledgeable about their country’s history.
The revisions will harm those preparing for college and careers in which Black history will be integral and necessary.
It’s part of a perpetual backlash to progress made by African Americans, other populations of color, women and the LGBTQ community.
It’s a backlash to an ongoing shift in population and growth among people of color that’s reducing the white population to a minority.
Desantis has been a key player in the long, divisive movement.
Florida’s State Board of Education recently ruled that a new law restricting the kinds of books used in public schools applies to both school libraries and book collections kept in classrooms, the kind teachers build to keep their students engaged and to encourage reading. It’s causing confusion and contempt.
On Tuesday, Desantis also announced that he’d block colleges and universities from maintaining diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, programs that help create and maintain diverse work environments that are equitable and inclusive.
The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Florida have filed lawsuits over the African American Studies coursework.
Nearly 600 African American Studies faculty members have joined the fray.
In an open letter, they asked the College Board to rescind its decision. It says the board should follow established procedures that allow for revisions by educators while the course is in the field.
“This is censorship and a frontal attack on academic freedom,” the letter said.
“We will not mince words,” the letter states. “The contention that an AP curriculum in African American Studies ‘lacks educational value’ is a proposition supported by white supremacist ideology, because it fundamentally demeans the history, culture, and contributions of Black people.
“It’s also racism wrapped inside homophobia,” the letter said. “It would mean that the worst dystopias of science fiction have taken root.”
This is white supremacy 2023.