More than 1000 African American studies faculty members, administrators and supporters in higher education condemned the College Board’s capitulation to the Florida Department of Education in the creation of the Advanced Placement African American studies course. In a letter addressed to College Board CEO David Coleman, the collective called for the current curriculum to be rescinded, resources be made available for students “confronting censored AP content,” to stop making false claims that the current class properly teaches African American studies and to fight “widespread efforts by states to censor anti-racist thought.” “African American Studies is the study of the persistence of anti-Blackness and the connections between historical and contemporary efforts to resist structural racism,” the letter read. “It is an interdisciplinary engagement with the ways in which people of African descent remade and re-envisioned the world through ideas, art, politics and social movements despite the enduring character of white supremacy.”
The letter said the College Board did not uphold its “commitments against politically-motivated meddling” and specifically took issue with the removal of terms like systemic racism and intersectionality at Florida’s request, which “demean, malign and caricature Black life and the study of it.” Signees contend that the current curriculum now lacks the fundamental aspects of African American studies and if not rescinded, some faculty will advise their institutions against accepting the AP credit. “As a result, students may take the course without ever encountering key words and related concepts in the field including intersectionality, Black feminism, racial color blindness, institutional racism, and Black Lives Matter,” the letter read. “Students and educators cannot engage these topics and ideas if the terms themselves are censored, as the terms themselves convey critical insights that are central to African American Studies. African American Studies is more than the study of the Black past.’”
At least eight signees work at Florida institutions, including University of Florida, University of Miami and Florida State University. Columbia University, Howard University and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill were a few other represented institutions. The letter is the latest reaction by academics to the College Board’s back-and-forth with the state of Florida since educational officials said the AP curriculum “lacks educational value.” A subsequent New York Times article delved into the College Board’s communications with state education officials, conversations that showed the FDOE’s insincere “effort to improve education,” according to Jason Manoharan, vice president for AP program development. The College Board denied that Florida officials influenced any changes in the curriculum. A communication posted by the College Board asserted the organization “had no negotiations about the content of this course with Florida or any other state, nor did we receive any requests, suggestions or feedback.” Critics have asserted DeSantis’ “anti-woke” policies seek to downplay the role of Black history and complicate how teachers can teach about racism. Many members who signed this most recent letter also published a similar one in late January that condemned DeSantis’ efforts “to delegitimize the AP’s pilot curriculum in African American Studies.” DeSantis recently suggested that he wants to reevaluate the state’s relationship with the College Board, which also administers the SAT exam.
On Wednesday, Rev. Al Sharpton and hundreds of other primarily Black protesters marched through the streets of Tallahassee to voice their discontent with DeSantis. “They are saying, ‘No, no, no, we have Black history,’ ” Sharpton said. “But for them to write Black history and decide Black history is a national standard that we cannot allow to happen. They cannot decide which Black scholars and which Black writers. It is like it is said often, if the lion wrote the book rather than the hunter, the story would have come out differently.”
Miamiherald
Tags:motivated
