Books are piled up in the classroom for students taking AP African American Studies at Overland High School on November 1, 2022, in Aurora, Colorado. | Source: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images / Getty
It appears that the College Board is finally clapping back a little at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his state’s white and fragile Department of Education for declaring that its Advanced Placement African American Studies course “significantly lacks educational value,” among other insults, lies and expressions of unfiltered white tears.
“We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value,’” the board said in a statement released Saturday, more than a month after Florida’s rejection statement was released. “Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field.”
As we previously reported, the College Board appeared to cave to conservative pressure by stripping away much of what DeSantis and his woke-away acolytes objected to, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the reparations debate and the work of Black authors like bell hooks, Kimberlé Crenshaw and Ta-Nehisi Coates. In its statement, the College Board repeated its claim that the changes made in the revised curriculum had nothing to do with DeSantis and his Black education DiSsenters or their perpetual cry-fest over what they think “wokeness” is.
“We should have made clear that the framework is only the outline of the course, still to be populated by the scholarly articles, video lectures, and practice questions that we assemble and make available to all AP teachers in the summer for free and easy assignment to their students,” the board’s statement continued. “This error triggered a conversation about erasing or eliminating Black thinkers. The vitriol aimed at these scholars is repulsive and must stop.”
The board also clarified that BLM, mass incarceration and other relevant real-life topics that get white conservatives pitching a fit were always meant to be optional topics. The board admitted its “lack of clarity allowed the narrative to arise that political forces had ‘downgraded’ the role of these contemporary movements and debates in the AP class.”
“In Florida’s effort to engineer a political win, they have claimed credit for the specific changes we made to the official framework,” the board said. “In their February 7, 2023, letter to us, which they leaked to the media within hours of sending, Florida expresses gratitude for the removal of 19 topics, none of which they ever asked us to remove, and most of which remain in the official framework.”
According to HuffPost, Florida officials claimed they were frequently in contact with the College Board and that the state’s Education Department did, indeed, influence the board’s decision to make certain changes to the curriculum. But the board denied the claim in its statement saying it never negotiated with terrorists—sorry, I mean, Florida’s department of white and fragile gatekeepers masquerading as “educators”—regarding what was or wasn’t included in the final version of the course, “nor did we receive any requests, suggestions, or feedback” outside of Republicans’ angry emails.
“This new AP course can be historic—what makes history are the lived experiences of millions of African Americans, and the long work of scholars who have built this field,” the College Board said. “We hope our future efforts will unmistakably and unequivocally honor their work.”
But these people do not care about the lived experiences of Black people—not as long as they undermine their jingoism and fail to put white feelings before truth.
SEE ALSO:
Where The New Advanced Placement African American Studies Course Falls Short
Gov. Ron DeSantis Defends Florida Rejecting ‘Radical’ AP African American Studies Course
