The College Board, an organization responsible for Advanced Placement (AP) courses, has announced a revised version of a course on African American Studies after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis banned it from the state, calling it “woke indoctrination.”
“Who would say that an important part of Black history is queer theory? That is someone pushing an agenda on our kids,” said DeSantis. The state administration criticized specific sections of the course, including Black Queer Studies, Black Feminist Literary Thoughts and the Reparations Movement. Florida’s Department of Education has cited the topics as foundations for critical race theory.
However, critics have called the ban on the course illegal censorship. Fedrick Ingram, the secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, said in an interview with PBS that “history sometimes involves the good the bad and the ugly of what happened. But we deserve honest history.”
Conservatives meanwhile are hailing the course revision as a win for DeSantis, who has made political fights around race, sex and education a priority. The second-term governor recently announced a push for a separate ban on diversity programs in state colleges.
DeSantis is reportedly preparing for a 2024 presidential run, with a January University of Massachusetts Amherst poll putting his 34% neck-and-neck with potential rival Donald Trump’s 37% in a matchup for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
