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A college course in African-American studies is diluted after criticism of DeSantis in Florida

2023-02-01T20:06:02.875Z


The Florida College Board dilutes content criticized by the Republican governor and, according to activists and academics, excludes topics such as Black Lives Matter and various authors.


By Rose Horowitch and Adam Edelman -

NBC News

The Florida College Board has changed some of its guidelines for an advanced course in African-American studies, removing items that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had rejected because it said they had "a bias of left".

The College Board and several academic experts consulted to rework the course insisted they have not caved to political pressure and that the changes were long planned.

But the changes released Wednesday, at the start of Black History Month, are in line with criticisms that had been voiced by some conservative groups.

In the new curriculum, the College Board, a nonprofit organization that oversees Advanced Placement programs across the country, removed the names of several black authors identified as problematic by Florida officials.

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Professor teaches African American studies course at Baton Rouge Magnet High School, on Jan. 30, 2023.Stephen Smith / AP

In early January, state officials said they had rejected the course's original guidelines for six issues that concerned them:

Black Queer Studies

,

Intersectionality

,

Black Lives Matter

,

Black Feminist Literary Thought

,

The Reparations Movement,

and

Black Struggle in the 20th Century. XXI;

in addition to the works of black authors such as Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Bell hooks and Angela Davis, among others.

In the new plan there are substantial revisions to the sections on intersectionality;

and a section on Black Lives Matter (the movement against police brutality towards black minorities and, in general, against systemic racism) disappeared.

Some of these topics, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and reparations for descendants of slaves, were included as suggestions for student research projects, which "are not a required part of the course framework that states adopt." formally".

One more theme was also incorporated: black conservatism.

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The content of the new curriculum was described in detail to NBC News by David Blight, a professor of history and African-American studies at Yale University.

Blight was one of many scholars consulted by the College Board to review the curriculum.

“Now, I am disappointed to learn that an important section that was in an earlier version of this curriculum has been removed,” Blight said.

“I support the course as a creation of academic freedom,” he added.

“It took a lot of people to create this half-century tradition of African American studies, with students in every state,” he concluded, “no legislature, governor or school board has the right to just cancel it and get in the way.”

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The New York Times was the first outlet to report on the new curriculum.

Here is a breakdown of the most notable changes to the curriculum:

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  • In addition to the section on Black Lives Matter, a section on

    Black Struggle in the 21st Century has been removed.

    The suggested main reading in that section, works by author Robin DG Kelley, does not appear in the updated version.

  • The previous version included a weekly instruction on

    The Black Feminist Movement

    ,

    Feminism

    , and

    Intersectionality

    .

    In the new version, intersectionality is mentioned only in the research project topics, a list that is “for illustrative purposes” only.

  • Similarly, the previous version included a thematic section devoted to the reparations movement, but the updated version mentions “the reparations debate” only as a possible research project topic.

    The Revised Version also removes all mentions of the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates and his book

    The Case for Reparations

    .

    The original version of the academic plan included this and other works by Coates as "suggested reading."

  • The original version featured a track titled

    Queer Black Studies

    , while the updated version does not include the word

    queer

    at all .

    It does feature an issue titled

    Black Women and Movements in the 20th Century

    .

    The revised syllabus in this section suggests reading Toni Morrison, while the previous version suggested multiple authors, including Cathy Cohen, Roderick Ferguson, and E. Patrick Johnson.

  • The new section on

    Black Feminist Literary Thought

    maintains many of the same themes on women's movements that were included in the original version, but removes all authors challenged by Florida officials and shifts the focus away from modern activist unity.

  • Under the new course, any mention of the specific perpetrators noted by Florida officials in the first version, including Crenshaw and Davis, also disappeared.

This month, the DeSantis administration announced that the new advanced placement course will not be offered in Florida high schools.

The state Department of Education claimed the material was not historically accurate and violated a state law that DeSantis signed last year to restrict conversations about race in schools.

The College Board later announced it would publish a new framework for the course, saying the revised material had been in development since March 2022. The timing of the announcement and the response from authorities has raised questions about whether the organization was giving in to DeSantis pressures.

After that, many academics and Democrats have reacted indignantly and have called not to give in to pressure from DeSantis.

Source: telemundo

All news articles on 2023-02-01

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