The College Board has not released the syllabus for the AP African-American Studies course that the state of Florida wants to ban because, they say, it has “no educational value” and violates state law by invoking “critical race theory.”
But the syllabus was released by NBC News and is easily found on the internet.
I suggest that you read it for yourself.
Stanley Kurtz, a conservative academic, wrote a scathing critique in National Review, where he blasted the AP course as “Neo-Marxist” and intent on propagating a socialist-Marxist-Communist mindset. Google and you will find follow-up articles by Kurtz.
I taught the history of American education, and I wrote books that specifically included the history of the education of Black Americans. To write about the history, I read many of the authors cited in the AP course. None of those authors, like Frederick Douglass or Carter Woodson or W.E.B. DuBois or Booker T. Washington, should be excluded from a course like this.
I will say without hesitation that the course is not, as Florida officials claim, “leftwing indoctrination.” Very few Americans know anything about African history, so my guess is that 99% of that history will be new to every reader. I am not sure why DeSantis is upset by “intersectionality.” A reporter should ask him to define it. I saw no problem in the mention of the Black Lives Matter movement or the reparations movement, because they are part of history; they exist. Why ban them? The DeSantis team wants the AP course of study to be upbeat; to show the celebratory rightwing view of American history; to exclude authentic African American thinkers, like Kimberlé Crenshaw and Michelle Alexander.
True there is a topic on “Black Queer Studies” that must drive Ron DeSantis and his allies crazy. I doubt that any students will be turned gay by learning about the topic. But this topic alone will be sufficient to get the course banned in DeSantis’ state and probably other red states. It might get axed by the College Board, which is alert to its bottom line. If the pushback hurts revenue, the College Board is likely to beat a hasty retreat.
Kurtz is right on one count. He wrote that “A stunningly large portion of the APAAS curriculum is devoted to the history of black studies.” This is true. Students will learn a lot about the leading scholars of the field and their contributions. Much of the scholarship is about the scholarship. And much, rightly, is about the brutal exploitation and degradation of African peoples.
In discussions with students about their expectations for the course, students said there should be an “unflinching look at history and culture.” Of course. They don’t want a sanitized history. They also said “Emphasis should be placed on joy and accomplishments rather than trauma.” They felt that they had learned about slavery every year, and “students feel they have been inundated with trauma.” In this course, it’s hard to find the “joy and accomplishments” that students are hoping to learn about. It is unlikely that they will learn much about barrier-breaking individuals like Dr. Charles Drew; LBJ’s Housing Secretary Robert Weaver; Guy Bluford (the first Black astronaut) or Mae Jamison (the first Black female astronaut); Ralph Bunche (the first African American to win a Nobel Prize for his diplomacy); Leontyne Price, the great international opera star, born in Laurel, Mississippi, or the newest international opera star Michelle Bradley, born in Versailles, Kentucky; or even the first Black President, Barack Obama. Of the hundreds and thousands of African Americans who have achieved their dreams, not much is said. The students say they know a lot about Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks; they want more. And they should have the pleasure of learning the inspiring stories of African-Americans who shattered stereotypes and made history.
The College Board says this is a preliminary version of the ultimate AP exam. It’s a good start. Let’s see if it can survive the political maelstrom.
The reactions to this course and to the 1619 Project are themselves evidence of one element of what the course and the project demonstrate: that there is no shortage of white men and women in America, some of them purported to be eminent historians, who are all in for whitewashing, for mythologizing, for looking away, for refusing to learn the lessons of our actual history, for pretending like children, for perpetuating the crime of racism and, monstrously, trying to make it look “not quite so bad” and not persistent into the present, ubiquitous, and systemic.
You want to see racism in contemporary America? Well, it’s everywhere in the differences in treatment and outcomes for white Americans on Americans who are POC. And it’s everywhere in the “Conservative” response to the AP course and the 1619 Project.
Conservative. As in, let’s conserve white supremacy and mythologized, whitewashed, jingoistic, Christian nationalism.
For a different perspective, I recommend reading the scholarship of the eminent Brown University professor Glenn Loury.
https://www.brownalumnimagazine.com/articles/2023-01-09/conservative-voice-glenn-loury-and-poet-ravi-shankar
For a different perspective, I recommend. among hundreds and hundreds of works, this:
I just ordered that yesterday. According to Professor Dunn, there were more lynchings in Florida than any other southern state.
Oh, and btw, ____ The College Board, but for other reasons.
A truly outstanding, breathtaking syllabus. So much opportunity in this for extraordinarily important research and profound analysis, discussion, debate. Just what we need.
I read for AP Human Geography and those of us at the reading last year, at least the ones I talked to, were THRILLED that there were be an African American history course through AP, as it is so sorely needed. Infuriating, but not surprising, that College Board would drop itm
❤
Well said, Diane! History is fact, and any attempt to suppress it is an attempt to escape the truth. Lots in history is ugly and brutal. Trying to understand it is best way to avoid the mistakes of the past. Right wing extremists like DeSantis are trying to erase the past in order to control the future. Ignorance is not bliss. It makes people vulnerable to misinformation and conspiracy theories. That’s what the radical right prefers, people that are easily manipulated and controlled. DeSantis wants young people in the state to wear blinders by studying whitewashed history so he can push his sanitized version of history and control the narrative. He finds the Black studies course a threat to his manipulative agenda.
Thank you; I hope you will also post what will not be taught about Native American history.
Please.
Thank you.
Karen Rom kkormann94@gmail.com
>
I don’t know “what will not be taught about Native American history.” Please fill me in, with sources.
Agreed. It’s a little better now than it used to be, when the standard school history surveys hauled off with The Age of Exploration. There is now at least some attempt, in some of these books, to present pre-Colombian history in an opening chapter. However, this material is typically shoved into a single very vague chapter at the beginning, if it’s there at all. And the subsequent material on indigenous America is typically really woefully sparse and clearly just thrown in to suggest coverage. It’s really quite disheartening. It would be great to see a truly robust indigenous American strand become standard in K-12 history texts.
Here’s how bad things are: We have very few authentic texts by native Americans from the early years of this country. One such–a priceless masterpiece–is The Soul of an Indian, by Ohiyesa, aka Charles Alexander. But I have yet to see one of these K-12 books contain any significant material or even a mention of this ESSENTIAL book. What does appear tends to be EXTREMELY whitewashed and prettified. I could go on and on about this, but I will stop there.
The paucity of real stuff about indigenous Americans in these K-12 books ought to be a national scandal. And the ignorance of the editors and writers of these books of native American history should be, too.
I think Dangerously Deranged DeSantis wants to become the annointed leader of extreme-right racist voters and that’s why he and his theofascist allies claim “students feel they have been inundated with trauma.”
It is true that K through college students have been inundated with trauma, but that trauma has nothing to do with African American studies.
That trauma has to do with children and college students being gunned down on campuses during or after school hours.
https://www.k12academics.com/school-shootings/history-school-shootings-united-states
Also, what I found interesting along my pathway in life…https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month/historic-black-communities.html#shr-pg0 Henry Osawa Tanner https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1919.html Josephine Baker https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/jazz-singer-josephine-baker-first-black-woman-honoured-frances-pantheon-2021-11-30/ Black Americans had to leave America to flourish. Henry Osawa Tanner said, “In America I was simply a black artist. In France, I was “Monsieur Tanner acclaimed artist.” And, this as well. https://www.history.com/news/free-school-breakfast-black-panther-party Very, very important contributions to building America. As a kid, I was never taught any of this. Very important educational information.
Same was true of Sidney Bechet. He became a national hero of France at the same time he couldn’t travel safely in the Jim Crow South. Petite Fleur has long been considered the unofficial French national anthem.
So beautiful
In your second to last paragraph, you said what I was ready to post after reading the article. The Black history that is taught seems to boil down to the acknowledgement of slavery, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the victories of the Civil Rights movement…every year. You’re right that there is so much more out there to learn. This course appears to do that.
The indoctrination claim from DeSantis and others is hogwash. Hearing an opinion or idea doesn’t mean that the hearer will believe it, even minors. If that were true, people would be changing religions, political parties, sports team fandom, etc. daily as they heard new arguments for one thing or the other.
I agree with you.
DeSantis wants to revise the First Anendment or delete it.
I think the problem now is that no matter what the College Board does with the course, it still won’t be offered in Florida. Teaching that class will be like walking around with a target on your back, waiting to be accused of saying something that made a white student “feel bad.” Who needs it?
I like your analysis. I read through the 28 week overview but did not go through the more detailed pages. I have taught American History and know that we MUST TEACH HONEST HISTORY! Textbooks are written for different parts of the country. They are written to satisfy the norms of the communities and school boards that purchase them. I worked around it by using supplemental materials. Now there are videos that can show actual events as they happened. We cannot afford to “White-wash” history just to appease the radical right-wing politicians.
Thank you, Ann Elaine!
Readers can consult his Google Scholar page and make up their own minds:
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C44&q=glenn+loury&btnG=
Glenn Loury is a noted conservative.
From what I’ve read of the AP course book it’s the last section that has been brought into question. History is not denied but it sounds like the last section that is current events. You said it promotes discussion and so it’s current events. Discuss current events, you get it from news and internet, why does it have to be in the book. Probably so they can sell a new book when some of the last chapter in previous book becomes history.
It would be a strange course if it left out the last 50 years.
Hi, thanks for bringing more light to this situation. Im curious as to what you think are the reasons we dont see teachers and educators push back against this onslaught of “woke/crt” indoctrination accusations?
Lance,
Good question. Individual teachers may fear for their jobs. They may leave. How do they challenge a governor who is a vengeful tyrant?