Reporting & Writing

The accumulation of right-geared North Florida and Governor Ron DeSantis compelled the newly proposed College Board’s AP African American Studies course to be more than just breaking news. DeSantis, for one, wasn’t having it.

The AP African American Studies course was created in remembrance of Harvard professor and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Henry Louis Gates Jr. However, the glorious and praised “Harvard” title wasn’t enough for the conservatives who opposed this. 

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The College Board decided to strip away “offensive” and “inappropriate” content from the curriculum itself; however, it seems as if our education is being stripped away. 

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Some may argue that DeSantis’s criticism resulted from the LGBTQ+ references in the curriculum; however, was this really the leading issue? I beg to differ. Let us not forget that our Governor, Ron DeSantis, was the moderator for a raging racist Facebook group called “Tea Party,” where he heavily criticized people of color, including former First Lady Michelle Obama.

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DeSantis’s criticism is dangerous for not only education and Florida; this moderate campfire can quickly ignite into a disastrous wildfire, leading to the rest of the United States attaching to the infectious disease, also known as racism. The states are notorious for following each other, and Florida is the bad influence. First, it will be the course itself; then we would be potentially banned from speaking of African American history and culture in schools forever. 

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Referring back to the ostensible point of the LGBTQ+ section of the curriculum, not only are there racists but now there are also homophobes who would like to chime in on this topic. The “Intersectionalist'' unit of the curriculum covers topics associated with African American leaders through the frontier of LGBTQ+ mistreatment. Although this is still history, Florida doesn’t “agree” with it. After all, children had to learn the story of Pocahontas and the colonizers… which really wasn’t a delightful story to teach a young audience. However, we still had to know about it. It’s history.

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Finally, one of the most assumed reasons behind Florida’s actions is the concept of “white oppression.” Some conservatives believe that with the topic of enslavement and the American Civil War, white students would be discriminated against and looked down upon simply because of their ancestors. This is a concept made up in an attempt to erase the recollection of enslavement and African American history, unfortunately. 

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With this, Florida continues to polish their trophy of “craziest state” in the United States, and pretty much resides as its own country, with its own policies. Ron DeSantis shouldn’t withhold the power of changing a curriculum made by a 123-year-old organization. As student journalists, the future of journalism is the only humbling source for these actions, and it is our job to balance these threats against education. History is history, and it cannot be altered or erased. As always told to students, “what happened, happened. You can’t change it, but now, you have to embrace and acknowledge the past.”