Florida’s rejection of Black history course stirs debate

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. DeSantis said his administration rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course because “we want education, not indoctrination.” It was revealed last week that the Florida Department of Education recently told the College Board it would bar the course unless changes are made. The state then issued a chart late Friday that says the course promotes the idea that modern American society oppresses Black people, other minorities and women, includes a chapter on “Black Queer Studies” that the administration finds inappropriate, and uses articles by critics of capitalism. Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell called the administration’s rejection of the course “cowardly” and said it “sends a clear message that Black Americans’ history does not count in Florida.” “Imagine how boring and closed minded we’d all be if we only met ideas that we agreed with,” she said Monday. The state says he “exclaims, ‘We have to encourage and develop practices whereby queerness isn’t a surrender to the status quo of race, class, gender and sexuality.’” Ferguson said that quote comes from an interview he did about his book, “One-Dimensional Queer.” The book, he said, is a discussion of “employment discrimination, laws against LGBTQ+ people, the suppression of progressive movements in the U.S., police violence against minority communities, restrictions on immigration anti-black racism.” “These are real histories.