Some ‘Woke’ Topics Are Gone in Final AP African American Studies Curriculum

Republican presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas, Nev., on Oct. 28, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

The College Board, the company that develops Advance Placement (AP) courses for high schools across the nation, has revised its AP African American Studies curriculum to remove some topics that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called out earlier this year for advancing a “woke” agenda.

In the finalized course plan for AP African American Studies, published on Wednesday, several topics flagged by the Florida government as inappropriate are found to be excluded or downgraded, meaning that they won’t appear on the final AP exam.

“Black Queer Experience,” a topic Mr. DeSantis has singled out in his criticism, is no longer a part of the curriculum. Meanwhile, content about the Black Lives Matter movement and the debate over reparations for America’s black citizens are now only included as optional.

However, the final curriculum still includes works of left-wing authors the DeSantis administration rejects, such as books by Kimberle Crenshaw, who coined the term “critical race theory,” and those of Angela Davis, an active member of Communist Party USA in the 1960s who was banned from teaching in the University of California system by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan.

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The curriculum also retains discussions of concepts like “intersectionality,” the idea that people are victimized differently depending on their overlapping identities, which essentially illustrates a hierarchy of victimhood where straight white men are at the bottom for purportedly enjoying the most privileges at the expense of others.

This concept of intersectionality is woven into the several of the course’s units. For example, a unit titled “The Black Feminist Movement, Womanism, and Intersectionality” discusses black women’s “distinct experiences through the interactions of their social, economic, and political identities with systems of inequality and privilege.”

The College Board insisted that the changes were not made because of pressure from Florida, but were the result of consulting experts and evaluating feedback from teachers involved in teaching the pilot course.

“Amid intense public debate over this course, College Board asked subject-matter experts in the AP program, scholars and experienced AP teachers to revisit the course,” the New York City-based company said in a statement on Wednesday.

The AP program consulted with professors from “more than 200 colleges nationwide, including dozens of historically Black colleges and universities, along with dedicated high school teachers across the country,” it added.

Florida Law

In January, Florida Department of Education (FDOE) declared that it would not approve the pilot version of AP African American Studies, saying that the course not only was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law,” but also “significantly lack[ed] educational value.”

The FDOE was referring to what’s popularly known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” which prohibits teaching that individuals are inherently racist because of their skin color, or that someone should feel shame or guilt for actions committed in history by people of their race.

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” it said in a letter to College Board.

In defense of the decision, Mr. DeSantis argued that the AP pilot course—developed in 2020 amid the nationwide racial unrest sparked by the death of George Floyd—was an attempt to use black history to push a left-wing agenda on Florida schools.

“What’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” the Republican governor said at a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida, in January. “Now, who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids.”

“When you use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes,” he added. “And so when you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons, that’s a political agenda.”

Florida has a law mandating schools to teach African American history. Mr. DeSantis said he expects the subject to be taught as an integrated part of American history.

“I don’t view it as a separate history,” he said. “We have history in a lot of different shapes and sizes; people who have participated to make the country great, people who have stood up when it wasn’t easy, and they all deserve to be taught.”

Several prominent Democrats have spoken out against Mr. DeSantis for blocking the AP course in Florida. Among them was Vice President Kamala Harris, who called him an “extremist so-called leader.”

“Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future,” Ms. Harris said at a pro-abortion rally in Tallahassee, Florida, in January.

According to the College Board, nearly 700 schools are piloting the AP African American Studies course in the 2023–2024 school year, involving approximately 13,000 students of more than 40 states and the District of Columbia.

“This course is a vibrant introduction to a dynamic field that offers a broader perspective,” said Brandi Waters, senior director and lead author of the program. “This is the course I wish I had in high school. I hope every interested student has the opportunity to take it.”