Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, an African American Democrat, has sided with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over the governor’s decision to block a woke AP African American Studies course from being taught in the state that was being developed by the College Board.
“I think it’s trash,” Proctor said about the course. “There is grave concern about the tone and the tenor of leadership’s voice from the highest spaces in our state being hostile to teaching of African American history.”
“Well frankly I’m against the College Board’s curriculum. I think it’s trash. It’s not African American history. It is ideology,” Proctor continued. “I’ve taught African American history, I’ve structured syllabuses for African American history. I am African American history. And talking about ‘queer’ and ‘feminism’ and all of that for the struggle for freedom and equality and justice has not been no tension with queerness and feminist thought at all.”
The Florida Department of Education recently informed the organization that the course’s content is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value,” adding that the state would reconsider the course should the organization make the material “lawful” and “historically accurate.” The course, currently undergoing pilots at five dozen high schools across the nation, is centered upon leftist activism rather than the study of black history.
DeSantis, who signed legislation last year preventing the state’s government schools from teaching discrimination on the basis of race, color, or sex, detailed a number of his concerns with the course in a press conference.
“They’re advocating things like abolishing prisons,” DeSantis said. “Now that’s a radical political position. … It’s not fair to say that somehow abolishing prisons is linked to black experiences, that that’s what black people want. I think they want law and order, just like anybody else wants law and order. So that is more ideology being used under the guise of history, and we want to do history.”
Related: College Board Will Release Framework For Controversial African American Studies Course Amid Backlash