So much for the GOP’s past arguments against “government overreach,” “let parents, not the government, determine what their children learn,” “let the market decide,” etc.
I guess by not teaching anything about African Americans, LGBTQ, or anyone else deemed “other,” those groups simply don’t exist.
I would be willing to bet big money that nobody involved in this decision has actually read the course material and are basing their decisions on a few right-wing ideologs’ opinions (who also have not actually read the material). It’s all in line with the Trump mantra of “People say. . .”.
Actually, they are very explicit about which parts of the curriculum they object to. You might not believe the rational, or you may disagree with it, but you can’t argue that nobody actually actually read the material:
I did check the reviews of Kelley’s book, it is clear that historians, for example, praised the book about the history of the communists in Alabama, because in essence it does not praise Communism, but descibes how it was that the gross racism and inequalities made some fall for that idea. And how the activism of then was used later for better ideals.
Reviewing Hammer and Hoe for American Quarterly , historian David Roediger emphasized Kelley’s methodological approach as descriptive rather than normative project: “Kelley asks not whether the Communist party was good (or correct or independent) but how the party came to attract a substantial number of African-American workers in Alabama and to energize their struggles [emphasis in the original]. Or, more exactly he asks how these black workers could embrace and use the Communist party as a vehicle for organizing themselves. He insists on measuring radicalism not by its ideological purity but by its ability to interact with a received culture to generate bold class organizations.”[5] Writing at The Nation , Sarah Jaffe says, “Kelley details […] how black workers in Alabama made communism their own, blending the teachings of Marx and Lenin with those of the black church and the lessons of decades of resistance to slavery, segregation, and racist terrorism.”[2]
As Hegel would say, one grabs from history what is good from the past to make the present better, as in not looking at communism now, but how activism can make things better.
Thanks – that just shows how dishonest this bill is. They have a problem with discussing communism in history… or more likely, they have a problem with African American studies and used this book as a bullshit excuse.
The author of the tweet is not the author of the image. The image is (or at least claims to be) from the Florida Department of Education.
I would have liked to find a more primary source for this information, but none of the news articles I could find included links to the “Letter sent by the DoE to College Board” or any other documentation on what they were reporting. The only thing I found was a link to this tweet.
Taking the information from the tweeted image from the FL DoE (assuming it’s accurate – like tofor, I can’t say for certain it’s actually from the DoE, but it can turn out to be influential, even if it’s fake), I’ve found it to be…lacking.
The image states: "Intersectionality…ranks people based on their race, wealth, gender, and sexual orientation.
At best, this is a gross (and unsurprisingly) misleading misinterpretation.
Reality: The concept of intersectionality describes the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects. what is intersectionality
the complex, cumulative way in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination (such as racism, sexism, and classism) combine, overlap, or intersect especially in the experiences of marginalized individuals or groups. Intersectionality Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
The image states: Movement for Black Lives is an organization with stated objectives that include eliminating prisons and jails, ending pretrial detention, and concluding “the war on Black trans, queer, gender non-conforming, and intersex people.”
Reality: We believe that prisons, police and all other institutions that inflict violence on Black people must be abolished and replaced by institutions that value and affirm the flourishing of Black lives. (emphasis mine)
We believe in centering the experiences and leadership of the most marginalized Black people, including but not limited to those who are trans and queer, women and femmes, currently and formerly incarcerated, immigrants, disabled, working class, and poor.
I’m not going to go into the rest of it, because these two make my point. The idiot(s) who wrote that take everything out of context for the purpose of emotionally feeding their low-information followers who are unwilling or unable to think critically.
But, as soon as you see “lies from the Biden White House”, you know the bias of the sender.
From the image, I see a couple of things that might fall afoul of the Florida anti-CRT law (this is a college-level curriculum, so “CRT” may actually be appropriate), and a couple that break the general understanding of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” (except this is college level, not elementary), and several that have nothing to do whatsoever with breaking any specific laws, meaning that the entire Florida Department of Education has been politicized by DeSantos.
I honestly don’t think Ron DeSantis actually gives fuck all about blacks or LGBQT people or anyone eles. He’s just a fine little fascist looking for a scapegoat, and he watched Trump ride a wave of thinly veiled prejudice, inflated by dog whistles and openly naked appeals to hate and figured, “If that moron can do it, why not me?” As the would be Il Duce of the Kingdom of Florida, he just needs a good scapegoat, whether it is blacks, queers, abortionists, Jews, drag queens, teachers, or just kids who want to read books.
It’s hard to call anything that the modern GOP does as hypocrisy when they’re so nakedly self -serving in it. There isn’t even a pretense of ‘family values’ or any appeal to an actual morality. It’s is just about hating on the most available minority with vigor and vim.
Thinly veiled, as in “very fine people on both sides” while making it clear where his alliances fell. And Trump is about as savvy as a fishmonger in Montana. DeSantis is actually kind of smart and can take notes to capture what works and what falls flat.
Importantly, the fact that something is “included reading” does not imply uncritically accepting all the material without discussion. I mean, it’s a game you could play with any course. Find any book that is in the included reading, then find any section in it with a view that can be spun as being commie or lefty or whatever, then push the idea that the course is trying to indoctrinate kids with that view.
Another thing is the references to the lessons as “4.19” or whatever…indicating how small a part these topics likely take in the whole syllabus anyway.
When tan the conman (I like that) did his press conference, one sleight of hand was to say there was a lesson on “queer theory” and then seamlessly pivot to a head-wobbling rhetorical flourish about Who would say that it is an important part of black history?
When of course, having a lesson on something does not imply it is a pivotal piece, just that it is relevant enough to warrant one lesson within what is actually a pretty broad topic.
The head of the board denied the changes were political, however. The article does state that content on Africa, slavery, reconstruction, and civil rights haven’t changed. More modern information (Black Lives Matter, etc.) is now optional. The fact remains that the board got rid of several authors who were in the curriculum.
In the end, all these idiot conservatives will lose. It’s just a matter of how much damage they’ll cause before they do.