It’s kind of odd, really. I mean, I know that Florida Republicans would say that they’re not opposed to students learning African American history and culture, even after their governor, Ron DeSantis, a man who always looks like he’s looking forward to when he’ll get to complain to the manager again, refused to allow an Advanced Placement course in African American Studies in Florida high schools. I know that Florida Republicans would say they’re not racist, even as they attack any teaching of history that might make white people uncomfortable as “indoctrination” and “critical race theory,” terms they neither understand nor care to understand.
And I know that the Florida Department of Education would say that they support teaching African American history, even encouraging teachers to have “age-appropriate” discussions on “how the freedoms of persons have been infringed by sexism, slavery, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination, including topics related to the enactment and enforcement of laws resulting in sexism, racial oppression, racial segregation, and racial discrimination, including how recognition of these freedoms have overturned these unjust laws.” Of course, “classroom instruction and curriculum may not be used to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view inconsistent with the principles of this subsection or state academic standards.”
