To help grow and sustain The Word, I am going to add more voices and content to the newsletter. The words we use in this newsletter can help all of us better understand the world, so it makes sense to include more voices and perspectives that understand our philosophy as we grow. This story was written by Thomas Simmons.
Last week, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continued his ethnocidal agenda by preventing the teaching of an AP African American studies course in Florida public schools.
Since 2017, the College Board, a non-profit organization that creates advanced placement curriculums and administers standardized tests, has been creating an AP African American studies course to encourage a greater awareness of African American history within American schools. In the 2022-2023 school year, the course became available to schools across the country.
In its denial, the Florida Government argued that the course was “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
DeSantis’ rejection of this course comes as no surprise, and is merely a continuation of his ethnocidal policies.
Ethnocide is the destruction of a people’s culture while keeping the people in order to establish or uphold a societal hierarchy.
DeSantis’ refusal to teach Black history and culture is an example of ethnocide because he isn’t taking issue with Black Floridians’ involvement in society. Instead, DeSantis is arguing that the teaching of their history and culture must remain illegal and is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law.” For DeSantis, Black Floridians can be a part of the state, but their culture cannot.
DeSantis has put hijacking the state’s public school system at the forefront of his administration as he gears up for a 2024 Presidential run, and takes his dangerous platform nationwide.
For DeSantis, American education must be Euro-centric and erase the teaching of the lived experiences of Black Americans either through AP African American history or critical race theory. This is ethnocide in the classroom.
This month, DeSantis has been giving public appearances with signage that declares Florida as “The Education State,” which follows a major push by his administration to control the curriculum in Florida public schools and exclude subjects that are inclusive to people of color and the LGBTQ community.
Earlier last year, the Florida legislature passed the Individual Freedoms Act (also known as the Stop W.O.K.E Act), which ended up being partially blocked by the state’s court system in November.
A pamphlet distributed by the Florida government explaining the Stop W.O.K.E. Act says that Florida’s education will not include curriculum that endorses the idea that a person’s moral character or socioeconomic status is “determined by his or her race, color, national origin, or sex.” The pamphlet also argues that the law is the first of its kind in the nation that “ensures Florida’s K-20 students and employees are not subject to Critical Race Theory indoctrination.”
Also, during his inauguration speech earlier this month, DeSantis claimed that Florida is where “woke goes to die.” DeSantis’ consistent fight against critical race theory reinforces the ways in which language is used, oftentimes maliciously, by politicians to maintain Ethnocide. By
Florida’s goal with the Stop W.O.K.E. Act is to label critical race theory as dangerous and unsubstantiated, while arguing that any curriculum that teaches concepts of systemic racism should be illegal.
Critical race theory teaches us that in America, a person’s socioeconomic status can be greatly influenced by their race, color, or national origin. Ethnocide also explains this obvious fact of American life because the racial classifications of white and Black were created to distinguish between the perpetrators of ethnocide and the victims of ethnocide since the beginning of American colonization and the transatlantic slave trade.
While DeSantis might be the loudest Republican voice, he certainly is not the first or only voice looking to prop-up ethnocide.
Florida’s hardline stance on AP African American Studies reminded me of Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, where he said this of Rep. Ilhan Omar on the campaign trail: “We’re going to win the state of Minnesota because of her, they say. She’s telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How’s your country doing? She’s going to tell us — she’s telling us how to run our country.”
This type of language, from a sitting United States President, tells us at the very least that some politicians and their supporters believe that anyone who looks non-white or Muslim is subject to questions regarding their “home country,” their ability to govern in the United States Congress, and the legitimacy of their existence in America.
DeSantis’ and Trump’s approach is simple: limit the teaching of subjects that challenge the existing power structures in America that silence specifically Black and LGBTQ minority groups.
The type of rhetoric being used here is reminiscent of the American Redemption philosophy, which aims to return American language and culture to the ideals of America’s Founding Fathers (the Founding era within the American Cycle) that attempted to corrupt democracy by sustaining and not abolishing colonization’s ethnocidal status quo: reinforcing racial hierarchies and silencing non-white cultures.
American schooling is at a crossroads.“Parental choice” in school has been a popular way for Republican candidates to gain legitimacy, but when DeSantis says that Florida is the place where “woke goes to die,” he’s saying the quiet part out loud: he believes that African American history and culture is not something that should be taught, and any curriculum claiming that race may play a factor in one’s life should be banished.
DeSantis and the modern Republicans are trying to decide what about Black history and culture is okay for students to learn. Is this type of discriminatory, censored curriculum what we want to teach our nation’s students?
Is a diluted curriculum featuring prejudice and discrimination what we want to teach our nation’s students?