*MSNBC guest panelist and Operation Hope founder John Hope Bryant says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking us back to the slave era with his administration’s school policies.
In recent weeks, DeSantis has pushed to have an AP African American studies course stripped of CRT-style content. As Fox News reports, during a recent broadcast of “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle,” Bryant claims the move is similar to Jim Crow-era Florida, saying the governor has made it “1865 all over again.”
His condemnation of DeSantis comes after the Florida Department of Education pushed the College Board to remove many of the topics that the governor has criticized from a proposed AP African American studies course. The College Board released the official curriculum for a new Advanced Placement (AP) course on African American Studies after DeSantis blocked an AP course for high school students on the subject.
The College Board is a nonprofit organization that oversees AP coursework. EUR reported previously, citing CNN, that a January 12 letter to the College Board from the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”
READ MORE: College Board Revises A.P. Curriculum for African American Studies After DeSantis Criticism
“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,” the letter stated.
The 234-page curriculum was recently unveiled and several Black writers and scholars who tackle topics related to critical race theory, queer issues, and Black feminism, were omitted from the framework, according to the New York Times. An earlier version of the course was rejected for including Critical Race Theory and queer theory. The College Board has stripped all such content from the course.
“You cannot decide which part of the history you want to learn about. All of our history is rich and important,” said Bryant.
“This is uh, 1960 all over again. This is 1865 all over again, where we’re stoking fears, deciding we are separate,” Bryant said.
Bryant went on to explain that DeSantis and the GOP are ignoring the Bible.
“The Bible says a house divided cannot stand. Supposedly, this party is about this higher idea. Well, let’s go right to the Bible. We’re only better together,” he said, noting that “it is our complicated history, like a family, that actually makes us better.”
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