The New York Times of February 3, 2023 reported that “After heavy criticism from Gov. Ron DeSantis, the College Board released on Wednesday an official curriculum for its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies — stripped of much of the subject matter that had angered the governor and other conservatives.” I’m guessing that DeSantis had never read bell hooks or the other noted professors and writers who made the Index, but the College Board should hang their heads in shame and the rest of us should consider how to sanction the organization. I mention here just one small but telling detail about bell hooks, one of the most powerful but also open-minded and sensitive authors of our time. When I heard the African American poet June Jordan speak at my university years ago she said that Walt Whitman was absolutely essential but that Emily Dickinson was not. In preparing for my classes with week I was reminded that bell hooks cited Dickinson as the writer who influenced her the most and read to them these sentences from Remembered Words: “The angel of my solitary spirit, the one who guided me through poetry to the contemplative spirit—this angel was Emily Dickinson. Emily D,, as I called her when I was ten years old, was certain of only one thing, that solitude was essential for the nurturing of the imagination.” I also suggest to my students bell’s Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom, which I find essential reading both for future teachers and for members of the College Board.
We know why shameless politicians on the right try to placate and energize their base with racist and misogynistic rhetoric. We know why shameless politicians on the far left try to placate and energize their base by blaming the "1%" (and of course, Israel and insurance companies) for the nation's ills. We should know that Martin Luther King's approach made progress on the racist front with more nuanced (often unforgettable) rhetoric and more selective action -- and we know that progress still has a long way to go.
So here we have a nuanced AP syllabus that is far from confrontational. There is some room to quibble, there is some room to worry about the nuance level of the staff that would teach it. But the reference-heavy content looked near-bomb proof to me. Thus the College Board caving in is simply not defensible. These things have to be taught, and not just in AP classes. The right-wing crazies won this, as usual. The CB action, which will spread the idiocy nationwide, is already almost gone from mainstream media. Now what?
We know why shameless politicians on the right try to placate and energize their base with racist and misogynistic rhetoric. We know why shameless politicians on the far left try to placate and energize their base by blaming the "1%" (and of course, Israel and insurance companies) for the nation's ills. We should know that Martin Luther King's approach made progress on the racist front with more nuanced (often unforgettable) rhetoric and more selective action -- and we know that progress still has a long way to go.
So here we have a nuanced AP syllabus that is far from confrontational. There is some room to quibble, there is some room to worry about the nuance level of the staff that would teach it. But the reference-heavy content looked near-bomb proof to me. Thus the College Board caving in is simply not defensible. These things have to be taught, and not just in AP classes. The right-wing crazies won this, as usual. The CB action, which will spread the idiocy nationwide, is already almost gone from mainstream media. Now what?