Karine Jean-Pierre says DeSantis wants to 'block' the study of 'Black Americans' after rejecting AP course
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to block the study of Black Americans after his administration rejected the College Board’s Advanced Placement African American Studies course.
Liberals on Twitter were furious after a controversial college preparatory course was revised to remove its "woke" content.
After Florida's Department of Education rejected a pilot AP African American Studies course for violating the state's "Stop W.O.K.E." Act, the College Board removed some of the more controversial lessons from the curriculum, including required studies on Black Lives Matter and Queer Theory.
Progressive politicians and media figures were outraged at the board "caving" to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had also criticized the course as it was initially presented.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday announces plans to permanently eliminate COVID-19 mandates in Florida during the upcoming legislative session. (Ron DeSantis via Twitter)
"The Nation" correspondent Elie Mystal spent several tweets complaining about the news.
"Oh look, the College Board caved to freaking fascists by expunging Kimberle Crenshaw, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Roderick Ferguson from its AP Black history course. What total punks," the frequent MSNBC guest tweeted.
In a follow-up tweet, Mystal claimed removing certain authors from the course would result in more White "idiots."
"Good luck creating another generation of white kids who are idiots and don’t know anything other than what the dear leader says on the TB," he fumed.
Former longtime CBS News anchor Dan Rather claimed the governor's objections were akin to racist policies from the Jim Crow South.
"The DeSantis playbook on race and education is just an updated edition of what I saw in the South in the 1960s," the disgraced ex-journalist tweeted.
SiriusXM podcast host Dean Obeidallah also invoked race, slamming the board for "sacrificing academic freedom" in order to please "white nationalists."
"WOW: The College Board erased everything from AP African American history course that Ron DeSantis objected to. This is how White supremacy thrives. The College Board should have held their ground but now they have sacrificed academic freedom to make white nationalists happy," he tweeted.
The College Board on Wednesday revealed new framework for the AP African American Studies course. (Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Journalist Ian Millhiser fretted colleges would look down on Florida high school applicants because of the changes made to please the "authoritarian" governor.
"Why would a college still accept AP credits from a course tailored to support Ron DeSantis’s authoritarian goals?" the senior correspondent for Vox asked.
Journalist Walker Bragman also warned his peers not to "normalize" DeSantis' "fascism."
"Media, do not normalize the fascism of Ron DeSantis challenge," he tweeted.
JOY REID MISLEADS WITH UNCORRECTED VERSION OF WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE ON DESANTIS' EDUCATION LAW
Prolific progressive tweeter "JoJofromJerz" bashed the governor as a "bigoted bully" and worried about his potential presidential ambitions: "Ron DeSantis is an anti-science, anti-African American history, anti-gay, anti-trans, anti-education, anti-free speech, anti-human rights, wannabe authoritarian and bigoted bully with an A+ rating from the NRA. And he must never, ever, ever become President."
"The View" host Ana Navarro, who claimed on the show this week that DeSantis was "banning books" from school classrooms, tweeted out a NYT headline on the article and quipped, "Way to celebrate Black History Month," while tagging the governor.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, meanwhile, directed his anger at the College Board.
"And yet David Coleman, the head of the @CollegeBoard, says "we can’t look to statements of political leaders." I call bulls---t -- you are merely a puppet of Ron DeSantis," he tweeted.
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Democrat community organizer and activist Elijah Manley saw the move as an attack on his existence.
"I am black. I am queer. And despite what Ron DeSantis says, I EXIST. Our stories and our impact is rooted throughout the entirety of American history, and no racist white man will erase it," he touted.