High School AP African-American Studies Courses Have Arrived. Here Are Some Lessons Students Probably Won't Learn (But Should!)
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High School AP African-American Studies Courses Have Arrived. Here Are Some Lessons Students Probably Won't Learn (But Should!)

It’s time for some higher learning

This year, 60 schools nationwide will test a new course: AP African-American Studies. It sounds like the kids need it, too. In a majority-Black Tallahassee, Florida class, only one student knew about Thurgood Marshall; none knew of Toni Morrison. We losing recipes!

According to Time, successful students in the pilot AP African-American Studies course must demonstrate they “understand the concept of intersectionality, a way of looking at discrimination through overlapping racial and gender identities, and know that while it was written about by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw—a leading thinker on critical race theory—it was also talked about by 19th-century thinkers like Maria Stewart, a teacher who argued that racism and sexism had to be studied together.”

Well, that sounds great. The point of AP courses is to treat students like they’re in college—like adults, at least in an intellectual sense. If you step onto a college campus and an African-American Studies course doesn’t have something like this in the syllabus, you’re probably at David Duke University. However, with the scourge that is an aversion to “wokeness” and critical race theory, how much faith do you have that these courses will always be in pursuit of genuine curiosity and educating the youth about the honest history of Black people in America?

Time reports 19 states have passed laws or guidelines that limit how race can be taught in classrooms. Florida, in particular, is fertile ground for this battle. The Stop Woke Act, championed by the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, has been ruled unconstitutional for the time being. However, as it's a major political lightning rod, the fight is certainly not over.

In the likely event AP African-American Studies courses get sanitized, here are some lessons kids probably won’t be learning (but should!):

  • America actually despised Martin Luther King Jr.
  • Fannie Lou Hammer was a central Civil Rights Era figure
  • Activist Marsha P. Johnson was the primary catalyst behind the Stonewall Riots  
  • Living Single > Friends
  • The importance of seasoning food
  • The importance of not OVER-seasoning food
  • The Black Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition
  • The Tuskegee Experiment
  • The original members of Destiny’s Child
  • The Wilmington Insurrection of 1898
  • Nat Turner
  • Soulja Boy
  • How to do the Electric Slide
  • What it means when Grandma dreams about fish
  • Black Wall Street
  • Black Planet
  • The correct spelling of “genuine” and “ludicrous”
  • The significance of December 21, 2020
  • All (good) American music is Black music
  • The Harlem Hellfighters
  • How to make potato salad that is edible
  • Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses
  • Jay-Z is just as talented as Langston Hughes
  • Shazaam vs. Kazaam
  • The Tuskegee Airmen
  • The Wayans Bros.
  • The lyrics to the Good Times theme song
  • What Tommy’s job was
  • Which Tommy we’re talking about