"You Can't Do That"
"You Can't Do That"
As in, "You can't teach African American history in Florida," say Florida Republicans. Or do they? And, "You can't outlaw African American history in Florida, you dicks!" says Dean Moore. Or does he?
I was up in Bloomington, Indiana, all this week visiting my mom and aunt, and decided I’d conduct a little experiment. I’d take a break from reading the news. And then at the end of the week I’d take The New York Times’ weekly News Quiz and see how many out of 11 questions I could get right…just by osmosis, I guess.
(And I just found out NYT allows subscribers to gift 10 articles a month, so if you’ve clicked links to the Times before and haven’t been able to read it as a non-subscriber…you can click the above and take this week’s quiz as a non-subscriber now! BONUSSSS.)
Anyway, I got 8 right, missed 1, and got 2 right by way of non-educated guess.
Cool experiment, right?? OK then, see ya next week, thanks for reading!!
J/k.
It must be said that I didn’t particularly avoid the news this week, per se. I overheard some TV news that Mom and Aunt Cindy had on. And I did scan some “breaking news” emails (and crikey do I get a lot of “breaking news” emails, maybe half of which are actual breaking news-worthy. Haven’t we learned from CNN’s obscene overuse of that term, stripping it of all meaning?)
So tbperfectlyh, the more accurate description of my experiment is that I avoided proactively reading the news.
The Times lists how many of the 100,000-plus readers who take part in their quiz get each question right. For instance, 99% knew what superstar athlete announced their retirement this week, almost a year to the day they first said they would retire (only to un-retire a few weeks later).
And only 92 percent knew the iconic TV series the late Cindy Williams co-starred in with Penny Marshall in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Granted, most of these quiz participants are total news nerds, but they got the sports question right and didn’t get this one right?? COME ON, people.
But anyway. The news nerds did almost as well on a far more significant question as they did with the sports question. 98% got this one correct:
Q: The College Board said it would change the curriculum for which Advanced Placement course, after Florida banned it in public high schools?
A: African American studies; B: Biology; C: Calculus; D: European history;
E: United States government and politics
And the answer is (sorry, gotta give the answer so’s I can expound upon it, so, SPOILER ALERT…):
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Answer: African American studies.
So wait…Florida banned African American studies from their public high schools? Umm…this raised some questions for me.
What could possibly be the reason to ban African American studies altogether? I understand many Republicans are up in arms about whatever they think “critical race theory” might be. (And from what I’ve read, the theory has almost never made its way into non-graduate college curricula, let alone high school curricula.) So, we can have a discussion about systemic racism—what it is, what it is not, and how it should or should not factor into high school lesson plans…
But to just outlaw African American studies on the whole?I haven’t really boned up too much on what the College Board was actually asked by Florida to change. Did Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who’s the #1 contender to fight Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination for president, really call for a “ban” of “African American studies” specifically?
It seems so inherently wrong that I half-suspect the language was used by some lefty media outlets to show DeSantis in a worse light than he might deserve (at least in this instance). Because, I mean…did he really disallow just the overall study of Black history? During Black History Month? Or did they take Black History Month off the Florida calendar, too?
(I guess giving Black folks the shortest month of the year to celebrate their history wasn’t enough of a slight. SIDE NOTE: I’m starting to get really angry right now. Not that this subject doesn’t immediately get me angry whenever I think about it, but, like…gettin’ really angry right now.)What was Florida Republicans’ official reasoning for banning African American studies in their public high schools? What did they ask the College Board to do?
What was the College Board’s reasoning for responding to Florida’s request? What changes did they ultimately make?
And now, after reading the Times’ corresponding article to the News Quiz question, here are my answers to my own questions:
I read the question wrong. My bias against many Republicans’ opposition to the notion that racism could possibly be systemic in 2023 clouded my thinking a bit, methinks.
Florida did not ban African American studies in public high schools. In fact, the state requires that schools teach African American history.What DeSantis banned was the College Board’s first draft of their curriculum for the African American studies Advanced Placement course. Per the Times, “State education officials said it was not historically accurate and violated state law that regulates how race-related issues are taught in public schools.”
(That’s a gas, by the way—how Republicans hate regulation, except when they’re regulating social-issue stuff they’re freaked out about.)
The Board says they made their changes to the curriculum before DeSantis started complaining, but…sure seems like the changes they made align with the grievances DeSantis and other very-right-leaning Republicans vocalized.DeSantis railed against the Board’s inclusion of the work of authors and professors he sees as forebears of critical race theory, especially. He’s also less than keen on the AP course including LGBTQ+ issues from a Black perspective, feminism from a Black perspective, Black Lives Matter, intersectionality, the 1619 Project, reparations, etc.
You know, stuff that is clearly irrelevant to Black history.The College Board pretty much cut out all the aforementioned “touchy parts” DeSantis and many other Republicans reject. They also added a piece covering “Black conservatism.” So, Black conservatism totally cool; Black feminism, among many other Black-related -isms, totally uncool.
That said, the final African American studies Advanced Placement course does still include content on African history, slavery, reconstruction, the civil rights movement, redlining, general discrimination, popular Black art forms, and Afrofuturism. And “stories of individual Black achievement and heroism” made the grade, too. (Which it seems should go without saying, that last bit. It sounds like, “You know those handful of times Black folks were heroic and achieved stuff? We totally put that in the course! All’s well!”
Bottom line: When it’s said the College Board “cut” the content Republicans object to, what that really means is that it was removed from the course’s primary source material. Reports the Times, “The subjects are no longer part of the exam,” but are “offered on a list of options for a required research project.” The objective being to require and emphasize the facts surrounding the direct Black experience, and to offer more controversial contemporary theory and analysis as elective secondary coursework.
So…it’s not as bad as Florida outlawing African American history. And it’s not as good as doing what you’d think regulations haters would want to do: trust each school system to decide what it will be teaching its students. (And I would add that that decision-making process should include parents.)
I have a lot more to learn about all this, obviously. So this weekend I’m going to watch the following controversial secondary source material, banned by Florida and de-emphasized by the College Board, that suggests there is indeed such a thing as legacy racism within the 21st century American experience:
And here is a reasonable explanation of just what critical race theory is, and how it differs from simply teaching about racism throughout American history. (Yes, yes, right-leaners, I know PBS and Cal Berkeley are liberal bastions…but I think you’ll find the professor, here, delivers fairly neutral and reasonable analysis.)
So, about my feelings toward Republicans…
In complimenting CeeGees a couple weeks ago, a buddy told me he enjoys how I politely express my view that most issues we have in America today are the fault of the right.
If by “most,” he meant “51% or higher,” and if by “the right,” he meant “extremist MAGAns making bad-faith decisions to the detriment of the 99% of American citizens who are not filthy rich,” then yeah, that’s a pretty fair statement.
But certain issues, I believe, are surely 50/50—half the fault of Republicans and half the fault of Democrats. And, while I can’t think of what they are as I sit here typing this right now, I’m sure there are issues that Democrats have exacerbated more than Republicans.
I just don’t want CeeGees to come off as a liberal publication that’s always bashing conservatives. The people I most vehemently oppose are extremist MAGA Republicans, not right-leaning conservatives who are open to debate and discussion with those who hold different political views.
Hell, just this week, upon reviewing a family historical booklet composed by a relative on my mom’s side of the family, I discovered that my great-great-great-grandfather founded the Republican Party!
Well, co-founded the Republican Party. With 1,500 other Whigs, Democrat defectors, Free Soilers, and Locofocos. Or by some accounts it might have been more like 4,000 others, or even 10,000 others. Regardless, it was too many to fit inside the Jackson, Michigan, event hall that had been designated to host the convention, so the crowd relocated outdoors, “under the oaks.”
The July 6, 1854, “Under the Oaks” gathering marked the first time nominees for office were announced under the “Republican” moniker. Thus Jackson, Michigan, is considered the one true birthplace of the Grand Old Party.
…Unless you’re from the Badger State. Wisconsinites seem to think the wee little meet-up at a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, a couple months before the rally under the oaks truly ushered in the party.
UTTER NONSENSE, of course.
I mean, they first decided a new party was in order in Ripon, sure. And, OK, they threw the name “Republican” at the wall there, referencing Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic-Republican Party. The very, very, very tiny, minuscule, barely significant Ripon assemblage chose “Republican” out of their desire to steer the country’s focus back to Jefferson’s commitment to upholding the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But let’s face it, Michigan is where the shit went down for real, right? And my great-great-great-grandfather, Richard J. Crego, was elected Liberty Township supervisor under the oaks, before eventually serving as a Republican state senator.
So I say the Republican Party was founded in Jackson, Michigan, dammit!
And furthermore, I…
I…
Waitaminute. Did I just righteously, and proudly, stake my claim as a descendent of one of the founders of the REPUBLICAN Party??
Why, yes. Yes I did. Because while the fringe details surrounding the party’s origins might be up for debate, all accounts agree on this: the Republican Party’s founding was a response to the dominant Democratic Party’s passing the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The act made sure those two newly designated territories would allow slavery.
And then Abe Lincoln joined the party, and he became the first Republican president in 1860, and he won the Civil War, and etc. etc. etc.
How ironic that modern-day Confederacy apologists—steadfast Republicans, all—insist that slavery was but a minor factor contributing to the Civil War.
You can’t even say slavery was the primary factor that started the Civil War. It was the only factor:
So I’m awful proud of Great-Great-Great-Grandpa Crego for having a hand in establishing a new political party that would lead the country away from its status as a slave nation. I have no doubt he was indeed “among the highest and best people of the county,” as one ancient text housed in the Library of Congress gushes.
I’m also proud of the many conservative folks—the vast majority of conservative Americans, I strongly believe—who reject extremist positions, celebrate democracy over autocracy, support a fairer economic system, support a fairer political system…essentially those Americans who simply commit to upholding Jefferson’s inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I haven’t really been feelin’ The Music Box here in 2023. I got some feedback that including music missives might amount to taking our eye off the ball a bit? Throwing music into the mix, perhaps, clouds what the focus of CeeGees is supposed to be.
So unless there’s an outcry from you, the CeeGees-reading masses, maybe TMB will just be a sporadic thing. I dunno.
But this week I wanted to alert you to CeeGees’ official Spotify playlist, which, as of this publication this evening, consists of just the source material for the titles of each CeeGees entry so far. (Did you pick up on the fact that every CeeGees title is the title of—or the main refrain from—a popular song? I’ll bet you did.)
By the time you read this I may have included all the secondarily referenced songs linked to throughout the CeeGees series, too. It’s a pretty eclectic collection of tunes…kinda random, kinda fun. Fun for me, at least.
OK now, for reals this time:
See ya next week, and thanks for reading!!
Yours,
~Dean