The leaders of a racial advocacy group in Florida, the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board, came together to send a message to the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, on Friday.
Pierre Rutledge, the group’s chair, apologized to DeSantis on behalf of the organization.
During the group’s meeting on Wednesday, one of its members said, “Our governor is racist,” according to Fox News.
The accusation arose as the Miami advisory board was criticizing DeSantis’ rejection of the College Board’s proposed Advanced Placement African-American Studies, according to Fox.
“We take it to heart when someone uses the term racist,” Rutledge said in a statement on Friday, according to Fox News.
“Words matter. And so as chair, I must start by saying we want to pull that back. There’s nothing wrong with saying ‘we’re sorry.’ That’s not what we intended to say or be depicted by anyone. And that’s not the feeling of this board.”
DeSantis’ rejection of the curriculum garnered media scrutiny and harsh backlash from left-wing groups, who labeled the move “racist.”
Despite accusations to the contrary, DeSantis did not reject the course because it covered African-American history.
Rather, the course was rejected for its promotion of extremely partisan, left-wing viewpoints and subjects.
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These included intersectionality (a neo-Marxist philosophy), “black queer studies,” the far-left Black Lives Matter movement and reparations policy — all of which were covered in the course’s suggested “project topics,” albeit not in the required material, according to WFOR-TV in Miami.
The College Board has removed the portion’s Florida’s Department of Education found objectionable, according to Fox. The proposal will be reevaluated by the Florida DOE, Fox reported.
DeSantis, who has campaign against progressive education agendas was openly critical of the original version.
“This course on black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory,” DeSantis said, according to Fox.
“Now, who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda.”
Not all Democrats disagree with the governor’s judgment.
Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, a Florida Democrat, local pastor and political science professor at Florida A&M University, called the curriculum “trash,” according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Proctor also said the curriculum was at odds with Florida law.
“The pillars of African-American history are not what the College Board has come up with,” Proctor said in an interview, the newspaper reported.
“They clearly lack academic rigor. It lacks any substantive review. No scholars with proficiency in African American history have even weighed in.”
