Unsurprising, Florida’s no guff Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is no stranger to making enemies and being called names. However, he’s also apparently gained much respect as Miami’s black leaders have sought to apologize after having one of their own refer to him as racist.
The name-calling happened last week on Wednesday, when the Miami-Dade Black Affairs Advisory Board met to discuss the College Board’s recently proposed Advanced Placement African-American Studies, according to Fox News.
DeSantis has been critical of the plans or at least the possible curricula to be used. Naturally, this didn’t sit well with a few of the more left-leaning on the board. And so, in typical progressive fashion, one member lost their cool and said, “Our governor is racist.”
However, it appears that these were rantings of just one unprofessional individual who didn’t think before they spoke. And for that, the rest of the group is apologizing.
According to Fox, the Advisory Board came together again on Friday, this time to deliver an apology letter to DeSantis. As the group’s chair, Pierre Rutledge spoke for the entire organization.
As he said, “We take it to heart when someone uses the term racist. 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 it’s not the feeling of this board.”
Perhaps this comes from the realization that DeSantis is indeed not racist. Instead, his decision to reject the College Board’s proposal was based on its inclusion of ideas and views that he and his staff didn’t see as helpful to society or Florida students to learn. Nor are they ideas that are actually any part of African-American studies.
As its name implies, the proposed curricula would focus on the history of African-Americans and all that that entails. However, some of the courses or ideas suggested to be included seemed to not be so much about history but about pushing certain leftist or partisan viewpoints.
And as you can imagine, this is what DeSantis had a problem with.
As WFOR-TV in Miami reported, some of those included “black queer studies,” intersectionality (a neo-Marxist philosophy), reparations, and the Black Lives Matter movement of the far left.
DeSantis correctly criticized these inclusions saying, “This course on black history, what’s one the lesson’s about? Queer theory? Now who would say that an important part of black history is queer theory? That is somebody pushing an agenda.”
And he’s not wrong.
I mean, since when does learning about the LBGT community help you understand history?
Neither is DeSantis the only one to think that way. In fact, there’s a number of Democrats who also agree. Men like Leon County Commissioner Bill Proctor, a lifelong Democrat, as well as a political science professor at Florida A&M University and local pastor, for example.
In fact, according to Proctor, most of the suggested lessons and ideas to be included in the curricula, or at least its first proposal, were “trash” and not at all based on actual history or “academic rigor.” As Proctor has criticized, the courses haven’t even been considered or looked at by any African-American scholars.
Since DeSantis rejected the initial plans, the board has supposedly removed the objectional parts. According to Fox, it is set to be re-evaluated by the Florida Department of Education in the near future.
Hopefully, there’s some actual history included this go-round.
