https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-19-2023
"Today in the
Washington Post, Nick Anderson showed how the Advanced
Placement course on African American studies changed between February 2022,
when its prototype first appeared, and February 2023, when the official version
was released. One word, in particular, had vanished: the word “systemic.” In
February 2022, “systemic” appeared before “marginalization; in April 2022,
“systemic” came before “discrimination, oppression, inequality, disempowerment
and racism.”
By February 2023, that word was gone. While the College Board, which produces
the AP courses, says it did not change the course in response to its rejection
by Republican Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who said it contributed to a
“political agenda,” its spokespeople have acknowledged that they were aware of
how the right wing would react to that word.
The far right opposes the idea that the United States has ever practiced
systemic racism. Shortly before former president Trump left office, his
hand-picked President’s Advisory 1776 Commission produced its report to stand
against the 1619 Project that rooted the United States in the year enslaved
Africans first set foot in the English colonies on the Chesapeake, and went on
to claim that systemic racism had shaped the eventual American nation.
Trump’s 1776 commission rejected the conclusions of the 1619 Project’s authors
and instead declared that “the American people have ever pursued freedom and
justice.” While “the American story has its share of missteps, errors,
contradictions, and wrongs,” it asserted, “[t]hese wrongs have always met
resistance from the clear principles of the nation, and therefore our history
is far more one of self-sacrifice, courage, and nobility.”
Since Trump left office, far-right activists have passed laws prohibiting
teachers from talking about patterns of racism and have worked to remove from
classrooms and school libraries books whose subjects must overcome systemic
discrimination."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
