Across the world, black success is celebrated and black history is taught. Florida governor, Ron Desantis, is trying to rewrite history, or at least cut some out, after banning the black history AP course. The college board stripped away lots of information on it as well, which leads people to question, how will this affect our generation’s future?

“Imagine how boring and closed minded we’d all be if we only met ideas that we agreed with,” says Florida House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell, “…it sends a clear message that Black Americans’ history does not count in Florida.”

The course makes queer theory and related topics not required, but optional. Desantis is making things like this a habit after just signing the “Stop Woke Act” into law. The “Stop Woke Act” is a law that restricts teachers from teaching about race and gender related issues in classrooms. This act will produce kids who will be very close minded and unknowing of today’s issues. David Johns, executive director of the NBJC says, “This is a tactic used to drive a wedge between Black people — who are often assumed to be all cisgender and heterosexual, which has never been the case — and queer people, who are assumed to be White, which has also never been the case.” The course was banned in Florida due to the “Stop Woke Act” because they don’t want students to feel responsible for wrongs made in history. 

Desantis is stripping away knowledge from a powerful group of people to make history seem different than it really was. So what do you think? Should a state be able to not teach a course? Should this course have even been changed? What are your thoughts on the situation?