Florida Bans AP African American Studies

Cristal Vega ’25

In a recent letter, the Florida Department of Education informed the College Board that it would not include AP or Advanced Placement African American studies in the state’s course curriculum, saying it isn’t “historically accurate” and violates state law. This has made people furious and has been a controversial change in the state.

Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis, has stated his opposition to this class because it covers topics such as the Black Lives Matter Movement, Black feminism, and reparations - the belief that Black Americans deserve some form of restitution for those who suffered through slavery and injustice as a result of America's history of oppression.

This has also brought attention to Florida’s anti-wokeness movement or the Stop W.O.K.E Act, which has also been mentioned in another of our Folio articles. The “Stop W.OK.E. Act,” the acronym standing for "Wrong to Our Kids and Employees,” passed by Governor DeSantis, prohibited teaching that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels” students or employees to believe specific concepts like those related to race, color, national origin, a person’s character, and discrimination. It is also a reference to today’s definition of woke. Google's definition is "being aware or well informed in a political or cultural sense," but this is truly a subjective definition. Most people use the word to refer to people they don’t agree with politically or to refer to liberalism. Being that Florida is the first state to ban the course and to instate the “Stop W.O.K.E. Act,” decisions like these have led people to question DeSantis’s true intentions.

When asked to comment, Olivia Sealey, a black student at Fontbonne, commented, “I feel like it would've been a cool class to teach and learn about.”

Florida is stripping students of knowledge without a solid reason. Another black student at Fontbonne, who has asked to remain anonymous, said, “I feel like we, as a community, aren't being represented. In my opinion, it’s odd that the state of Florida went out of their way to take that out of their curriculum.” This is something that should’ve been considered before banning a course entirely.