The Arkansas Department of Education, or the Doe, announced just before
the beginning of this school year that students may not receive class credit for
taking the AP African American Studies course.
But instead of backing down and this is the good part of this,
the six schools who had originally planned to teach the course this coming year have
announced that they are not gonna remove it from their curriculum.
They gonna go forward and teach this class as they intended to.
So here's how it all went down.
Now, last Friday, the Arkansas Doe notified teachers that
AP African American Studies may not count for credit anymore.
Schools were still allowed to teach it if they wanted, though.
Now, the timing couldn't have been worse because the school year for
this year had just started this Tuesday.
Now, the timing was likely deliberate, but that's just a strong suspicion.
Can't confirm that for sure.
But to add insult to injury,
the Arkansas Doe informed teachers that the state would not give students
any financial assistance with the $98 fee that comes with the AP test.
And the state usually covers the cost of the AP tests for the students.
Now, this move wasn't completely unexpected because Sarah Huckabee Sanders,
who's the governor of Arkansas, I can't believe that that's the case, but she is.
She built her platform on culture war grievances such as these.
Now, just as an example, she signed an executive order on her very first day in
office that bans indoctrination and critical race theory in school.
It's really good when these state governments pass these really broad laws
that even they don't quite understand what they mean.
But this course, as USA Today describes it, doesn't even seem to contain
either of the things that they're using as the reasoning for
not giving credit for this class.
So, from USA Today.
AP African American Studies is an interdisciplinary college level course
that covers themes ranging from early African empires and
the transatlantic slave trade to Reconstruction and Black power and pride.
Shortly after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis denounced the course in January,
the College Board removed or made optional topics such as intersectionality and
the Black Lives Matter movement, which I think is harmful to these students.
Because if they're getting credit for a class that they would take in college,
there's not a single African American studies class
at any university that wouldn't be teaching about those topics.
But I digress.
The state's excuse for
derailing the course was that the course is still in its pilot phase, which is when
the College Board offers courses in a select number of high schools.
And sometimes changes the curriculum before finalizing the course.
Now, the Arkansas Doe also noted that the state
has a regular African American history course available.
I mean, Cenk,
this is obviously a grotesque attack on teaching Black history in this country.
I don't care if they have different African American Studies courses
available.
It's not the AP course it's not the one that they need to take to get
college credit for.
>> Speaker 2: Yeah, look, you have to teach actual history.
And the Republicans, there's a reason why they're attacking teachers and
librarians because they want to replace actual history with propaganda.
So let's minimize what happened during slavery because it hurts our feelings.
So I don't know why it hurts your feelings.
You didn't do it.
Why are you taking it on like it's your responsibility?
And so they're trying to replace it with their version
of reality, which isn't true.
So look, I love that the teachers in Arkansas fought back here and
Arkansas is a complicated place.
So now we live in a world where everything is perceived as blue State or Red state.
But remember, first of all, the teachers are doing this also in Little Rock.
Little Rock was the first school in the south or
generally in that area to get forced desegregation.
So after all these years, the Republican Governor wanted to go back to
a situation where we were going backwards on civil rights and
the teacher stood up and said, not on our watch.
I love and remember Arkansas elected Bill Clinton, not when he was an elitist but
back when they thought he was a populist as Governor.
And Arkansas very recently passed a higher minimum wage at over
two thirds of people voting yes.
So there are actually a lot of good people in Arkansas who are willing to fight
back against this.
And here is a group of them that fought back and for now have won and
are defying the powerful.
So I love it that's the populist root of Arkansas and
at least these folks have found it and it is rare good news and
I can't thank them enough for standing their ground.
>> Speaker 3: Yeah, Cenk, you're absolutely right.
And I love this story because of exactly know as a blue person in a red state.
I feel like I'm always telling non Texans that there are a lot of progressive and
liberal Texans but for whatever reason they keep trying to tamp down our
voices and make sure that we're not represented accurately.
So I feel like no one believes me when I tell them that.
But I love seeing blue victories in red states because I promise you those
victories are hard fought and hard won.
But this whole thing kind of reminds me of there's like
that Christian propaganda movie God Is Dead had Kevin sorbo Hercules was in it.
And there's a scene at the beginning depicting a college philosophy course and
it's so obvious that no one involved in making that movie has ever
actually Sat in a college Classroom.
I don't know what these people think is actually happening in college courses.
I don't know how they think these things are being taught, but
they really seem very misguided or misinformed and
I don't know if they've ever gone to college or what.
It's hard for me to imagine that so many people have not gone to college, but
college courses do not function the way that they seem to think they do.
It's not propaganda.
You tend to get a pretty balanced, factual account of things in college classrooms,
or there's at least discussion about certain things, right?
There's never a professor who's just, like, spoon feeding you and
forcing ideas down anyone's throat.
So I don't like that.
The things that they tell people to be afraid of are the wrong things that they
are telling people to be afraid of.
And unfortunately well, they know what they're doing, but unfortunately,
the people that they're targeting don't realize that they're being targeted,
don't realize that they're literally being lied to.
It's not even a matter of opinion at this point.
You are being lied to.
That's not what's going on.
That's not what this is.
People still think CRT is being taught in elementary schools.
It's not just factually.
It isn't.