Republican Governor Ron
DeSantis defending his decision
to block a new advanced placement
course on African-American studies
from being taught in Florida schools.
He says Florida's
current standards
for teaching black history
are, quote,
cut and dried history
and that multiple lessons
in that particular course go too far.
Here he is.
We want education, not indoctrination.
This course on black history.
What are one?
What's one of the lessons about
queer theory?
Now, who would say that
an important part of black
history is queer theory.
That is somebody pushing
an agenda on our kids.
And so
when you look to see
they have stuff
about intersection finality.
Abolishing
prisons, that's a political agenda.
It's the latest in a long line of culture
war battles
that DeSantis has been happy
to fight amid growing speculation
that he will run for president.
Steve King
now is OUTFRONT in Saint Petersburg,
Florida, with new details.
So, Steve, we just heard DeSantis say,
you know,
he laid it out
very clearly
why he this
course is not welcome
in the state of Florida.
What else do you know about that?
Is part of the curriculum
Erin, this is going to be a
study of the African-American experience
from a whole bunch of perspectives
and subjects.
It's going to include
not just history,
but also arts
and humanities
and politics and geography.
So it's going to include a lot of topics
that you would expect.
We took a look at the syllabus
and there's things on it
that you would expect
in a course
like this, like Civil War
and black communities,
black suffrage and women's rights
and civil rights leaders.
It also includes
exposing kids to things
that they might not
have had
a chance to learn
previously, like Western American,
Western African empires
and black musical innovation.
But there's a number of topics
in the final section
that the Santos administration
has raised objections to,
and this includes the topics
that included that are things
like black
feminism,
black queer
studies and reparations movement.
In that
the Census Administration
says that the concepts
and the writings in these sections
overlap intersect
with critical race
theory, race theory,
which, as you know,
has been banned in Florida
and also may violate a new state law
which says that you cannot teach
that someone might be oppressed
or privilege
based on their race or color.
So that's a small section
of the course, actually, just six topics.
And in a course,
that's going to cover
more than 100 topics
over the course of a year, Erin.
And that's
what the objections were about,
that those specific sticks
or what were they?
Was there anything else?
Yeah.
So it's
really interesting
that most of the objections
are actually around
the writings that are suggested
as part of this coursework,
because they come from black
thought leaders or activists
or historians
who the DeSantis administration
says have pushed for ideologies
that they don't want being taught
in Florida schools like communism.
Now, I talked to a teacher
who is currently instructing
this class at a high school,
and she is just baffled by this assertion
that this is somehow
injecting politics or ideology.
This is a study of these topics
that have been instrumental
in civil
rights movements are their era like
how do you talk about
the civil rights
actions of the last 20 years
without mentioning the Black Lives
Matter movement,
which
DeSantis says shouldn't be top because
they push for abolishing prison.
So Erin, this is what they are using to
to convince people that this court
should not be allowed in Florida
when it is widely available in 20, 24
All right.
Thank you very much Steve King Tornoe.
And I want to go now to Erick Erickson,
host of the Erick Erickson Show,
and Bakari
Sellers, the former
Democratic member of the South
Carolina House of Representatives.
So, Bakari,
what do you say to Governor DeSantis
and his defense
for blocking discourse in Florida?
Well, I would say that, Governor,
his answers,
if he was in front of me,
I would say that
your blatant ignorance is showing.
You asked the question,
who would care about black queer studies?
I would say that
the king of rock and roll, Little Richard
was a black gay man.
I would say that
the architect of the March
on Washington, Bayard Rustin,
a black gay man,
I would say that
one time,
one of the greatest minds
of our generation,
of our lifetime,
James Baldwin, he was once
asked by a reporter
about the challenges
he faced in his career
growing up black, impoverished and gay
And James Baldwin laughed and said,
I hit the jackpot.
And so the type of ignorance
that he's doing is nothing less
and nothing more,
excuse me, than a political ploy
in in my heart.
And it infuriates me
because I have to defend my blackness.
I have to defend my blackness
to a very small man
who ran great campaigns
to be governor of Florida.
I have to defend my blackness
and my being.
And that frustrates me in the audacity
of someone like Governor DeSantis
to come out and tell me what my history
is, what can be taught to my children,
I believe is wholly unacceptable.
But this is where we are
at in this culture wars
or where we are in American politics.
Well, and, Eric,
that that is something
that DeSantis is well aware of. Right.
And and making these sorts of statements
and doing these sorts of things
has worked for him.
That's certainly what he's thinking.
It will now Right.
Keep in mind, so this is a draft program.
This isn't the final program.
The state of Georgia,
where I am, has decided
they're going to take a wait
and see approach.
If these remain in,
they may
not accept the program themselves.
This is DeSantis.
If they take these out,
he gets a win with the right.
Another win.
If not,
he gets a win with the right
for standing up to what?
More and more people have rights.
He is a liberal legend
infiltrating schools.
And he does this now
before we have some sort
of economic recession.
And when he gets to pivot to the economy
for general election voters.
But he's locking in Republican votes
against Trump right now,
which is really important, right.
That this could be about a ploy
for that base and Bakari.
To that end, DeSantis has been doing this
not on this particular topic,
but on many others. Right.
Over the past couple of years. Right.
Building this up, just listen to a few
people
in our K through 12 schools.
We're not allowing
critical race theory in Florida.
We have to protect our girls.
It is discriminatory
to force them to compete
against biological males.
It's inappropriate
to tell an eight year old
that they may have been born a girl,
but maybe they're really a boy.
That's wrong.
When Florida
we chose freedom over 40 years,
we will never surrender to the woke mob.
Florida is where Wolf goes to die.
So, Bakari,
the question for Democrats is,
is it smart for them
to automatically
take the other side on this,
or does that risk
hurting them with moderates
who on some of these issues
may feel differently?
Well, I mean, that's a
that's a really,
really good question here.
And my response would be this Anytime
someone is doing
what DeSantis is doing to people
who look like me,
who are young people
who are being educated in these schools,
we have to fight back.
We can't lay down on these issues.
We don't have to wade into every culture
war, though, to answer your question,
DeSantis is a very little man,
not just literally,
but figuratively as well.
And one of the things
that we have to do that
we have to realize
is that right now
he's waiting a battle
against Donald Trump.
He's trying to win
over these primary votes, as Erick said.
But the unique thing
between the unique thing about this party
and what they're doing now is
you're not hearing Ron DeSantis
talk about pocketbook issues.
You're not hearing him
talking about inflation.
You're not hearing him
talking about conservative
policies of a day that's gone by.
Instead all he does is hit the same note.
The problem is that Republicans
have not proved himself
to be able to pivot back
to these moderate voters
in general elections.
And that's
that's the challenge you'll have
which is right.
And you both seem to agree on that,
Erick, that that's what he'll want to do.
In fact,
Erick, on Saturday,
he went to Kansas City to root
for the Jacksonville Jaguars
against the chiefs.
He doesn't usually love to do
sort of know
touchy feely stuff with people,
but he did plenty of it here.
And here's how he was greeted
That's the
goodbye.
And Erick, look,
we know DeSantis is a favorite
among GOP donors.
That has been true for a while.
They've been looking for an alternative
to Trump.
Trump's base,
though, voters have been loyal to Trump.
Is DeSantis peeling off some of them?
Is this working?
Yeah, look, I think so.
And I realize you see some polls
that have Trump versus DeSantis
and Trump is winning.
But it's
a drought declared for 20, 24
versus a hypothetical.
Ron DeSantis, who hasn't announced yet.
I think you do begin to see
a shift over time.
And these culture issues for Trump voters
right now kind of dominate.
And DeSantis behind
the scenes is already saying to people
look at these things
I got done,
including against Tony Fauci
who Donald Trump elevated,
causing people to shift
to McCarty's point.
There is a concern.
Can Republicans
flip back to talk about economic issues?
I think
because Florida is such
an economic engine for the nation,
he'll have that opportunity.
All right. Thank you both very much.