Pritzker Demands Black Queer History in AP African-American Studies — nationalreview.com
In case you don’t know who “Pritzker” is, which I didn’t, J.B. Pritzker is the governor of Illinois.
The College Board is putting together a new AP African-American Studies (APAAS) course. Florida governor Ron DeSantis, whom you probably do know, recently rejected the APAAS course, said he would not allow it to be taught in Florida, because the curriculum includes topics that seem to be included for political purposes rather than their relevance to African-American studies.
Like “queer history.”
I’m not aware of any state ever previously vetoing an AP course. Pritzker sent a letter to the College Board in which he attacked what he called “Florida’s racist and homophobic laws” and pledged that Illinois would “reject any curriculum modifications designed to appease extremists like the Florida Governor and his allies.”
I don’t think until fairly recently, it would have occurred to J.B. Pritzker to demand that queer history be included in an AP curriculum.
Here’s a full list of AP courses:
- Art and Design (formerly Studio Art): 2-D Design
- Art and Design (formerly Studio Art): 3-D Design
- Art and Design (formerly Studio Art): Drawing
- Art History
- Biology
- Biology
- Calculus AB
- Calculus BC
- Chemistry
- Chinese Language and Culture
- Computer Science A
- Computer Science Principles
- English Language and Composition
- English Literature and Composition
- Environmental Science
- European History
- French Language and Culture
- German Language and Culture
- Government and Politics (Comparative)
- Government and Politics (US)
- Human Geography
- Italian Language and Culture
- Japanese Language and Culture
- Latin
- Macroeconomics
- Microeconomics
- Music Theory
- Physics 1: Algebra-Based
- Physics 2: Algebra-Based
- Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism
- Physics C: Mechanics
- Psychology
- Spanish Language and Culture
- Spanish Literature and Culture
- Statistics
- US History
- World History: Modern
It seems like if you think queer history is an essential component in an AP course, you could demand its inclusion in all of these courses.
There are queer people in China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain. There have been queer artists, biologists, computer scientists, musicians, politicians. I could go on and on.
Why does J.B. Pritzker think that queer history is an essential component of one and only one AP course? I would like to ask him that. Or see a reporter ask him that. Reporters rarely ask interesting or provocative questions unfortunately.
I’d like to ask him where he would rank his own knowledge of Black queer history on a scale of 0 to 10. I’d like to know how is it possible that anyone in America is leading a productive life in the absence of a dedicated study of Black queer history.
Spoiler Alert: It appears that the final version of the APAAS course will be closer to the DeSantis vision than the Pritzker vision, although the linked article sounds disingenuous to me.