College Board, Thou Dost Protest Too Much (re: FL Ed Standards)

 Here's the news article that prompted this post: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/college-board-pushes-back-florida-work-group-member-likened-new-black-rcna97525

So it would seem that the good, pure-hearted folks at the College Board, creators of the SAT and CLEP and the ubiquitous Advanced Placement exams that high school students must pay $98 for to get college credit for their AP courses, don't like being linked in with the controversial new education standards in the great anti-woke state of Florida.

To review, Florida's African-American history curriculum now contains language saying "slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit." Frances Presley Rice, a member of the work group that devised these standards, defended them against backlash by suggested that "the highly-praised AP African American History course has nearly the exact language and sentiment as is in the text under question."

The College Board did not like this. They did not like it one bit. They disliked it so much that they knew they must put out a p. r. statement correcting this misinformation. Said statement reads:

“We are aware that some in Florida have reviewed the Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies framework and have suggested that the state’s recently approved middle school African American History standards align with our course requirements. We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans. Unequivocally, slavery was an atrocity that cannot be justified by examples of African Americans’ agency and resistance during their enslavement.”

Well said. Well played. That settles it. 

Only one problem. If one looks at the actual wording of the AP framework as "adjusted" to meet the approval of Florida's "anti-woke" decision-makers in the past years, it reads as follows:

"In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South. Once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others."

Oops. True that it doesn't say the word "benefit." But the benefits of having been taught these skills (involuntarily, at the point of whips and guns) is the gist of this whole section.

Really, College Board. Enough with the Orwellian doublespeak. Your bi-ass is showing.

Race and the Indictment

 As the Blog title suggests, Race is never NOT a part of things in our society, so I take a moment to point out the race angle in the news of former President Trump's indictments on charges related to false claims of election fraud and unlawful attempts to subvert the will of the voters and remain in power.

1) Gini Thomas, white wife of Black U.S. Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, may well be "co-conspirator #6" as labelled in the indictment. The identity of the first five unnamed co-conspirators is fairly clear. The identity of #6 has became DC's favorite parlor game. Thomas fits the description of "political consultant" and is known to have been involved in efforts in Arizona to get the second set of "fake" electors loyal to Trump approved by state legislators there. So, what does that have to do with race? She's white, he's Black, he's anti-Affirmative Action, she preposterously claims that she never discusses her far-right-wing political activism with her husband. 'Nuff said.

2) Trump challenger Fla. governor Ron DeSantis reacted to the indictment by claiming that there is no way Trump can get a fair trial in the "swamp" of Washington, DC and its federal courts. "Washington, DC is a "swamp" and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality" https://www.newsweek.com/trumps-gop-challengers-have-very-different-reactions-jan-6-indictment-1816815

It just "so happens" that the District of Columbia is the ONLY state or territory in the continental United States where the majority of the population is African-American. Swamps are known to by stinky and sweaty and to be populated by slimy snakes, rats, alligators, snapping turtles, spiders, and the like. Connect the dots.

3) The reactions of the three African-American candidates for the GOP nominations: Based on the Newsweek link above, SC Sen. Tim Scott, the one of the 3 garnering the most attention and support, followed the Trump line of condemning the indictment as evidence of DOJ being "weaponized" to go after Biden's opponents. Former TX Rep. Will Hurd, on the other hand, was very anti-Trump in his reaction, condemning the former president's attempts to overturn the election and remain in power. The third Black candidate, talk radio host Larry Elder, said “We've seen a pattern of partisan prosecution and this is another example.” https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/2024-candidates-lawmakers-react-to-trump-indictment/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThis%20reaffirms%20the%20need%20for,office%20and%20end%20his%20campaign.%E2%80%9D&text=Other%20candidates%2C%20including%20Vivek%20Ramaswamy,and%20this%20is%20another%20example.%E2%80%9D

4) The judge that the trial has been assigned to, Tanya Chutkan, is Black. Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said today on his podcast that "Judge Chutkan was appointed to the DC District Court by Barack Obama, and she has a reputation for being far left, even by DC District Court standards" https://www.businessinsider.com/ted-cruz-trump-jan-6-judge-tanya-chutkan-bias-confirmation-2023-8

So we have objection to the random draw of a Black woman judge, mentioning that she was appointed by our only Black president, and once again bringing up, like DeSantis did, DC as if our majority-Black nation's capital is hell on earth.

Re: Jason Aldean's "Try That in a Small Town" song and video

 Funny there aren't any clips of George Floyd or Sandra Bland or Eric Garner or Philando Castile or Tamir Rice or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbory or Trayvon Martin--or of the actions of law enforcement in our nation's capital on June 1, 2020, or the actions of "patriots" against law enforcement on Jan. 6, 2021.