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.