Florida Offers Justifications for Rejecting AP African American Studies Course

After rejecting an Advanced Placement course in African American studies for high school students, the Florida Department of Education offered an explanation of what it found objectionable in the curriculum — citing examples of what it calls “the woke indoctrination” of students that would violate state laws restricting how race can be taught in the classroom.

In a document released on Friday, the Department of Education seemed to object to the more contemporary and, therefore, the more inherently politicized, parts of the curriculum, which is being developed by the College Board. The department cites the inclusion of readings from many major African American scholars, activists and writers, who explored subjects like Black queer studies, Black feminist literary thought, the reparations movement and intersectionality.

The state says intersectionality — which refers to the way various forms of inequality often work together and build on one another — is foundational to critical race theory and “ranks people based on their race, wealth, gender and sexual orientation.”

The Education Department also singled out activists like Angela Davis, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, for being “a self-avowed Communist and Marxist”; Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor at Columbia Law School and the U.C.L.A. School of Law, who it said was “known as the founder of intersectionality”; and the feminist writer bell hooks, for using language like “white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”

The College Board did not respond to requests for comment, but it said in a statement on Thursday that the multidisciplinary course was still undergoing a multiyear pilot phase.

“The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new A.P. course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result,” the organization said. “We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools.”