Will County Gazette

Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) is seeking answers from the College Board regarding its reasons for altering its new Advanced Placement course in African American Studies after the course was criticized by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), according to a Chicago Business article published on Thursday.

“Although we are pleased to see many core ideas remain in place, there are still significant issues with the way the College Board has chosen to present this curriculum,” Pritzker said in a virtual statement. “Refusing to name the components of Black history that Gov. DeSantis is most afraid of like intersectionality, feminism, and queer Black life, but still including them in the curriculum can be viewed as a weak attempt to please extremists.”

The College Board first released its African American Studies pilot course in August in 60 high schools before spending later months refining it based on feedback from professors and high school teachers. The finalized course was released on Feb. 1, which also marks the first day of Black History Month.

Once the specific details of the course were made public, conservativess attacked it for allegedly promoting "critical race theory," or the idea that racial disparities are the result of systemic prejudices intrinsic to society.

DeSantis has been one of the most vocal critics of CRT, specifically objecting to the teaching of concepts such as "intersectionality," or the overlapping of categories such as race, class, and gender, to create unique socioeconomic effects and struggles, as well as Black queer studies, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the reparations movement.

The move by the College Board was met with backlash from Democratic Florida lawmakers, as well as Pritzker, who wrote a letter to the organization on Jan. 25 warning it to not change the curriculum or give in to pressure from DeSantis and other conservatives.

“Regardless of some leaders’ efforts, ignoring and censoring the accurate reporting of history will not change the realities of the country in which we live,” Pritzker wrote. “In Illinois, we will not accept this watering down of history.”