Ron DeSantis’ Admin is Blocking an AP African American Studies Course in FL

Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration is blocking the College Board from launching its much-anticipated Advanced Placement course on African American Studies for high school students in the state.

His administration claimed that the course “significantly lacks educational value” and that its curriculum violates the state’s Stop WOKE ACT, a 2022 law that bars schools and workplaces from “subjecting any student or employee to training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individuals to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.”

DeSantis famously referred to Florida as the state “where woke goes to die” during his November 2022 reelection speech.

According to the Miami Herald, the state’s Department of Education did not make clear what, specifically, about the course violates the 2022 act. Instead, the department said in a letter that they will be open to discussions on a course that is deemed lawful.

“This political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won’t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own State,” tweeted Shevrin Jones, a Florida state senator whose district comprises neighborhoods in the Miami metro area.

Jones also tweeted out a list of other history courses that are allowed in Florida schools, including: AP European History, AP Art History, AP Japanese Language & Culture, AP German Language & Culture, AP Italian Language & Culture, and AP Spanish Language & Culture.

An AP course on African American Studies has been in the works for more than a decade, and its forthcoming rollout has received widespread media coverage in outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post. It is the first AP African American Studies course of its kind for high school students across the country. The course focuses on “vital contributions and experiences of African Americans” in literature, the arts, political science, geography, and science, according to the College Board.

Per the National Review, this is believed to be the first-time a state government “has refused to approve a College Board Advanced Placement course of any kind.”

DeSantis administration rejects inclusion of AP African American Studies class in high schools

CNN  — 

The administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is blocking a new Advanced Placement course for high school students on African American studies.

In a January 12 letter to the College Board, the nonprofit organization that oversees AP coursework, the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Articulation said the course is “inexplicably contrary to Florida law and significantly lacks educational value.”

The letter did not elaborate on what the agency found objectionable in the course content. A spokeswoman for the department did not immediately respond to a CNN inquiry.

“In the future, should College Board be willing to come back to the table with lawful, historically accurate content, FDOE will always be willing to reopen the discussion,” the letter stated.

In a statement to CNN, the College Board declined to directly address the decision in Florida but said, “We look forward to bringing this rich and inspiring exploration of African-American history and culture to students across the country.”

The rejection of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course follows efforts by DeSantis to overhaul Florida’s educational curriculum to limit teaching about critical race theory. In 2021, the state enacted a law that banned teaching the concept, which explores the history of systemic racism in the United States and its continued impacts. The law also banned material from The 1619 Project, a Pulitzer Prize-winning project by The New York Times to reframe American history around the arrival of slave ships on American shores. Last year, DeSantis also signed a bill restricting how schools can talk about race with students.

The College Board unveiled plans to offer an African American studies class for the first time last year. The course is being offered as a pilot in 60 schools across the country during the 2022-23 school year, with the goal of making the course available to all schools in the 2024-25 school year. The first AP African American Studies exam would be administered in the Spring of 2025, according to the College Board website.

It was not immediately clear if Florida had any schools currently participating in the pilot program. The College Board said the Advanced Placement Program has been working with higher education institutions to develop an African American Studies program for a decade.

“Like all new AP courses, AP African American Studies is undergoing a rigorous, multi-year pilot phase, collecting feedback from teachers, students, scholars and policymakers,” the statement said. “The process of piloting and revising course frameworks is a standard part of any new AP course, and frameworks often change significantly as a result. We will publicly release the updated course framework when it is completed and well before this class is widely available in American high schools.”

In a Twitter post Wednesday, Democratic state Sen. Shevrin Jones, who is Black, noted that Florida offers other cultural AP courses.

“This political extremism and its attack of Black History and Black people, is going to create an entire generation of Black children who won’t be able to see themselves reflected at all within their own education or in their own state,” Jones said.

DeSantis’ move comes as his standing among conservatives has soared nationwide following his public stances on hot-button cultural issues and against public health officials and bureaucrats during the Covid-19 pandemic. He is said to be weighing a potential 2024 presidential bid.

A group of Republican state legislators in Michigan seeking to draft him for the 2024 contest signed on to a letter that was hand-delivered to the Florida governor last month, asking that he “seek the presidential nomination of our Republican Party.”

The letter was signed by 18 GOP members of the Michigan Senate and House, who wrote that DeSantis is “uniquely and exceptionally qualified to provide the leadership and competence that is, unfortunately, missing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.” In closing, they said they “stand ready and willing to help you win Michigan in 2024.”

Details of the letter were first reported by Politico.

CNN’s David Wright contributed to this report.

Xavier University of Louisiana and Ochsner Health partner to create College of Medicine, pursue health and educational equity

New Orleans, La. – Xavier University of Louisiana (Xavier) and Ochsner Health (Ochsner) today announced an agreement to establish a joint College of Medicine. The two institutions will create a strong physician pipeline that addresses longstanding inequities within the nation’s health care system and builds the health care workforce of the future. By anchoring their partnership with a College of Medicine, Xavier and Ochsner affirm their legacy of advancing health care excellence and education for the next generation, bringing new opportunities to marginalized populations in Louisiana and the United States.

To launch the College of Medicine, Ochsner and Xavier will form a nonprofit corporation, create a new curriculum and use facilities, personnel, and administrative processes of both institutions. The new College of Medicine will be governed by a board of directors nominated by Ochsner and Xavier, with each institution appointing an equal number of directors.

This initiative builds on a long-standing partnership between Ochsner and Xavier that dates to the early 1980s, when Ochsner and Xavier’s College of Pharmacy came together to offer more clinical training sites for pharmacy students. Xavier’s College of Pharmacy is the oldest in Louisiana and has for years been among the top in the nation in producing African American graduates with Doctor of Pharmacy degrees.

“Our work with Ochsner and other partners who hold close to their hearts a vision of healing a broken world is a testament to Xavier’s mission to promote a more just and humane society,” said Dr. Reynold Verret, President of Xavier University of Louisiana. “Xavier was bestowed that mission by our founders St. Katharine Drexel and the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament almost a century ago. Our dedication to preparing more Black health care professionals in our fight against health inequity is our answer to the call of our nation’s critical need and makes their legacy proud.”

XULA and Ochsner: A Legacy of Collaboration

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged the world and disproportionately affected people of color, highlighting health disparities faced by historically marginalized communities. Ochsner Health and Xavier again forged partnerships to improve health equity through new graduate programs in health sciences and the establishment of the Ochsner Health and Xavier University Institute for Health Equity and Research (OXIHER). A few years before, Xavier and Ochsner also worked to improve diversity within the health sciences through a memorandum of understanding to establish a new Physician Assistant (PA) Program. In May 2022, Ochsner and Xavier celebrated the first graduating class of 37 students in the full-time graduate PA Program, which leads to a master’s degree in health sciences and trains the next generation of providers to make a meaningful impact on health care.

A Hotter Planet Takes Another Toll on Human Health

Shortly after the New Year, the Washington Post ran a story with a headline that would have seemed inexplicable, even runic, to most readers just a few years ago: “The world’s torrid future is etched in the crippled kidneys of Nepali workers.” But we’re growing used to the idea that the climate crisis, in Naomi Klein’s phrase, “changes everything,” so why not the internal organs of Nepalis? Remarkable reporting by Gerry Shih tells a series of unbearably poignant tales: young Nepali men, struggling to earn a living in their impoverished homeland, head to the Gulf states to do construction work in the searing heat, some without access to sufficient water, some until they collapse. (Other reporting also shows that some Nepalis who work abroad resort to the black market for a transplant that might keep them—and the families that depend on the money they earn—alive.) The piece ends with a man coming back to the care of his sister, who donates her own kidney to save him. The costs of the medical procedures require that he sell his half-built house, and that he give up his life’s dream, which was to get married.

The Post was right: the world’s future is likely encapsulated in this story. The planet is getting steadily hotter, and large swaths of it are moving past the point at which it’s safe to do heavy outside labor in the middle of the day. A 2022 study estimated that six hundred and seventy-seven billion working hours a year were already being lost because it’s too hot to go outside and build things or farm. The researchers assessed the cost at more than two trillion dollars annually, but, of course, it could also be measured in other units—in vital organs, or dreams.

But it’s not just the future that’s illuminated by such studies; it’s the past as well. Unless you’ve been keeping up with your issues of Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension, you may have missed a recent article titled “Redlining has led to increasing rates of nephrolithiasis in minoritized populations: a hypothesis.” I saw it only because one of the medical experts who wrote it—David Goldfarb, who runs the dialysis unit at New York’s V.A. hospital and teaches at New York University’s School of Medicine—is an old family friend. He forwarded it to me, and it fairly blew my mind.

“Nephrolithiasis” is the technical term for the development of kidney stones, those small formations that, as they pass, can cause excruciating pain. (I’ve never had them, but I know more than one man who has said he came away from the experience with a newfound appreciation for what his wife had undergone during labor.) Doctors have long known that higher temperatures lead to more sweat, which reduces urine volumes and thus increases “the saturation of the insoluble salts that cause kidney stones.” During heat waves in the U.S., it takes just three days before emergency-room visits for kidney stones begin to spike.

For reasons that remain unclear, kidney stones have traditionally been more common among white people, but, in recent years, doctors have noted huge increases among Black Americans and a significant rise in Latino communities. The authors of the new article looked to the past for a possible explanation—particularly to the nineteen-thirties, when a federal agency, the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, graded all of America’s neighborhoods and deemed some of them “hazardous” for investment, essentially because they were home to large minority communities. This grading system (from A for “best” and B for “still desirable” to C for “declining” and D for “hazardous”) underlay what came to be known as redlining. The grading system led to “chronic disinvestment” in the lower-rated neighborhoods, resulting, over time, in less of everything from parks and green spaces to street trees and air-conditioning in homes.

Now the results can be measured with a thermometer: in Portland, Oregon, the authors report, neighborhoods that were graded A in the nineteen-thirties now “average 8 degrees Fahrenheit lower than the city’s mean temperature, while D-graded neighborhoods average 4.8 Fahrenheit degrees warmer.” Actually, you don’t need a thermometer—that’s a thirteen-degree gap that anyone can feel just by walking across town. No one has carefully studied the incidence of kidney stones among these different neighborhoods, but the authors, in their hypothesis, point to research now under way. Similar work on asthma, another heat-related disease, has shown emergency-room visits are 2.4 times higher in redlined tracts.

Indeed, Goldfarb’s son Ben—an environmental journalist who this year will publish a book called “Crossings,” on the environmental impact of roads—writes that the HOLC grading program produced all kinds of deleterious health effects. In Syracuse, Miami, Minneapolis, and other cities, large parts of neighborhoods that the agency had redlined—and whose residents were mostly Black—were bulldozed to make room for interstate highways. He told me, “Minorities today disproportionately live near the urban freeways that displaced them, and suffer as a result. Air pollution causes asthma and cancer; noise pollution increases the risk of heart disease and stroke; and the physical fragmentation wrought by highways shatters local economies. It’s heartbreaking, though hardly surprising, that disastrous policy decisions made decades ago continue to destroy bodies and communities today.”

It’s true that everyone is going to pay some price as the planet cooks. The authors of the nephrology study predict a likely additional cost to the U.S. health-care system of at least a billion dollars a year. But some people are going to be hit much harder than others because of history. Doing justice in the present requires taking that past seriously—understanding how we ended up where we are, and why we must put those with the least first, as we try to address the future. But we’re at a moment in this country when the idea of historical responsibility is increasingly seen not as logical and obvious but as some kind of invidious political correctness.

In April, 2022, Governor Ron DeSantis, of Florida, signed the Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act, or the Stop WOKE Act. (In introducing the bill, he had said, “In Florida we are taking a stand against the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory,” adding that “we won’t allow Florida tax dollars to be spent teaching kids to hate our country or to hate each other.”) A preliminary injunction was issued against the act, which includes a dictum against any school teaching that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.” But, even if you can silence teachers, legislation can’t muffle the effects of history. On a hot summer’s day in Jacksonville, Florida, where DeSantis was born, the temperature in A neighborhoods is 5.5 degrees below the mean, and it’s 4.4 degrees above the mean in the D-rated communities. ♦

‘Writer’ Hitler’s tax return and African American military items coming to auction in Md.

Adolf Hitler's 1926 signed tax return. Hitler, with no other occupation or income, describes his profession as "writer" and declares 2,487 Reichsmarks of income, solely from the sale of his political manifesto "Mein Kampf." (Submitted photo)

Adolf Hitler’s 1926 signed tax return. Hitler, with no other occupation or income, describes his profession as “writer” and declares 2,487 Reichsmarks of income, solely from the sale of his political manifesto “Mein Kampf.” (Submitted photo)

Alexander Historical Auctions, the Chesapeake City-based company known for its sale of military and historical collectibles, will be offering Adolf Hitler’s signed 1926 tax return at an auction scheduled for Jan. 25-27.

The return lists Hitler’s profession as “writer” and set his income at 2,487 Reichsmarks, this being his earnings for the first year’s sales of his political manifesto, “Mein Kampf.” He paid 262 Reichsmarks in taxes on this income, of which 22 Reichsmarks were for “church levies.”

Just released from prison for treason, Hitler had no other income at the time but for the proceeds from the sales of “Mein Kampf,” which had sold only 9,473 copies. In later years, Hitler made millions from the sale of the book, which was later banned in Germany until 2016.

Also included in the sale is a recently discovered trove of historic African American military items. One of the most important items is the regimental banner of the segregated 372nd Infantry Regiment, which served in both World Wars. The 61-by-55-inch silk flag bears a red “hand,” showing the regiment’s assignment to the “Red Hand Division” of the French 157th Infantry Division, which fought in the Champagne region during World War I.

Also included in the sale is the collection of medals awarded to Captain Edward A. Walton of the 369th Infantry “Harlem Hellfighters.” Present is Walton’s Distinguished Service Cross, awarded to him after he escorted his battalion commander 100 yards in advance of his assaulting lines. The commander was struck six times in the legs and was carried by Walton to safety while under heavy fire, in which Walton too was wounded.

The “Harlem Hellfighters” is one of the most recognized regiments in history. During World War I, the regiment suffered the most losses of any American regiment, with 1,500 casualties. Many other items attributed to Black soldiers will also be offered in the same sale.

These historic relics are part of a three-day auction of over 2,000 lots of historic autographs, documents, and military items, commencing January 25, 2023. Some of the more notable lots include D-Day maps and orders to the men who first freed the way for those trapped on Omaha Beach; a bronze statue head of Saddam Hussein, recovered from the pitched battle at Baghdad Airport; Afrika Korps Gen. Erwin Rommel’s shoulder boards, Hitler’s signed warning to his armed forces predicting D-Day and more.

MSNBC, CNN Condemn DeSantis For Not Allowing Woke History

… to not allow AP African-American Studies to be taught … discussing the same AP African-American Studies controversy and is … starts with the assumption racism is the answer and … school Advanced Placement course in African-American Studies, the course is … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News

Book Review: Historical Fiction for Children

… , Ranger befriends Walt, a young African American soldier from the U.S … girl; and corresponded with an African American family that shared personal documents … vicissitudes of war, the racism U.S. African American troops confronted and the … RankTribe™ Black Business Directory News

Police district candidate’s social media full of racist and misogynist posts

Pericles “Perry” Abbasi, an attorney who filed petition challenges and election paperwork for several police district council candidates on behalf of the Fraternal Order of Police and who is himself a candidate in the 25th District, has a history of social media posts and messages with racist and misogynist content. 

In tweets and group chat messages obtained by the Reader, Abbasi variously shared a racist trope, asked whether it’s misogynist to “absolutely despise the idea of women in groups and wickedness that comes from them talking to each other,” and wrote that a bar owner he’d helped with liquor licensing had provided him with “Polish girls” who may have been “trafficked.” In an interview with the Reader, Abbasi admitted he wrote them but said they were humorous trolling.

Abbasi confirmed he wrote this message, but said it was meant as a joke, and that he has never “done anything like that.”

On May 25, 2022, Abbasi tweeted a photo of himself juxtaposed with one of George Floyd, who former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered in 2020, with the caption “Rest in Peace, George Floyd.” He described the tweet as, “Making fun of white liberals virtue-signaling” in the wake of Floyd’s murder.

In another message apparently written by him, someone who identified himself as Abbasi wrote, “I’ve said in spaces that the horrible black american diet is the reason for 13/50!” 

The reference to “13/50” is a racist myth that incorrectly claims Black people, who make up 12.6 percent of the U.S. population, account for 50 percent of arrests. That claim is false. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting statistics, about 29 percent of people arrested for violent crimes, property crimes, or drug-related crimes are Black.  

Abbasi said he did not remember sending this message, but could not rule it out.

Abbasi told the Reader that he did not remember writing the “13/50” group chat, adding, “I can’t remember what I tweeted two days ago,” but admitted that he could not rule it out. He confirmed that he wrote all of the others. 

On January 6, Abbasi retweeted a photoshopped picture another user posted of him wearing Ku Klux Klan regalia and sitting next to Kanye West. He said he retweets “every photoshop people make of me” and that doing so is “an exercise in absurdity.”

In another group chat message, Abbasi wrote, “Now that I’m in a relationship with a 36-year-old woman it gives me leeway to say that child porn sentences are way too long, like anything more than a year for downloading anything is evil.” He told the Reader the message was meant as a joke poking fun at Libertarians.

In an interview with the Reader, Abbasi confirmed he wrote this message.

He reiterated several times during the interview that the message about a client who “took care of” him with “Polish girls” who may have been “trafficked” was entirely fictional and meant as a joke. 

“I’ll get an idea that sounds funny, and I’ll post it,” Abbasi said. He said that in the group chats he “liked to play the villain, and make up insane things to stir shit up.” He compared himself to Nick Adams, a conservative commentator who served as a surrogate for Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign and has repeated the false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen.” Abbasi added that he thinks Trump is “the funniest man alive.”

Asked about his politics, he said he was anti-war and believes everyone deserves health care. He said that police district councils have to determine “how we’re going to ameliorate the rise in crime, but it has to be done constitutionally and equitably.”

He said he had “no idea who 99 percent” of his 24,000 Twitter followers are and that he believes they have a range of political views. The engagements he gets on social media fill a desire for celebrity that has helped him successfully lose weight, he added. His current “bit” on Twitter is posing as an “Alpha male” who is also a “closeted homosexual.” 

Abbasi’s Twitter profile links to his legal practice, in which he files election paperwork and ballot petition challenges for political candidates. He said he will work for just about anyone, but that in police district council races he exclusively worked for the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). Earlier this week, WBEZ reported that the FOP paid Abbasi $10,000.

In December 2022, Abbasi filed petition challenges against progressive candidates who were running together as slates for police district councils. On January 13, the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners ruled in favor of the progressives and kept them on the ballot. 

Abbasi said that the FOP “needed an election attorney. We came to an agreement.” He added that he has worked for Democrats and Republicans in the past, and “the focus is doing the job for the client.” He doesn’t care about his clients’ political ideology. “It’s not necessarily ideal, [but] for a lot of candidates I’m not even sure of their platform.” 

A candidate for police district council in the 25th District, Abbasi said he was considering running, and that the FOP gave him a “green light” because they were not running any other candidates in that district. Had the FOP not consented to him running, he said he may not have.

Abbasi also put his own contact information on election filings he submitted for six other candidates. He told the Reader the FOP referred them to him. Those candidates are:

Until this week, Abbasi was listed as the treasurer for mayoral candidate Kam Buckner’s campaign committee. He is still listed as treasurer for eight other campaign committees. On January 15, Buckner disavowed Abbasi in a tweet, saying that he had a “purely administrative title,” that Buckner was “incredibly disturbed” by Abbasi’s racist and misogynist posts, and that Abbasi was “never part of our regular working team and hasn’t spent time in our campaign office.” 

In a statement to the Reader, Buckner’s campaign reiterated the disavowal. “He was the campaign’s election lawyer during the petition process. He was never on the finance committee. As the campaign’s lawyer, he was registered as campaign treasurer on the Illinois Board of Elections.”

Abbasi also said he hadn’t worked directly for Buckner’s campaign and that he forgot he was listed as its treasurer.

In a statement to the Reader, Saul Arellano, a candidate for police district council in the 25th District, said, “Homophobia, transphobia, racism, and misogyny are no laughing matter. The 25th Police District is one of the most diverse districts in Chicago, with Black, white, Latino, and immigrant residents from across the globe. . . . This isn’t any laughing matter. We need to unify and protect our communities from this denigrating and destructive commentary. Inclusivity is at the forefront of our movement.” 

Asked about the potential impact his tweets might have on his campaign, Abbasi seemed ambivalent. “Some people might find it distasteful,” he said. “If someone doesn’t want to vote for me because I’m a Twitter troll, that’s their right.”