Virginia Has Its Own Ron DeSantis, and He’s Taking Aim at African American Studies

Glenn Youngkin wants to make sure your kids aren’t learning any “inherently divisive concepts.” 

Shaban Athuman/Richmond Times-Dispatch/AP

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

In his seemingly never-ending quest to remove “divisive concepts” from Virginia’s schools, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has taken a page right out of Ron DeSantis’ playbook and called for a review of Virginia’s AP African American studies programs. According to a report this weekend from the Washington Post, Youngkin, a Republican, asked state officials to review the curriculum to ensure that it didn’t conflict with his inaugural executive order, which barred teachers from teaching “inherently divisive concepts.” 

Youngkin is making this move about a month after DeSantis, Florida’s GOP governor, pulled a similar stunt. At the beginning of this year, DeSantis blocked a new AP African American studies course in Florida high school classrooms.

The new AP course, which has been released across 60 high schools nationwide, received a makeover earlier this month. On February 1, the College Board—the nonprofit that administers the AP program—released a severely stripped down version of the course following DeSantis’ criticism. While the board denied caving to any political pressure, the new curriculum removed mention of many modern social movements, like Black Lives Matter, that DeSantis specifically objected to. As my colleague, Pema Levy, noted:

The demoted topics have been relegated to optional independent research topics, but that list “can be refined by states and districts,” the College Board noted. The list of now optional topics serves as a handy guide to what the curriculum lacks: 

  • Affirmative Action: approaches and controversies
  • Black Lives Matter: Origins, impacts, critics
  • Reparations debates in the U.S. / the Americas
  • The legacy of redlining
  • Crime, criminal justice, and incarceration
  • African American health and healthcare outcomes in the United States
  • Black conservatism: development and ideology
  • Movements led by Black women: Combahee River Collective and beyond
  • Black politics: African Americans and the political spectrum

Virginia isn’t the only state following Florida’s lead. Arkansas, North Dakota, and Mississippi have also requested reviews of their African American studies courses. On February 12, the College Board criticized DeSantis in a letter, stating: “There is always debate about the content of a new AP course. That is good and healthy; these courses matter. But the dialogue surrounding AP African American Studies has moved from healthy debate to misinformation.”

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate