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Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested Thursday that her administration took action against a course on African American history to prevent students from being taught hatred of America.
Last week, the Arkansas Department of Education gave two days’ notice that the Advanced Placement course on African American studies would no longer be accepted for credit. The Sanders administration also said Arkansas won’t cover the $90 cost of the course’s final exam, as it does for every other AP course. As I wrote previously, these actions show how states can set up disincentives for students without technically banning a course, even though the result of both tactics — barriers to learning about Black history — is effectively the same.
When a Fox News host asked Sanders on Thursday whether her administration had done away with the course, Sanders slyly said no. Then she went on a rant.
“We’ve got to get back to the basics of teaching math, of teaching reading, writing and American history,” Sanders said. “And we cannot perpetuate a lie to our students and push this propaganda leftist agenda teaching our kids to hate America and hate one another.”
Sanders didn’t clarify what so-called lie she was talking about. Or how the AP course teaches students to hate America or one another.
But I have a few notes.
First, pay attention to how Sanders seems to make a distinction between American history and African American history, as though the latter isn’t legitimately part of the former. This line of attack is like a bat signal for bigots.
Second, the AP course on European history will still be eligible for credit. If Sanders doesn’t like children learning about anti-American views, someone should tell her that European history is replete with them. Remember the American Revolution?
And finally, I think we need to start talking more about what’s at stake if conservatives succeed in their attempts at historical erasure. I don’t think their efforts are about trolling or meanness alone.
Getting people to forget the bigoted sins of the past can make it easier to re-create those sins in the present.
And Arkansas is a prime example. The state has been a leader in whitewashing lessons about the Black American experience. At the same time, it’s at the forefront of a nationwide resurgence in child labor, which disproportionately affects nonwhite children and has historically been used as a substitute for chattel slavery.
I’ve been reading work from historians on the topic of child labor, and I highly recommend this great Vox podcast featuring Beth English. It’s important context when thinking about Arkansas’ assault on African American studies.
Erasing and hiding Black history means subjecting Black folks to second-class citizenship. And not just in the classroom.