The start of this Black History Month has been marked by unprecedented attacks on the introduction of the new AP African American Studies course together with recent revisions which have excised much of the content that had been targeted by Governor Ron DeSantis’s latest assault on the teaching of race and anti-racism. 

To make sense of these developments, join AAPF for our next urgent Under the Blacklight conversation—live in New York—where we will bring together stakeholders in public and higher education to discuss the context of this latest educational assault and why we cannot adopt a carve out strategy to defend African American studies.

These bad-faith, anti-democratic attacks not only elevate anti-Blackness onto the political agenda but distort and suppress educational tools designed to build better societal understanding of the intersections of racism, history and current politics. Ideas like Critical Race Theory or intersectionality are not ancillary to the teaching of Black history or American history, they are essential. To live in a country where politicians dictate which books can be on school library shelves or which ideas can be included in curricula—as opposed to empowering professional educators to make these choices—not only underserves our nation's school children, but also undermines democracy.

Featuring:

Kimberlé Crenshaw - Professor of Law, Columbia/UCLA, Executive Director of AAPF
Roderick Ferguson - Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies at Yale University
Daniel Martinez HoSang - Professor of Ethnicity Race and Migration and American Studies at Yale University
Paul Ortiz - Professor of History at the University of Florida
Randi Weingarten - President of the American Federation of Teachers

We invite you to join us in charting a call to action to reject the normalization of anti-Blackness with clarity and determination.

This event is co-sponsored by the Institute for Research in African-American Studies / African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University, the Black Law Students Association at Columbia and The Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning Collective (ARTLC).

Register Here