Four score and a lot of years ago – 417 total – British-American history began. Twelve years later, in 1619, African American history began. Despite what most are taught to believe, the distinction between the two is minimal – perhaps not enough to warrant both an AP US History and an AP African American Studies class.
College Board’s new AP African American Studies course is advertised as one which teaches students an accurate perspective of the African American impact on the creation of the U.S., encourages more Black high school students to enroll in Advanced Placement (AP) classes and helps make college more affordable for those same students. In reality though, it struggles to succeed at the majority of these goals.
First, the good things: though watered-down due to controversies about what Governor Ron Desantis calls “critical race theory” – here’s the actual definition – the course provides an in-depth look at the generally forgotten parts of African American history, beginning with the African Diaspora and ending with 20th century civil rights movements and Black accomplishments in literature, music and art.
However, the issues with this course start right off with its name, which, along with the entire concept of an AP African American Studies (AP AA) course, is rather confusing. After all, Black students aren’t the only marginalized race in AP enrollment percentages: in 2021, they made up 12.7% of AP enrollment in Virginia schools despite making up more than a fifth of the overall student body. Similarly, Latinx students made up 10% of AP enrollment and a sixth of the student population.
Hence, the decision to make a course solely about Black history instead of incorporating every other marginalized race is a befuddling one. Choosing to split apart non-white American history from traditional American history courses rather than just changing the current class, AP U.S. History – or even creating an AP Ethnic Studies class – is inherently divisive. It’s also unfair to students who would’ve wanted to learn about both subjects but were forced to pick one due to the limited slots in their course selection.
The creation of this class can at very best be seen as a concession from college board that the current leading AP history course (APUSH) doesn’t do enough in covering the whole of American history. After all, APUSH’s 2014 curriculum revision was aimed to be more thorough in its topics concerning race – and was immediately blasted by conservatives for being overly political.
It also creates a spectacular distinction between traditional U.S. and African American history. After all, African Americans have been a part of American history for nearly as long as the original European settlers. Revising the APUSH curriculum to be more thorough in its topics concerning race is a simple fix – in fact, that’s exactly what College Board aimed for in its 2014 revision. But political pressure caused College Board to submit once again and re-revised the course into the watered-down version that it is today.
Advocates of the class also claim that its introduction will encourage Black students to take the class, and by extension, other AP classes. However, only 498 colleges accept AP African American Studies exam scores for credit, compared to 2,088 for APUSH. While the majority of popular Virginia colleges accept the exam scores, many out-of-state schools do not. Besides, as an AP history course, AP AA is forced by design to compete with the APUSH, which is among the most popular AP courses. All this points to the possibility that very few students will actually end up taking the class.
The course is overall a misstep. It fails to accomplish any of its goals, is divisive and struggles to own up to its identity.
