Advanced Placement African American Studies as a Master’s Tool?

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 3:05 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Rethinking Racial Equity, Access, and Curriculum in the Era of Selective Banning (Table 38)

Abstract

African American Studies - a discipline grounded in celebrations of Black culture and interrogations of anti-Black racism - is now being piloted in Advanced Placement (AP) - an educational program that has long excluded Black people and promoted dominant cultural norms. In the parlance of Audre Lorde, Advanced Placement may be "master's tool" incapable of dismantling anti-Black racism. This case study of two AP African American studies teachers investigates whether these courses might meaningfully undermine anti-Black racism in the United States. Through approximately fifty hours of observations and 32 interviews, the findings suggest that the course has strong potential to encourage Black resistance and Black joy, but neglects to interrogate racism as a systemic phenomenon shaping current contexts.

Author

• Suneal H. Kolluri, University of California - Riverside