Shevrin Jones says protests against Ron DeSantis represent ‘intersectionality’

A state Senator from Florida is taking his argument against Ron DeSantis‘ war with the College Board to the national stage.

Shevrin Jones told MSNBC viewers Saturday morning that the battle against the Governor’s rejected African American Studies Advanced Placement course proposal illustrates true “intersectionality,” a logical response to what he and other Democrats see as DeSantis’ latest attempt to whitewash inconvenient history for political ends.

“For those who did not know the definition of intersectionality, it was defined for them on Wednesday at the march. People from all over the state of Florida joined in unity and solidarity,” Jones said. “To make it clear that if you come for one of us, you come for all of us, from students and parents, black, white, gay, straight, transgender, and all types of religions, they all were there on Wednesday.”

“And it’s also a resistance to what we’re seeing happening across this country, because people realized that if it’s happening in Florida, Texas is next, Arizona’s next Tennessee is next,” Jones said, saying the message “has to be amplified.”

The comments were made in the context of Wednesday’s demonstrations in Tallahassee, which saw Rev. Al Sharpton, elected Black Democrats, and activists issuing the strongest response yet to DeSantis’ moves.

In response to continued questions from host Katie Phang, Jones continued to contend that the Governor’s war with the College Board is a stand-in for a much broader cultural assault.

“I think we should not be confused in this moment and what we’re seeing right now. We’ve seen this before. We’ve seen these moments before in history with banning books and the muzzling of teachers of what you can and what you cannot say. And it’s unfortunate that the college board is now the latest boogeyman for Gov. DeSantis. And unfortunately, this is what the Governor does to people who don’t agree with him and his dangerous rhetoric and his policies.

“He’s coming after you and he’s willing to sink the entire ship all for the sake of getting his way,” Jones added.

“I think that we should be playing close attention to what the policies and the rhetoric that the Governor is doing. Because if he can go after Disney world, what makes you think that he won’t come after the college board or what makes you think he won’t come after the colleges, the universities.”

Jones cited the “full takeover” of New College as a leading example of that trend.

“The Governor really wants to use education to get into the minds of students, to get into the minds of of teachers and to really put this fearmongering across the state and across the country.”

For his part, DeSantis is pushing for “alternatives” to the Advanced Placement courses amid his own blasts of intersectional tropes in the College Board course

“The College Board was the one that in a Black Studies course put queer theory in. Not us! They did that. They were the ones who put in Intersectionality. They put in other types of neo-Marxism into the proposed syllabus,” DeSantis contended.

He cited International Baccalaureate and Cambridge International courses as “more rigorous” than AP classes, and noted that dual enrollment classes are available. Despite those attempts to reassure restive parents and students, many questions remain as to how the Governor and the Legislature would compel such a culture shift.