Advanced Placement African American Studies as a Master’s Tool

African American studies—a discipline grounded in celebrations of Black culture and resistance to anti-Blackness—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, AP may be a “master’s tool“ incapable of dismantling racism. This case study of two AP African American studies classes investigated whether the course can teach students how they might undermine anti-Black racism. Findings suggest that the course has a strong potential to encourage Black joy but neglects to interrogate racism as a modern-day systemic phenomenon. This shortcoming calls into question the capacity of AP African American Studies to prepare students to democratically challenge anti-Black racism.