It’s tough to decide what’s more odious: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ racist, authoritarian, and nakedly political power play rejecting an Advanced Placement course on African American studies, or the College Board’s cowardly decision to revise the course in the face of this thuggish criticism.

The board’s decision has effectively erased broad swaths of history, dropping topics such as Black Lives Matter, which is now central to the modern civil rights movement; reparations for slavery, and queer theory — a double-whammy that attacks both Black people and LGBTQ Americans — who also are Black. These topics are now only included as recommendations for end–of-the-year projects that students could undertake on their own, NPR reported.

In a statement, the College Board denied that it was bowing to political pressure, arguing that “No one is excluded from this course.” Though that sounds much more like an exercise in face-saving. And it’s a win for DeSantis, who’s burnishing his credentials for an all-but-declared White House bid in 2024.

Forget for a moment that this gobsmacking collapse of backbone has empowered a fearful and noisy minority, supposedly dedicated to the freedoms embedded in the Constitution, to dictate education policy for the rest of us.

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