Glenn Youngkin (photo, left; bio here), an investment banker, got elected Virginia governor by campaigning as a “moderate” Republican.
He’s nothing of the sort. There are many Republican liars, but very few if any Republican moderates. His education policies mirror those of Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who is waging political warfare against black and LGBQT people.
DeSantis virtually banished black studies from Florida public schools. Youngkin is eager to get on that train.
Cloaking his censorship of what students are allowed to learn in the language of avoiding “divisiveness,” Youngkin like DeSantis is ejecting Advanced Placement African-American studies from Virginia’s public schools. While a drastically watered-down curriculum may be allowed, here’s what it can’t include:
- Affirmative Action: approaches and controversies
- Black Lives Matter: Origins, impacts, critics
- Reparations debates in the U.S. / the Americas
- The legacy of redlining
- Crime, criminal justice, and incarceration
- African American health and healthcare outcomes in the United States
- Black conservatism: development and ideology
- Movements led by Black women: Combahee River Collective and beyond
- Black politics: African Americans and the political spectrum
Why? Because those topics are “divisive.” (Read story here.)
(In a rhetorical slip, conservatives originally suggested they might make white student feel bad about themselves, but they’re not making that mistake anymore.)
The white conservative politicians governing these two southern states don’t want any discussion in their schools of how blacks have been mistreated in the South, or the discrimination they’ve faced (and still face) in housing, health care, by law enforcement, and in society in general. There will be no discussion of black grievances, legitimate or otherwise, and above all schools will be purged of programs designed to set things right and put black people on an equal footing.
Youngkin’s education policies don’t necessarily make him a racist or white supremacist. But let’s be clear about something: He’s no moderate, he’s a hardcore conservative who wants to keep black people in their place.