Racially regressive policies and actions are taking Virginia in the wrong direction

Virginia is having a decidedly regressive spring.

The Shenandoah County School Board honored the state with the distinction of being the first in the nation to do so rename schools after Confederatesafter dropping the Lost Cause-era moniker a few years ago.

Virginia school board reinstates Confederate names

Laws stopping the state from issuing license plates honoring the Confederacy and others, and intended to end tax breaks and other benefits for Confederate cult groups, have been disappointing. vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin last week.

The Kempsville High School varsity baseball team’s season was abruptly cut short after administrators found evidence that players had been making years of racist and harassing comments – one local mom said her son’s teammates called him the “F-word” n” – Superintendent of Virginia Beach Public Schools said Monday.

Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University are not moving forward with previous plans to create required courses that would increase students’ racial literacy and understanding of the real consequences of racism for Black Virginians and other people of color. This is after the Youngkin administration were asked to read the course programs and characterized such classes as “a thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the groupthink of the progressive left with Virginia students.”

Even President Joe Biden snubbed one of the state’s oldest historically black colleges, Virginia State University withdrawal from the long-awaited debate at school with former President Donald Trump; it would be the first time in the country that a presidential debate was held at an HBCU at a time when the majority still underfunded compared to older white institutions.

I could go on, but I don’t have to; the pattern of these events reflects the steady decline of decades of progress Virginia has made to recognize and address the historic lack of diversity and equitable, inclusive practices in public schools, higher education, health care, and local and state government. This is consistent with legislative opposition to DEI throughout the country, which will undoubtedly further break down our ideological and political divisions.

This is a moment for reflection. We should be asking ourselves hard questions, starting with how did we get here?

Why do we not mind that our decisions and public policies hark back to a time when the human and civil rights of some Virginians were trampled upon as standard practice?

Are we creating a legacy of social progress that will make this the best state it can be for all Virginians, or are we repeating the prejudices and problems that have defined much of our past and passing the baton of moral failure to future generations?

It will be to the benefit of all of us if our thinking stimulates some major course correction.