Racially regressive policies and actions move Virginia in the wrong direction

Virginia’s experiencing a decidedly regressive spring. 

Shenandoah County’s school board has graced the state with the distinction of being first in the nation to rename schools after Confederates, after removing the Lost Cause-era monikers a few years ago.

Virginia school board restores Confederate names

Bills to stop the state from issuing license plates that honor the Confederacy and others to end Confederate veneration groups’ tax breaks and other perks were, disappointingly, vetoed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin last week.

The Kempsville High School varsity baseball team’s season was brought to a screeching halt after administrators found evidence that players had been making racist, harassing comments for years — one local mom said her son’s teammates called him the n-word — Virginia Beach Public Schools’ superintendent said Monday.

Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University aren’t moving forward with previous plans to make mandatory courses that expand students’ racial literacy and understanding of racism’s real-world consequences for Black Virginians and others of color. This, after the Youngkin administration asked to review the courses’ curricula and framed such classes as “a thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the progressive left’s groupthink on Virginia’s students.”

Even President Joe Biden snubbed one of the state’s oldest historically Black colleges, Virginia State University, by pulling out of a highly-anticipated debate at the school with former President Donald Trump; it would have been the first time a presidential debate was hosted at an HBCU in the nation, at a time when most are still underfunded compared to legacy white institutions.

I could go on but I don’t need to; the pattern of these events reflects a steady dissolution of years of progress Virginia had been making 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. It’s in line with the legislative pushback against DEI across the country, which will undoubtedly further rupture our ideological and political divides. 

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

Why are we OK with our decisions and public policies hearkening back to a time when certain Virginians’ human and civil rights were trampled as standard practice?

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

It will be to all of our benefit if our thinking spurs some serious course correction.