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Virginia Governor and cancel culturist Glenn Youngkin is following a dangerous trend.
Ever since former Pres. Trump signed a 2020 executive order banning certain diversity training in federal agencies, red states have competed to out-racist each other.
On his first day in office, Youngkin banned the teaching of “inherently divisive concepts.” Also in a recent radio interview, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said parents can now email the state government to report any school teacher believed to be “behaving objectionably.”
Book Bans Don’t Always Work
While vague phrasing like “behaving objectionably” or “inherently divisive concepts” could apply to all subjects, CRT remains the GOP’s focus. And they’ll do anything to stop something that isn’t even happening.
According to The Washington Post, Youngkin issued a ban on critical race theory, even though it was never part of the state’s public-school curriculum.
Critical race theory is a graduate-level academic practice created by legal scholars examining the persistent effects of institutionalized racism in America. Not exactly middle school stuff.
Glenn Youngkin isn’t the only one
Since January 2021, 36 states have introduced bills or taken other steps to restrict teaching CRT or limit how teachers can discuss racism, according to an Education Week analysis.
In recent years, but more specifically since 2020, America’s racial reckoning has had many aftershocks. Racist statutes were pried from their cold dead hands. Corporations began to allow natural and cultural hairstyles in the workplace. Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. Black stories are not only being heard but actionable steps are being taken to right historical wrongs in some instances.
Yet any student of science (which I believe is still being taught in Virginia) has learned Sir Isaac Newton’s “for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
And now that 2020 has long passed, Republicans like Youngkin fulfill racist campaign promises to outlaw Black ideology in school.
For many white allies, a major part of their understanding and healing process has been to listen. To learn. Yet for Republicans like Glenn Youngkin, to learn is to feel guilt.
Our Reality is Bigger than Their Feelings
It’s guilt about what their forefathers and their fathers’ father not only inherently believed – but instituted.
Perhaps the history of enslavement, Jim Crow, Segregation, or Civil Rights doesn’t paint men like Youngkin in the best light. And much like the former President who would rather lie than admit defeat, today’s GOP would rather not know history than confront – or heaven forbid – change its ways.
Though Republicans arbitrarily cite cancel culture for the likes of Mr. Potatoe Head, Segregationist sympathizer Youngkin looks to ban our history our truth, the truth which sets us free.
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