Richmond, VA – A recent story in the Washington Post found that Governor Youngkin’s administration has targeted equity as a “divisive concept” that should be banned from Virginia’s public schools. This is his latest effort in a long list where Governor Youngkin has used racist dog whistles to appease his far-right allies.
On the campaign trail and now as Governor, Gov. Youngkin has used racial fearmongering to divide Virginians. Here are just a few examples since he took office:
- On one of the final days of Black History Month, Governor Youngkin released an interim report on critical race theory – an attempt to rewrite, revise and change our history and rescinded racial equity resources for our schools.
- Governor Youngkin established a ‘tip line’ encouraging Virginians to report teachers for teaching ‘divisive concepts’ and then claimed executive privilege to prevent the release of the emails after numerous FOIA requests.
- Unlike his recent predecessors who prioritized equal opportunity on their first day in office, Governor Youngkin’s first executive order banned Critical Race Theory from schools.
- During Black History Month, Governor Youngkin confused two prominent African American legislators, Sen. Louise Lucas and Sen. Mamie Locke when attempting to compliment the Senator on her speech.
- After signing his order to “ban” critical race theory in schools, Gov. Youngkin has continued to dig in and wage a war against our public schools threatening to defund local school divisions and bully our educators who rejected his executive orders.
“It’s clear there is no bottom that Governor Youngkin won’t reach to appease his far-right base,” said DPVA spokesperson Gianni Snidle. “Since taking office, Gov. Youngkin has used a plethora of racist dog whistles from his first executive order banning critical race theory to establishing a ‘tip line’ to report divisive concepts. Unfortunately, Gov. Youngkin has chosen to stoke the flames of division rather than bring Virginians together.”
###