See below for VA State Senator Jennifer McClellan speaking on Symone Sanders’ MSNBC show earlier today about “Gov. Youngkin’s curriculum proposal that would significantly change how and when students would learn Black and Indigenous history in public schools.” As Sen. McClellan explained about Youngkin et al:
“I think people don’t want a true, accurate, complete history to be taught, because frankly they want to whitewash history and make everyone feel comfortable rather than learning and grappling with the complicated family trauma that is Virginia and American history…Virginia in and of itself, the birthplace of American democracy but the birthplace of American slavery, both are part of our legacy, both need to be taught and both need to be reckoned with. And the first step in that is having an honest conversation about that history so that we can heal and move forward…Well the good news is people in Virginia want this history to be taught. We were beginning to have a reckoning with our history and honest conversations, in some cases in ways we didn’t want to, because of the ‘Blackface’ scandals of 2019, because of the murder of George Floyd. But we started to have that conversation and we need to continue to have that conversation, so I’m not surprised that people were outraged and made their voice heard and I expect they’re going to continue to do so...I encourage everyone watching, particularly Virginia parents, to make their voice heard so that our children can continue to learn a complete, accurate history and not the whitewashed version that I learned in school in the 70s and the 80s.”
Spot-on by Sen. McClellan. Also, see here for video of Symone Sanders speaking with NAACP Loudoun President, Pastor Michelle C. Thomas, who said “it absolutely does not make sense” to eliminate teaching about Martin Luther King, Jr. or Juneteenth for K-5 students. Pastor Thomas continues
“What it makes it so disgusting, what makes it so dangerous, is that from K to 5, most of our Black history is stripped away. In fact, Dr. Martin Luther King does not appear in the curriculum at all, even though he is the single most influential Black man in history in America…he’s not in the curriculum. They don’t actually get a lesson about him until they get to 7th grade. This is absolutely intentional…
Loudoun County is absolutely the place that has been targeted to map out how the GOP would actually take over school boards and springboard politicians into state, local and federal offices.“
Needless to say, we all need to push back HARD against this garbage from Youngkin and company, and to not let them destroy our public schools, whitewash our history, etc.
State Sen. @JennMcClellanVA discusses Gov. Youngkin’s curriculum proposal that would significantly change how and when students would learn Black and Indigenous history in public schools.
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