See below for some reactions and thoughts from last night’s Arlington County School Board meeting, at which Winsome Earle-Sears (and many others) spoke, and the rally prior to the meeting, at which one activist held up an offensive, ill-conceived, racist (even if the person’s intent, as she said to Fox “News,” was “satire mean to provoke conversation about the absurdity of prejudice”). It’s obviously blown up into a huge, viral story in right-wing media and on Twitter, although we’ll see if really breaks out into the “mainstream media” or not, and whether it lasts more than a few days. With that, here are a few thoughts and reactions.
- Last night, Abigail Spanberger almost immediately said she “condemns this repulsive display” as “racist, abhorrent and unacceptable.” She followed up this morning with another statement, elaborating that “no matter the intended purpose or tone and no matter how much one might find someone else’s beliefs objectionable, to threaten a return of Jim Crow and segregation to a Black woman is unacceptable.”
- Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffey also responded almost immediately: “Arlington was the 1st school district in Virginia to desegregate in 1959 This is entirely unacceptable &flies in the face of the work we have done to be an inclusive & welcoming community for all. We do not fight for progress by putting others down, we fight for equality for ALL.”
- Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA08) commented this morning: “There is no place for racism in Arlington or anywhere else. This sign is wrong, does not represent the values of our community and I join those condemning it.”
- Equality Virginia issued a statement a bit earlier this afternoon: “Equality Virginia condemns the anti-Black sign displayed at a rally for trans youth ahead of the Arlington School Board meeting on Thursday, August 21st. The sign invoked segregation-era policy and tactics that are dehumanizing and deeply harmful. Anti-Blackness has no place in our movement, the for LGBTQ+ liberation is intertwined with the fight for Black liberation. We must condemn anti-Blackness in all its forms with the same dedication that we fight against transphobia.”
- Of course, all of this overshadowed the content of the Arlington School Board meeting, at which the vast majority of speakers expressed their support for transgender students and their opposition to the Trump administration’s threats to slash funding to Arlington public schools if they don’t change their transgender student policies. (see below for video)
- For her part, Winsome Earle-Sears consciously chose to come to Arlington to speak out, because she feels like raising the “salience” of this issue – which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students should be using – will help her politically. She also, presumably, believes strongly in what she’s saying, namely that – in her view: “What is happening in our schools right now is just wrong. It’s dangerous. It’s insane. And it has to stop. There are two sexes, boys and girls. And for generations, we’ve understood this that they deserve their own sports teams, their own locker rooms, their own bathrooms. That’s not discrimination. It is common sense…When girls lose their privacy, when boys are punished for speaking plain truth, when parents aresilenced for simply asking questions, that’s not education. That’s indoctrination.”
- With a couple exceptions, the other speakers at the School Board meeting all spoke out strongly in support of transgender students, argued that Arlington County schools are following the law, “reflect the core values that we hold as Arlingtonians – respect, inclusion, kindness,” etc. They also pushed back hard against the “political cudgel” being used by the Trump administration against Arlington County public schools. Check out the video, below.
- As for the politics of this, clearly Virginia Republicans are looking for an issue on which they can gain some traction, after a rough summer of disunity – and also getting outraised financially and trailing in the polls. So they look at 2021 – when Youngkin used “wedge issues” like “CRT,” transgender kids’ use of school bathrooms, etc. as part of his winning gubernatorial campaign – as a model for 2025. The big difference, of course, is that in 2021, a Democrat (Joe Biden) was in the White House, while this time around a Republican (Donald Trump) is president. And historically, Virginia almost always goes OPPOSITE for governor of whichever party is in the White House. So how much did all the so-called “culture war” stuff help Youngkin in 2021? Hard to say, but in the end, he only won by two points, even with an increasingly unpopular Biden in the White House, and even with almost no record, a huge amount of money, and a pathetically incompetent media – allowing Youngkin to be all things to all people. This time around, Earle-Sears doesn’t (at least not so far) have nearly the money that Youngkin had; plus she’s got much more of a political track record (as a right winger all the way) than Youngkin had; but yes, the media still sucks, as badly or even worse than in 2021, so far mostly normalizing and “sanewashing” the far-right-Republican 2025 ticket.
- The Spanberger campaign, of course, would like to keep the focus of this election on the economy, inflation, jobs, healthcare, DOGE cuts, federal workers, tariffs, etc. – the things voters care about and which make a big difference to Virginia’s future. And at the moment, it looks like the Spanberger folks will have a LOT more resources to communicate with voters on those things in the fall than Earle-Sears will.
- But…and it’s a big BUT, Earle-Sears has the *enormous* advantage of Republicans having built, over the past few decades, a *massive* right-wing media/messaging machine, while Democrats almost completely dropped the ball on that front (despite being warned repeatedly not to do so). Which means, of course, that Republicans have the ability to turn just about ANYTHING into a huge “issue” – for instance, “CRT” in 2021, despite the fact that it wasn’t even taught in Virginia public K-12 schools, nor did the vast majority of voters even know about it – while Democrats have minimal capacity to do the same to Republicans. Or, in this case, Republicans/right wingers can take a sign by a random activist, not even sure who the person is (but there’s no indication she’s any sort of Democratic Party or Spanberger campaign official, politician, etc.) and turn it into the messaging, “SEE, THIS IS WHAT ALL DEMOCRATS THINK! THEY ARE ALL HORRIBLE!” And in this environment, no matter how many times or how strongly Democrats like Spanberger denounce the offensive sign or whatever, it kinda doesn’t matter, because the right-wing echo chamber will amplify it regardless, claim (dishonestly, but that doesn’t matter to them) that it represents Spanberger and Democrats in general, etc. Yes, that’s the absurd world we live in…and that Democrats SHOULD HAVE adapted to many years ago, but that most Democrats *still to this day* don’t understand. Maddening.
- One more point along these same lines: yes, some random activist had an offensive sign, and Democrats have been condemning it – as they should. Meanwhile, though, Donald Trump – a virulent racist, misogynist, homophobe, xenophobe, etc., who has said a GAZILLION offensive, vicious, horrible things over the years – is president of the United States and leader of the Republican Party. And yet almost nothing seems to “stick” to him. As for the 2025 VA GOP ticket, they’re tied to Trump, plus if you look at their past rhetoric and actions, there are tons of outrageous, extreme, bigoted, etc. things…and yet does anybody care about any of that? Would any of that stuff, if tweeted, get even a small fraction of the “eyeballs”/”clicks” as this story of a random, unnamed activist holding up a moronic, offensive, etc. sign at a rally? Of course not. And that’s just a massive failure on the part of Democrats, plus the media of course, which SHOULD – but doesn’t – differentiate for its readers what’s from an official source, a candidate, etc, and what’s from somebody you never heard about. Ugh.
So…your thoughts on all of this?
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