Bacon Bits: Special Ethnic/Racial/Sexual Exploitation Issue

VCU construction workers allege exploitation.

From VPM News: Speaking anonymously, undocumented workers at Virginia Commonwealth University construction sites say they are being exploited by unidentified middle men who misclassify them as contractors instead of employees, deprive them of benefits, and don’t pay them for overtime. VCU said it does not hire undocumented workers (illegal aliens) and cannot account for the practices of the sub-contractors that its general contractors hire. The article leaves a lot of questions unanswered, primarily, which construction companies are engaging in these allegedly illegal practices? Who are the “middle men” the article refers to? Name names. Do Richmond’s larger, more reputable firms engage subs who hire and cheat undocumented workers? Alternatively, are the offending firms owned by Hispanics? If so, does the prevalence of this practice reflect VCU requirements for giving work to minority contractors? At the very least, VPM ought to be asking these questions.

A COVID bonus. There’s a silver lining to every dark cloud. In the case of the COVID 19 epidemic, the unheralded benefit is universities’ crackdown on big parties. Restrictions on the number of people who can gather in one place puts a huge crimp in fraternity life at James Madison University, which is rated No. 33 for top party schools in America, reports the Daily News-Record. Let’s speculate about the downstream consequences… Tighter COVID-19 restrictions means fewer drunken parties… which means less drunken party sex… which means less “regret” sex. One can predict that fewer cases of regret sex will translate into fewer accusations of rape and sexual assault. We are witnessing a fascinating social scientific experiment. I hope someone is tracking the numbers.

Meanwhile, in the racial healing department…. The Virginia Department of Education offers its monthly #EdEquityVa webinar series to provide educators with “professional learning opportunities” to advance “education equity.” This month’s offerings for Racial Equity & Anti-Racism include:


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54 responses to “Bacon Bits: Special Ethnic/Racial/Sexual Exploitation Issue”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar

    Maybe add this:

    Loudoun Schools Issue Apology To Black Residents For Segregation
    The letter apologized for the lasting impact the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and residents in the county.​​

    Loudoun County Public Schools issued a formal apology to the county’s Black community for its operation of segregated schools and the lasting impact that the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and Black residents in the county.

    Loudoun County was one of the last school systems in the nation to desegregate its schools. In early 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional and that public schools should integrate “with all deliberate speed.”

    A few months later, on Aug. 6, 1956, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to stop funding public schools if the federal government forced integration. By the late 1960s, a U.S. federal court ordered white Loudoun County leaders to fully integrate all schools by the 1968-1969 school year.”

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead V

      There is a back story to this Mr. Larry. One of the leading reasons why Loudoun took so long? Segregated Douglass High School in Leesburg, was built in 1941. The black community petitioned the school board to update the old wood building by Zion Cemetery and build a modern school. The school board agreed but black parents had to pay for it. And they did. That school is a grassroots effort. Highly successful in academics and athletics. Most of the staff were trained teachers from historically black colleges. Charles Hamilton Houston of Howard College played a role in getting this done. Trainer of civil rights lawyers such as Thurgood Marshall. So when integration time came. The black community did not want to leave Douglass. To integrate with Loudoun County High School would mean the end of all the success at Douglass. It would mean sitting on the bench for the LCHS football team. It would mean not getting recognized for academic at LCHS. So they fought it. I heard this from Mary Randolph 1963 graduate of DHS. I brought her into Briar Woods to speak for black history month assembly. Today Douglass is national historic landmark and the location of the alternative high school which is a joke.
      https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/1349/Old%20Douglass%20school.jpg

      1. LarrytheG Avatar

        James – what about the elementary schools?

        I’m gonna take a trust but verify approach to the back story. I don’t think Loudoun is apologizing for integrating Douglass High. I’d have to see more to be convinced.

        1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
          James Wyatt Whitehead V

          Give Mrs. Randolph a call Mr. Larry. Brick house right across the street from the Balch Library in Leesburg. Super sweet lady. I bet if your real nice she will show you her Douglass High School yearbook. Students adored Mrs. Randolph. The Manassas Industrial Trade School on Godwin Drive Prince William County has a very similar story of reluctance to integrate for reasons you might not expect.

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Mr. Larry they were there. For crying in a bucket. Not trying to paint up the good old days. But it is important to recognize that Douglass High School was an important source of black community pride. Next to Mt. Olivet and Zion Churches, Douglass was the backbone of black Leesburg. They built it with their own hands and money. It was a legitimate school that operated on a shoe string budget. I was always impressed with many of the alumni who went on to lead useful and productive lives and they always remembered how it all started down on Market Street at Douglass High. You seem to have a hard time accepting this. I don’t get it. Yeah I know it doesn’t make sense. How can things in conflict still coexist and produce some surprisingly good outcomes with Jim Crow staring at you everyday? The story of the south right there.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar

            James – I need an objective source not folks who agree with other folks and they all have a subjective view.

            I very much doubt seriously that black folks in Loudoun were satisfied with the elelmentary school options their kids had back then.

            We had a black high school in our county also and yes, they built it but the county was supposed to fund it’s operation and guess what they did compared to how they funded the white high schools?

            I think trying to paint the good old days of segregation as “good” by getting opinions from “good natured” folks is not exactly going to be the truth from on high or if it is, I’d sure like to confirm that with the folks on the receiving end of those policies.

        2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
          James Wyatt Whitehead V

          Talk to Larry and Pat Simms Mr. Larry. First black students to integrate Loudoun County High School. I have heard this same exact story from both of them. They loved Douglass, they had been waiting 8 years to attend Douglass. Instead they were among just a handful of black students to integrate LCHS. That was not how they had imagined high school would turn out. Retired history teachers now in Loudoun.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            James – how about a book or some accounts of that history that modern day black folks say is the truth?

          2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Uncle. Your right. I’m joining the American Party. I know nothing.

        3. LarrytheG Avatar

          James, if black folks were paying out of their own pocket for Douglass High .. AND they were also paying taxes that funded the white schools, I cannot imagine them being okay with that.

          And I still don’t know how they got their K-12 kids educated.

          And how can you staff a black school in that time period when virtually no blacks got to college to become educators?

          Like I said, we had a black high school also and it was very much a source of pride but many of the teachers were not college-trained nor had much education themselves. It was a labor of love for the black community and they were said when the school systems integrated and the county took over their high school. When that happened it still had hard times because the county chose to not fund it equally compared to other schools in the county.

          Blacks today look back at that with pride but they also clearly say it was a time of racism and bad treatment by whites and the county…

          It’s not that I don’t accept. It’s that the entire truth needs to be out there – about the good and bad of it. Pride of what they did is one part of it but if it was anything at all like the black school I’m familiar with – “shoestring” meant an inferior education – a lack of resources – denied by a white BOS. I would not look back at that as something “good” myself. It was instead, black folks doing the best they could under the circumstances while racism was still rampant.

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Integration wiped out black owned businesses in Leesburg. Along Royal Street and Loudoun Street there were black owned barber shops, grocery stores, 5 and dimes, cleaners, auto repair shops, saddle and tack shop, and restaurants. My favorite “The Dew Drop Inn”. Lunch counter that was famous for the only nickel juke box in Loudoun County. By the mid 1970s every one of those businesses was gone.

            I enjoy this kind of local history and knowing the people that lived it. So rich and full of tried and true lessons on life.

            Every word you said is true Mr. Larry. Loudoun County school board and board of supervisors were not very helpful at all beyond leasing the land for Douglass for a dollar a year. It was Harry Byrd’s Virginia.

            Sometimes I think the “can do” spirit of those days despite the odds would make a world of difference today.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar

            James, how did integration wipe out black businesses?

          3. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Why would you go to the black owned 5 and dime when you go finally go to the Kmart for the first time with endless selections at lower prices? Black owned grocers couldn’t compete against the A and P which finally let in black customers. Why go back to The Dew Drop Inn when you can finally be served and seated at Johnson’s House of Beef? It’s a very interesting story the collateral damage done by integration in the name of progress.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar

            these are the same black busiesses that support Douglass High and the black parents just abandoned them after all those years of hanging together?

            geeze… hard to believe, eh?

    2. I don’t give a lot of weight to people apologizing for the actions of others (in this case their institutional predecessors), but I can’t get too worked up about it either. Apologies, like the names of streets and schools, are symbolic. They don’t hurt anyone. They’re not like policies that have destructive real-world consequences.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar

        there’s more:

        ” LCPS said in the letter. “Although we recognize that we have yet to fully correct or eradicate matters of racial inequality, we hope that issuing this apology with genuine remorse is a valuable step followed by additional actions, including demonstrable policy changes as outlined in both the Comprehensive Equity Plan and the Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism.”

        LCPS said it is committed to additional actions that sustain and accelerate its efforts to improve equity and eliminate racism from its schools. The Loudoun school system is the third largest school division in the state.”

        1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          “Although we recognize that we have yet to fully correct or eradicate matters of racial inequality.” They are still doing it? Why? Wouldn’t it be better to treat black students and staff in LCPS is a racially neutral manner today and tomorrow and the next day than not? I think the superintendent needs to be fired yesterday. Why is this person permitting ongoing unfair treatment of blacks?

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            What they are talking about are matters that are NOT discriminatory right now today but vestiges that are structural and not due to school policies but school policies are connected to what happens in society – like school names or not having the same offerings of classes at every school.

            You are confusing active overt discrimination versus things the school is not doing today that they did in the past or long-standard practices that in and of themselves do not discriminate but do not provide equivalent equity.

            Take advanced math/reading courses that are stepping stones, prereqs to college prep classes later on, but the kid attends a school where only one or two would qualify. Other schools have more kids and the schools can justify a full-time teacher.

            As time goes by and the kid gets to high school where college-prep courses are available but he lacks the stepping stone courses he could not get in earlier grades.

            That’s not overt discrimination but it is an equity issue.

        2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          So why did Loudoun County continue its racially discriminatory policies and operations through today? That’s what they are saying. And shouldn’t the people who are responsible for continuing the bad policies and operations be fired?

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            I think Loudoun county schools are apologizing for past practices and practices the County engaged in.

            What exactly are they actually doing right now today that they should be penalized for? Aren’t they talking about perceived inequity that is structural beyond the doors of the school that they used to participate in?

            By the way, we don’t fire people because the institutions they work for have done wrong in the past or even the present unless they are individuals who directed others to break the law.

            I think it’s pretty safe to say that Loudoun does not discriminate today.

          2. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that Loudoun does not discriminate today.”

            The material you posted says otherwise. If they do not discriminate today, why would they need a “Comprehensive Equity Plan” or an “Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism”?

            We’re not the ones saying they have engaged in discrimination up to now, they are.

  2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead V

    VDOE Mission Statement: The mission of the Virginia Department of Education is to advance equitable and innovative learning.

    One out of two ain’t bad.

    Looks like Generation Z has come to close. With no birds and bees and guess the limited number in the next generation should be named Generation Zero.

  3. LarrytheG Avatar

    re: ” The letter apologized for the lasting impact the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and residents in the county.​​

    Loudoun County Public Schools issued a formal apology to the county’s Black community for its operation of segregated schools and the lasting impact that the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and Black residents in the county.”

    what part of this is not understandable as speaking of PAST practices?

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead V

      Michelle Thomas of the Loudoun NAACP is not satisfied with an apology. She is pressing Herring to speed up his investigation of LCPS. I bet he will too. Broad Run High School alumnus.

  4. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    Quick and dirty subcontractor exploiting undocumented workers? NAH, er, I mean, “no”.

    1. djrippert Avatar

      You’re getting better. That was your best yet.

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        If you keep saying, “that’s your best yet,” I will eventually achieve greatness and you’re going to eventually gain understanding.

  5. LarrytheG Avatar

    Maybe add this:

    Loudoun Schools Issue Apology To Black Residents For Segregation
    The letter apologized for the lasting impact the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and residents in the county.​​

    Loudoun County Public Schools issued a formal apology to the county’s Black community for its operation of segregated schools and the lasting impact that the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and Black residents in the county.

    Loudoun County was one of the last school systems in the nation to desegregate its schools. In early 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court declared in its landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional and that public schools should integrate “with all deliberate speed.”

    A few months later, on Aug. 6, 1956, the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution to stop funding public schools if the federal government forced integration. By the late 1960s, a U.S. federal court ordered white Loudoun County leaders to fully integrate all schools by the 1968-1969 school year.”

    1. I don’t give a lot of weight to people apologizing for the actions of others (in this case their institutional predecessors), but I can’t get too worked up about it either. Apologies, like the names of streets and schools, are symbolic. They don’t hurt anyone. They’re not like policies that have destructive real-world consequences.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar

        there’s more:

        ” LCPS said in the letter. “Although we recognize that we have yet to fully correct or eradicate matters of racial inequality, we hope that issuing this apology with genuine remorse is a valuable step followed by additional actions, including demonstrable policy changes as outlined in both the Comprehensive Equity Plan and the Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism.”

        LCPS said it is committed to additional actions that sustain and accelerate its efforts to improve equity and eliminate racism from its schools. The Loudoun school system is the third largest school division in the state.”

        1. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          So why did Loudoun County continue its racially discriminatory policies and operations through today? That’s what they are saying. And shouldn’t the people who are responsible for continuing the bad policies and operations be fired?

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            I think Loudoun county schools are apologizing for past practices and practices the County engaged in.

            What exactly are they actually doing right now today that they should be penalized for? Aren’t they talking about perceived inequity that is structural beyond the doors of the school that they used to participate in?

            By the way, we don’t fire people because the institutions they work for have done wrong in the past or even the present unless they are individuals who directed others to break the law.

            I think it’s pretty safe to say that Loudoun does not discriminate today.

          2. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that Loudoun does not discriminate today.”

            The material you posted says otherwise. If they do not discriminate today, why would they need a “Comprehensive Equity Plan” or an “Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism”?

            We’re not the ones saying they have engaged in discrimination up to now, they are.

        2. TooManyTaxes Avatar
          TooManyTaxes

          “Although we recognize that we have yet to fully correct or eradicate matters of racial inequality.” They are still doing it? Why? Wouldn’t it be better to treat black students and staff in LCPS is a racially neutral manner today and tomorrow and the next day than not? I think the superintendent needs to be fired yesterday. Why is this person permitting ongoing unfair treatment of blacks?

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            What they are talking about are matters that are NOT discriminatory right now today but vestiges that are structural and not due to school policies but school policies are connected to what happens in society – like school names or not having the same offerings of classes at every school.

            You are confusing active overt discrimination versus things the school is not doing today that they did in the past or long-standard practices that in and of themselves do not discriminate but do not provide equivalent equity.

            Take advanced math/reading courses that are stepping stones, prereqs to college prep classes later on, but the kid attends a school where only one or two would qualify. Other schools have more kids and the schools can justify a full-time teacher.

            As time goes by and the kid gets to high school where college-prep courses are available but he lacks the stepping stone courses he could not get in earlier grades.

            That’s not overt discrimination but it is an equity issue.

    2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead V

      There is a back story to this Mr. Larry. One of the leading reasons why Loudoun took so long? Segregated Douglass High School in Leesburg, was built in 1941. The black community petitioned the school board to update the old wood building by Zion Cemetery and build a modern school. The school board agreed but black parents had to pay for it. And they did. That school is a grassroots effort. Highly successful in academics and athletics. Most of the staff were trained teachers from historically black colleges. Charles Hamilton Houston of Howard College played a role in getting this done. Trainer of civil rights lawyers such as Thurgood Marshall. So when integration time came. The black community did not want to leave Douglass. To integrate with Loudoun County High School would mean the end of all the success at Douglass. It would mean sitting on the bench for the LCHS football team. It would mean not getting recognized for academic at LCHS. So they fought it. I heard this from Mary Randolph 1963 graduate of DHS. I brought her into Briar Woods to speak for black history month assembly. Today Douglass is national historic landmark and the location of the alternative high school which is a joke.
      https://www.lcps.org/cms/lib/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/1349/Old%20Douglass%20school.jpg

      1. LarrytheG Avatar

        James – what about the elementary schools?

        I’m gonna take a trust but verify approach to the back story. I don’t think Loudoun is apologizing for integrating Douglass High. I’d have to see more to be convinced.

        1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
          James Wyatt Whitehead V

          Give Mrs. Randolph a call Mr. Larry. Brick house right across the street from the Balch Library in Leesburg. Super sweet lady. I bet if your real nice she will show you her Douglass High School yearbook. Students adored Mrs. Randolph. The Manassas Industrial Trade School on Godwin Drive Prince William County has a very similar story of reluctance to integrate for reasons you might not expect.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            James – I need an objective source not folks who agree with other folks and they all have a subjective view.

            I very much doubt seriously that black folks in Loudoun were satisfied with the elelmentary school options their kids had back then.

            We had a black high school in our county also and yes, they built it but the county was supposed to fund it’s operation and guess what they did compared to how they funded the white high schools?

            I think trying to paint the good old days of segregation as “good” by getting opinions from “good natured” folks is not exactly going to be the truth from on high or if it is, I’d sure like to confirm that with the folks on the receiving end of those policies.

          2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Mr. Larry they were there. For crying in a bucket. Not trying to paint up the good old days. But it is important to recognize that Douglass High School was an important source of black community pride. Next to Mt. Olivet and Zion Churches, Douglass was the backbone of black Leesburg. They built it with their own hands and money. It was a legitimate school that operated on a shoe string budget. I was always impressed with many of the alumni who went on to lead useful and productive lives and they always remembered how it all started down on Market Street at Douglass High. You seem to have a hard time accepting this. I don’t get it. Yeah I know it doesn’t make sense. How can things in conflict still coexist and produce some surprisingly good outcomes with Jim Crow staring at you everyday? The story of the south right there.

        2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
          James Wyatt Whitehead V

          Talk to Larry and Pat Simms Mr. Larry. First black students to integrate Loudoun County High School. I have heard this same exact story from both of them. They loved Douglass, they had been waiting 8 years to attend Douglass. Instead they were among just a handful of black students to integrate LCHS. That was not how they had imagined high school would turn out. Retired history teachers now in Loudoun.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar

            James – how about a book or some accounts of that history that modern day black folks say is the truth?

          2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Uncle. Your right. I’m joining the American Party. I know nothing.

        3. LarrytheG Avatar

          James, if black folks were paying out of their own pocket for Douglass High .. AND they were also paying taxes that funded the white schools, I cannot imagine them being okay with that.

          And I still don’t know how they got their K-12 kids educated.

          And how can you staff a black school in that time period when virtually no blacks got to college to become educators?

          Like I said, we had a black high school also and it was very much a source of pride but many of the teachers were not college-trained nor had much education themselves. It was a labor of love for the black community and they were said when the school systems integrated and the county took over their high school. When that happened it still had hard times because the county chose to not fund it equally compared to other schools in the county.

          Blacks today look back at that with pride but they also clearly say it was a time of racism and bad treatment by whites and the county…

          It’s not that I don’t accept. It’s that the entire truth needs to be out there – about the good and bad of it. Pride of what they did is one part of it but if it was anything at all like the black school I’m familiar with – “shoestring” meant an inferior education – a lack of resources – denied by a white BOS. I would not look back at that as something “good” myself. It was instead, black folks doing the best they could under the circumstances while racism was still rampant.

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Integration wiped out black owned businesses in Leesburg. Along Royal Street and Loudoun Street there were black owned barber shops, grocery stores, 5 and dimes, cleaners, auto repair shops, saddle and tack shop, and restaurants. My favorite “The Dew Drop Inn”. Lunch counter that was famous for the only nickel juke box in Loudoun County. By the mid 1970s every one of those businesses was gone.

            I enjoy this kind of local history and knowing the people that lived it. So rich and full of tried and true lessons on life.

            Every word you said is true Mr. Larry. Loudoun County school board and board of supervisors were not very helpful at all beyond leasing the land for Douglass for a dollar a year. It was Harry Byrd’s Virginia.

            Sometimes I think the “can do” spirit of those days despite the odds would make a world of difference today.

          2. LarrytheG Avatar

            James, how did integration wipe out black businesses?

          3. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Why would you go to the black owned 5 and dime when you go finally go to the Kmart for the first time with endless selections at lower prices? Black owned grocers couldn’t compete against the A and P which finally let in black customers. Why go back to The Dew Drop Inn when you can finally be served and seated at Johnson’s House of Beef? It’s a very interesting story the collateral damage done by integration in the name of progress.

          4. LarrytheG Avatar

            these are the same black busiesses that support Douglass High and the black parents just abandoned them after all those years of hanging together?

            geeze… hard to believe, eh?

  6. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead V

    VDOE Mission Statement: The mission of the Virginia Department of Education is to advance equitable and innovative learning.

    One out of two ain’t bad.

    Looks like Generation Z has come to close. With no birds and bees and guess the limited number in the next generation should be named Generation Zero.

  7. LarrytheG Avatar

    re: ” The letter apologized for the lasting impact the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and residents in the county.​​

    Loudoun County Public Schools issued a formal apology to the county’s Black community for its operation of segregated schools and the lasting impact that the racist actions of county leaders had on Black students and Black residents in the county.”

    what part of this is not understandable as speaking of PAST practices?

    1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
      James Wyatt Whitehead V

      Michelle Thomas of the Loudoun NAACP is not satisfied with an apology. She is pressing Herring to speed up his investigation of LCPS. I bet he will too. Broad Run High School alumnus.

  8. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    Quick and dirty subcontractor exploiting undocumented workers? NAH, er, I mean, “no”.

    1. djrippert Avatar

      You’re getting better. That was your best yet.

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        If you keep saying, “that’s your best yet,” I will eventually achieve greatness and you’re going to eventually gain understanding.

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