Category: Race and Race Relations
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Systemic Inequity on the Virginia Beach Schools Equity Council
by James C. Sherlock The Superintendent of Virginia Beach Schools has some work to do now that the Equity Policy he signed off on has been approved. The policy was developed with the assistance of the Virginia Beach Schools Equity Council. I have recommended today to the School Board and the Superintendent that they make…
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Qarni’s War on Meritocracy Gets Personal
by James A. Bacon Wading deeper into the controversy over admissions policies at the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Secretary of Education Atif Qarni is now at odds with the school’s PTA and one of its more outspoken members, Asra Nomani. According to the PTA, Qarni has falsely…
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Virginia SAT Scores Barely Budge in 2020
by James A. Bacon In the absence of Standards of Learning (SOL) exams last year, there’s no way to tell if the education policies enacted by the Northam administration are working or failing for the vast majority of Virginia school students. But Virginia schools did administer the SAT college-preparatory exams, so we can get a…
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Educational Equity in Virginia Beach Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock I publish below the Educational Equity Policy to be voted on by the Virginia Beach School Board at a 4 p.m. meeting today. My overarching comment is that the policy, as written in draft, defines equity to include both equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes. Teachers are specifically charged to…
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Vitamin D and COVID-19
by Carol J. Bova Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher likelihood of contracting the coronavirus. In combination with other Vitamin D research, the results may point the way to a quick and inexpensive way to reduce COVID-19 deaths among African-Americans and Hispanics. David Meltzer,…
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Institutionalizing the Leftist Dogma on Race
by James A. Bacon Last month Governor Ralph Northam announced the roll-out of a high school elective course on African American history. Sixteen school divisions are offering the course this fall. Last year, the governor had directed the Virginia Department of Education, Virtual Virginia, WHRO Public Media, and a committee of historians to develop the course.…
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Race Still Unknown in One of Five COVID Cases
by Carol J. Bova On July 27th, Bacon’s Rebellion asked the question, “Why is VDH Stockpiling Cases as Unknown Race”? The Northam administration had expressed concerns since March about the disparity of racial impacts from COVID-19. Yet 24% of confirmed cases at that time still had not been classified by race or ethnicity. More than…
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“A People’s History” and its Role in Progressive Rage
by James C. Sherlock A People’s History of the United States In pursuit of an understanding of the sources of so much nihilistic rage by some of America’s young people in the streets, I recently read Howard Zinn’s book, ‘A People’s History of the United States’, originally published in 1980. It has sold more than…
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Voters Oppose Contracts That Protect Bad Cops
By Steve Haner As yet another bitter conflict over a police officer’s use of deadly force divides America, this time a case in Wisconsin, Virginia’s General Assembly forges ahead with opening up the state to the police unions that usually rush to protect their members from discipline or dismissal. The Kenosha Professional Police Association was…
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Reform K-12 Education to Increase Diversity in Virginia’s Colleges — and in Life
by James C. Sherlock Much is appropriately made of the relative lack of diversity in Virginia’s state-supported colleges and universities. Some trace that exclusively to racial discrimination. My research indicates it may also reflect the educational disadvantages of being poor. Here I will offer a path to begin to fix both. I have researched and written…
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Trees, Temperatures and Racism
by James A. Bacon The New York Times has drawn a straight-line linkage between the redlining of neighborhoods in Richmond nearly a hundred years ago and the fact that African-American neighborhoods have higher average temperatures than mostly white neighborhoods. Black neighborhoods, often comprised of public housing, have fewer trees “to shield people from the sun’s…
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Virginia Educational Reform – Place, Class, Race — Or All Three?
by James C. Sherlock I am an optimist by nature. Optimism wins elections, and optimism can bring about democratic change. Governments at their most basic level are created by people to protect themselves from outsiders and to minimize conflicts within their own ranks. From a condo association to Congress, that is a core role. …
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Will “Racial Healing” at GMU Foster More Racial Division?
by James A. Bacon The progressives’ imposition of identity politics on Virginia’s public universities continues apace. Hans Bader has already called attention to a July announcement by George Mason University’s new president, Gregory Washington, of a “Task Force on Anti-Racism and Inclusive Excellence.” None of Virginia’s media outlets seem to have paid attention. Your humble…
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The Tell Tale Heart: Racism in Richmond Medicine
By Peter Galuszka On Saturday, May 25, 1968, the Medical College of Virginia, now part of Virginia Commonwealth University, made medical history. A surgeon recruited from Stanford University a couple of years before successfully transplanted the heart from one middle-aged man to another. MCV officials in Richmond officials were ecstatic. Organ transplants were a hot,…
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Woke War on America’s No. 1 High School
by Asra Q. Nomani Last month, Suparna Dutta spent countless hours researching how her son could safely return to school this fall as a rising sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a sprawling campus of classrooms, laboratories and open spaces with names like “Gandhi Commons” and “Einstein Commons,” outside the nation’s…