Category: Race and Race Relations
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What Role Will “Equity” Play in UVa’s Pay Raises This Year?
by James A. Bacon The College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Virginia will be using “equity” as a criterion in allocating pay raises in the coming year, according to a memo distributed by Interim Dean David L. Hill. Hill has divided the 5% pool of funds available for pay raises into three…
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Shocker: After Years of Identity Politics, Hate Speech Is on the Rise in Loudoun Schools
by James A. Bacon Racial slurs and hate speech are on the rise in Loudoun County Public Schools, according to data released by the school system. Forty incidents were reported in March alone, although the monthly numbers have declined modestly since then. “They have clearly spiked, particularly since February, and continue to be high,” Deputy…
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Where “Equity” Means Failing Equally
by James A. Bacon State Senator Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, doesn’t just take issue with the Youngkin administration’s interpretation of the data regarding the deteriorating quality of education in Virginia public schools, she finds Governor Glenn Youngkin’s position to be morally reprehensible. Here’s what she said in response to the release of his report, “Our Commitment…
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Who Will Replace Us?
by Jim McCarthy Who is the “who” doing the replacing? Who is the “us” to be replaced? There is no discernable record that indigenous Americans asked themselves this question. In the early 1600s, the Powhattan people of Virginia observed as the English immigrants built a fort and spread their settlement across formerly Powhattan hunting grounds.…
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Richmond Public Schools, VSU, VUU Teacher Residency Initiative is Promising
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Public Schools RVA Men Teach program has partnered with Virginia State and Virginia Union Universities to create a HBCU (Historically Black College/University) Teacher Residency program for male minority teachers. As a long time observer and sometime critic of RPS, I congratulate it and the two universities for this initiative.…
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Once Upon a Time, Schools Didn’t Need Fancy Buildings, Big Bureaucracies and Trauma Counselors to Teach
by James A. Bacon When Gail Smith talks about growing up in 1950s-era Goochland County, she calls her time attending the Second Union Rosenwald School as “the best years of my life.” The two-room schoolhouse was lacking in what we refer to today as “amenities.” But it was supported by the local African-American community, and…
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VCU Circular Firing Squad: Nazis, Terrorists and Racists
by James A. Bacon There’s a whole lot of crazy going on at Virginia Commonwealth University right now, and, not surprisingly, former Governor L. Douglas Wilder is in the center of it. Between the accusations of racism and alleged threats to physical safety, the controversy is a window into the demented rhetoric inside higher education…
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A Lot of Unanswered Questions
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Painting racial slurs on the face of an unconscious Black teenage boy is wrong. That being said, a recent incident in the Richmond area leads to a lot of questions, including concerning the quality of reporting done by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to an RTD on-line story Friday by reporter Mark Bowes,…
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U.S. Supremes: No Pause on TJ Revised Admissions Policy
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to pause Thomas Jefferson High School’s race-based admissions policy that, in the words of activist mom and journalist Asra Nomani, is “destroying the school’s culture and excellence.” The ruling means that the policy, which replaces admissions based on tests, will remain in effect at least one more year while litigation…
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More TJ Students Students Are Dropping Out
by Asra Nomani For months now, parents and community members have been hearing distressing stories about how educrats failed students in their rush to fill the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Class of 2025 through lower academic admissions standards hastily implemented in December 2020. The school started a new remedial Algebra 1…
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An Environment So Hostile, No Reasonable Person Could Endure It
by James A. Bacon On June 11, 2021, after a series of orientation meetings and training sessions to discuss “anti-racism” at the Agnor-Hurt Elementary School, Albemarle County officials held a final training session. A presenter showed slides showing a disparity in the racial breakdown of the school division’s employees and new hires. Responding to the…
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If You’re Not on the “Anti-Racist” School Bus, Maybe It’s Time You Got Off the Bus
by James A. Bacon During anti-racism training last June, Emily Mais, an assistant principal at Agnor-Hurt Elementary School in Albemarle County, used the term “colored people” instead of “people of color” when referring to staff demographics. She made a “slip of the tongue,” she says, but she apologized anyway. Not everyone was prepared to forgive.…
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Comparing Freeman and Lincoln on Race
by Phil Leigh Based upon a background report on Douglas Southall Freeman (1886-1953) by Dr. Lauranett L. Lee, the University of Richmond removed his name from Mitchell-Freeman Hall owing to his alleged racism. All the good that he had done for the school’s funding and academic reputation as a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Board of…
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Racial Bean Counting for Dominion’s Offshore Wind Project?
by James A. Bacon Dominion Energy expects to create 900 construction jobs and support 1,100 employees in ongoing operations for its proposed $9.8 billion offshore wind farm. Hundreds more jobs could be created if, as hoped, companies in the wind power industry begin manufacturing components and providing ancillary services in Hampton Roads. As part of…
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@GridNews Targets Greedy Asian Parents ‘Bankrolling’ ‘Math Camps’
by Asra Q. Nomani In June 2021, a reporter for Politico, Maggie Severns, reached out to interview me about the activism in northern Virginia around the governor’s race. Connecting with her over our common roots in West Virginia, I invited her to an event at an Indian restaurant hosted that night by the Coalition for…