Allegedly “moderate” Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin went full Stasi right out of the gate when he opened up a tip line for rabid wingnuts to report teachers for teaching “divisive concepts.”
When the state announced in 2020 that it would launch a new high school-level African American history course, Dianne Carter de Mayo quickly volunteered to teach it.
The Gloucester County history teacher, who as a Virginia school child was taught from a textbook that framed slaves as content under oppression, said she is excited to take her students on a deep dive into the history of Black people in the U.S.
When the class launches in the coming weeks, de Mayo’s excitement will be tempered by the ongoing pushback from conservatives about how teachers should frame lessons on discrimination and racism, including a new tip line Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched for parents to report lessons on “divisive concepts.”
News of the tip line, which Youngkin casually publicized during a radio interview, prompted swift fury from Democrats. On social media, critics of the tip line proposed to flood it with spam. In the legislature, Democrats assailed Youngkin-backed legislation that would codify a ban on “divisive concepts.”
“I understand you found a winning issue in ‘critical race theory,’ once again, using the old Southern strategy to use race as a wedge issue, to use Black bodies as a prop in your campaigns,” Del. Don Scott Jr., D-Portsmouth, said Wednesday during a speech on the House floor. Later on Wednesday, Youngkin met with Scott in the delegate’s office.
Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for the governor, said the email address was set up “as a resource for parents, teachers, and students to relay any questions or concerns.” Porter described the email address as “customary constituent service.”
De Mayo said that among the educators she knows, reaction to the news was mostly fear: “Someone’s career and livelihood could be endangered,” she said. “It’s scaring people to death.”
The Black educator said she recently got a call from an elementary school teacher who was second-guessing her work amid news of the tip line.
“She had been assigned the bulletin board of the month, which in February would usually be themed for Black History Month,” de Mayo said. “She was saying, ‘What if I get reported to the governor for what I put up?’ It’s horrifying.”
De Mayo, a local Democratic activist, said her curriculum is focused on primary sources and that the students in her overwhelmingly white district often walk away inspired by her history lessons on topics like “freedom of speech, even when you disagree.”
Still, some lessons are tough. “I’m going to teach about Nazis, slavery. These ideas are hard. And not because of who you are,” she said.
I don’t think we want our white children burdened with anything that will make them feel uncomfortable, do you? Their parents are very sensitive about white history and don’t want their little snowflakes to feel bad about anything, ever. They are being groomed to fight the coming civil war for Real America and we don’t want them to be confused by history.