DOG WHISTLES AT THE BEACH
According to a Virginia Beach School Board member, educating “South Americans is not sustainable.”
The comment was made on the member’s personal Facebook page in connection with discussion of the school budget and the number of teachers needed for English as a Second Language programs. The comment spawned a call for an apology by the Virginia Beach Democratic Committee, decrying “dog whistle statements [that] have no home in our inclusive and diverse city.” Others likewise criticized her comment, from the Virginia Beach’s Human Rights Commission to the school division’s superintendent and several of Manning’s colleagues. The post quickly circulated around social media, with many calling her rhetoric “hateful.”
The Virginia Beach School Board Chair and Vice Chair assured “we personally do not condone or support our colleague’s comments about our ESL program; our community should rest assured we will continue to teach and embrace every child who walks through our doors.” The division superintendent stated that funding for ESL teachers was not a problem.
This kerfuffle is not the individual’s first rodeo. Once, she bemoaned she’d been in Virginia her whole life and it makes her weep to see its changes, closing with saying she was going to purchase “an arsenal” over the next two months. When asked about the arsenal reference, the poster, a real estate agent, said she is put into situations where she is fearful and needs to protect herself
Open mouth, insert foot — apparently, repeatedly.
♦
ALSO IN VA BEACH . . . NAME A RAT AFTER YOUR EX
This is no longer in time for Valentine’s Day, but the Virginia Aquarium offered jilted lovers–on that day–the chance to name a rat after your ex and feed it to either a reptile or a vulture. The service cost $20. “We want to lift your jilted heart with a little untraditional, lighthearted holiday fun in the form of enrichment with our animals.” Keep it in mind for next year.
Oh my dearest, how you deserve to be eaten by a vulture!
♦
THEY ALL LOOK ALIKE
It started off friendly. Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, said the guv had texted to compliment her comments on Black History Month. Except that the speech had actually been made by Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton. The total number of Black female legislators in the Virginia Senate is–wait for it—just three.
Lucas told him about the error, the new officeholder apologized, and all seemed copacetic. No harm, no foul. Right?
Lucas publicized the faux pas on Twitter, though, after the guv and House Republicans tried to (unsuccessfully) save his environmental Cabinet pick by threatening to unseat 1,000 Democratic appointees on state regulatory and governing boards. The gambit was unprecedented.
“Study the photos and you will get this soon!” Lucas tweeted, posting pictures of herself and Locke. Lookalikes? Not hardly.
Yet Lucas dipped into a reservoir of racial mistrust that Youngkin created himself in the way he ran for office last year. He flogged the bogeyman of “critical race theory” on the campaign trail. He then signed an executive order on his first day in office banning the concept in public schools, calling it “inherently divisive.”
Gov. Ralph Northam was deluged with resignation demands for his “blackface” episode. Gov. Youngkin has followed suit with his “can’t tell them apart” moment. Hopefully, these types of bumbles are not to become gubernatorial rituals.
That would make the Commonwealth’s governors look too much alike.
♦
Categories: FREE SPEECH, Issues, legislature, Local, political discourse, political parties, politics, racial symbols, State
Join the discussion!