The Virginia NAACP has sued a school board in Shenandoah Country after the district restored Confederate military names for two buildings - reversing what became a watershed moment in virtue signaling after dozens of schools changed their names following the 2020 death of George Floyd.
According NAACP Virginia State Conference President Cozy Bailey, the move by Shenandoah County to ditch 'Mountain View High School' and 'Honey Run Elementary' - to go back to 'Stonewall Jackson High School' and 'Ashby Lee Elementary' is "embracing the cold wind of intolerance and division and insensitivity," and has "resurrected the ghosts of the Jim Crow era," The Hill reports.
Other activists are pissed too.
"This is directly linked to efforts to keep Black children out of school, to subjugate Black communities and keep them away from the benefits of education," said Tyler Whittenberg, deputy director of the Opportunity to Learn program for the Advancement Project, adding "I have no doubt that this was the intent of the board members when making this decision."
Meanwhile, James Jones, assistant professor and director of the Center for Politics and Race in America at Rutgers University, said that the move is "creating an inhospitable environment for students of color to really learn and thrive socially."
Was it an inhospitable environment for the 60 years Stonewall Jackson High School was in operation prior to the 2020 name change?
"I do believe that this is a trend; I do believe that changing these things back to honor the Confederate is a trend that we are likely to see across the country," Jones continued.
Trying to rationalize the move, The Hill suggests that attacks on DEI have emboldened these anti-revisionists.
"Good for the UNC-Chapel Hill board for recognizing common sense and pushing back against the woke mob. Now is the time to prioritize campus safety, not virtue signaling," said Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) following a vote to remove DEI from North Carolina public universities.
According to Jones, the activist, "I think we’re sort of seeing with these broader DEI attacks, they have started locally, and we have seen them spread across the country."
