Opinion

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Paul Friedman

It was said by some that Barack Obama’s election and presidency was a reflection that America had become a post-racial society.

For many people, that was a positive, hopeful – albeit optimistic — statement. For others, it was a reason to discredit diversity and inclusion efforts and declare that institutional racism no longer existed; that discrimination against people of color could not exist in a land that had elected an African American president.

For still others — including President Donald Trump – President Obama’s election was illegitimate. It was the culmination of societal change favoring people of color and foreigners at the expense of white Americans who had made this country great. President Obama was to be opposed and delegitimized. The attack on white America was to be exposed. America was to be made great again.

These forces led to the election of Donald Trump. In August 2017, they led to the invasion of Charlottesville and the University of Virginia by white supremacists, neo-Nazis and the KKK. They led, in turn, to a President signaling support for those invaders.

What a far cry from March 1965, when America recoiled from the racism of state police nearly killing marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala. The brutal display – almost exactly 100 years after the end of the Civil War – led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The post-racial society illusion would underlie a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision stripping the Voting Rights Act of Section 4, one of its most important provisions that required certain states to get advance federal approval before making any changes impacting voting.

Led by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court claimed that states with a long history of slavery, segregation, racism and voter suppression had evolved and were no longer in need of close federal supervision. Contrary to the Chief Justice’s unjustified and convoluted logic that Section 4 was no longer necessary, the result of the decision has been a concerted push to eliminate from the voting rolls African Americans and other people of color.

Those who felt the need to oppose and delegitimize President Obama provided the political catalyst for Donald Trump, who boldly launched his campaign against President Obama in March 2011 on “The View” by asking: “Why doesn’t [Obama] show his birth certificate? There’s something on that birth certificate he doesn’t like.”

On Fox News five days later, he said, “I’m starting to wonder myself whether or not he was born in this country.” Two days later, he went on Laura Ingraham’s radio program and declared: “He doesn’t have a birth certificate, or if he does, there’s something on that certificate that is very bad for him. Now, somebody told me … that where it says ‘religion,’ it might have ‘Muslim.’ And if you’re a Muslim, you don’t change your religion, by the way.”

Off to the races, Trump has not looked back. He initially declined to disavow the support of David Duke. He used Twitter to send coded messages, sometimes via his family members, about his support for racists and anti-Semites – amazingly despite his daughter becoming Jewish, marrying a Jew and raising Jewish children.

Then, in the wake of the hatred and anti-Semitism on display in Charlottesville, America saw its elected national leader take his strategy, and the expression of his personal views, to a whole new and previously unthinkable level. President Trump actually said that there were “many fine people” among the neo-Nazis and KKK’ers despite videos of them chanting racist and anti-Semitic epithets as they marched with torches. He has not backed away from his statement.

And he wants to ensure that we keep monuments in place to uphold our “heritage.”

Think back to the Edmund Pettus Bridge in March 1965. Pettus served as a Confederate general during the Civil War. After the war he was a Grand Dragon of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan and a Democratic U.S. Senator. The bridge was named for him in 1940 to send a message of support for his involvement in the KKK. It was one of many such acts by those seeking a return to a world in which white people were viewed as superior to African Americans in the law and in daily interactions.

Is this the heritage President Trump wants to preserve?

We have an opportunity in Virginia in 2017 to send a strong signal to President Trump that his vision does not reflect our values. I hope voters will send that signal on November 7.

Paul Friedman is an attorney and a long-time resident of Northern Virginia. He has been active in nonprofit organizations, civic organizations, and as a business consultant. He is currently the Executive Director of a national advocacy organization.

Progressive Voice is a weekly opinion column. The views and opinions expressed in the column are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of their organizations or ARLnow.com.

By Graham Weinschenk

At the end of the 2016-2017 school year, I stood in front of the Arlington School Board along with fellow members of the Student Advisory Board leadership team and declared that we had just experienced “The Year of the Student” in the Arlington Public Schools.

Multiple times throughout the school year, large numbers of students had expressed themselves in front of the School Board and attempted to influence policy; something unseen before this year.

Most notably, on February 16 over 100 students, parents and staff from Yorktown High School walked into the Arlington Education Center and took their places facing the School Board. Nearly 40 of those students spoke out, providing over an hour and a half of testimony. They spoke out because after dozens of incidents of racism, homophobia, xenophobia and hate, the response from the Yorktown High School administration appeared to be non-existent. There was either no punishment or little punishment for those who made inappropriate and callous remarks. Targeted students had no tangible support from their school administration.

So, the students took their concerns to the School Board. Thirty-nine speakers later, the members of the School Board gave their responses. The Superintendent of the Arlington Public Schools, Dr. Patrick Murphy (whose contract was recently renewed a year early), said, “I am stepping up. This is not acceptable.” Yet, what has come to fruition from the outrage expressed by parents, teachers and, most importantly, students?

Speaking as the former Vice Chair of the APS Student Advisory Board, my conclusion is that seven months later we have yet to see a single proposed policy change. The School Board and the Superintendent heard, but they did not listen.

Today, we continue to hear a lot of talk, but there remains no tangible commitment by the Arlington Public Schools to make changes on this issue. The frustration that still exists among students, especially on this topic, leads me to call for a student representative to the Arlington School Board.

Student representatives are nothing new, and it would be fairly easy to introduce one to the Board. The Virginia Code (§22.1-86.1) has allowed for the appointment of student representatives to local school boards since 1999. The Alexandria School Board has had two appointed student representatives since 2013 while the Fairfax School Board has had a student representative since 1986.

Under state law, student representatives are eligible to sit with school boards during public and closed meetings, introduce resolutions for consideration, and be able to say how they would have voted. However, there are still some restrictions. Student representatives are not allowed to vote on matters before the board, and they are not allowed access to confidential information, including information related to a specific student, teacher, or employee.

Last school year was a hallmark year for student involvement in the Arlington Public Schools. Like never before, students were able to translate their anger and disappointment on numerous issues into direct action – at times flooding the board room to make their voices heard on multiple occasions and for numerous issues.

The frustration that many students feel goes beyond not feeling included; it stems from a feeling that not only is the student voice not wanted, but that it is also not an important factor for consideration in the decision-making process. The relationship between the Arlington School Board and the Student Advisory Board is similar to the relationship between a teacher and a student and as long as that attitude of keeping students at arms-length exists, the voices of students will never truly be heard.

Now more than ever, students need a sign from APS that they matter, and a student representative on the School Board would show that the student voice is important. Student apathy toward the Arlington Public Schools is dead. It is time to include us in the decision-making process.

Graham Weinschenk is a former Yorktown High School student who graduated in 2017. He served as the Vice Chair of the Arlington Public Schools Student Advisory Board for the 2016-2017 school year. Outside of APS, he serves as the Secretary of the Virginia Young Democrats and will be attending the College of William & Mary in the fall.