Following a White House meeting on Monday, attended by numerous leaders of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued a statement in which she referred to HBCUs as “real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” This comes one day before President Trump’s scheduled signing of an executive order that is intended to boost the schools.
The remark left many in shock, considering that HBCUs are a product of the post-Civil War segregated education system. Texas Southern University president Austin Lane, who attended Monday’s meeting, was “puzzled” by the comment. He said, “HBCUs were created for African-Americans because they had no choice and were unable to attend schools due to segregation laws.” The Key phrase here: no choice.
Robert Palmer, an education professor at the historically black Howard University, concurred with Lane’s remarks, referring to DeVos’ statement as “a bit crazy.”
“HBCUs were created for African-Americans because they had no choice and were unable to attend schools due to segregation laws.”
This ordeal marks the end of what has already been a rocky Black History Month for the Trump administration. In his speech for the White House’s Black History Month kickoff event, the President began by saying, “Well, the election, it came out really well. Next time we’ll triple the number [of black votes] or quadruple it. We want to get it over 51, right? At least 51.” He later went on to speak of Frederick Douglass in the present tense, referring to him as “an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more,” leaving many wondering if the President is actually aware of who Douglass was and what he did.
That same day, the Senate committee approved Jeff Sessions, who has a long history of racism, as Attorney General. (Not surprisingly, the Justice Department has since announced it will be reversing its opposition to an extremely discriminatory Texas voter ID law.)
On February 2, Vice President Mike Pence honored Black History Month by tweeting about former president Abraham Lincoln rather than about any historical black heroes, and on the twelfth, the US Department of Education misspelled W. E. B. Du Bois’ name in a tweet.
Monday’s meeting was not much better. Attendees such as Dillard University president Walter Kimbrough left feeling as though the event was treated as a sort of photo op, with time spent taking photos cutting into a listening session with DeVos and Pence. “There was very little listening to HBCU presidents today,” Kimbrough said.
The Trump administration has proven to have very little success in creating a relationship with the black community thus far, and it does not seem as though things are about to change anytime soon.
Comments are closed.