NORFOLK, Va. — The first Black elected state governor has strong words for Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's move to review courses on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and George Mason University.
"The people of Virginia are not going to stand for that and I'll tell you that," said Douglas Wilder, who served as Virginia governor from 1990 to 1994.
Some of the courses under the microscope are taught at his namesake, the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at VCU.
"The real question would be what gives the governor the right to think that he can determine what is being taught?" Wilder said. "What gives the governor the right that he can orchestrate the history of Virginia?"
In a letter obtained by 13News Now to Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, VCU Provost Fotis Sotiropoulos responded to her request for a review by attaching the syllabi of 11 courses already approved by the university. Courses include Justice and Equity in Visual Arts & Education, Race and Racism in Government and Public Affairs and Racial Equity, Arts & Culture.
Wilder said the inquiry is an insult not only to the university scholars who create the courses but to him personally.
"Rather than take more people out, we need to put more people in our history," Wilder said. "I would not have been elected but for people who contributed to my being there to being able to be elected."
This is not the first time the former governor has spoken out on what he describes as an "uncaring and insensitive attack" on DEI. Last year, after Youngkin's newly appointed DEI director, Martin Brown, declared DEI "dead," Wilder called his remarks "ignorant" and said the governor needed to fire him.
Wilder says he has yet to hear why Youngkin is targeting DEI. He's not ready to call his actions racist but comes close.
"I have not called it racist yet but that determination can very easily be made if persistence takes place and continues," Wilder said.
But in a statement, a spokesperson for the governor said the administration is responding to concerns expressed by parents, students and members of the Board of Visitors.
"The administration has heard concerns from some members of the Boards of Visitors, parents, and students across the Commonwealth regarding divisive core curriculum mandates that are a thinly veiled attempt to incorporate the progressive left’s groupthink on Virginia’s students. It's ultimately a board decision on what courses are critical to a student’s foundational learning, and there needs to be greater transparency on the topics a publicly funded institution is teaching. Virginia’s public institutions should be teaching our students how to think, not what to think and not imposing ideological conformity."
Wilder says students are preparing a protest and promises to help "in every way I can."