President Trump kicked off his speech to the joint session of Congress with a nod to the waning moments of Black History Month, a surprising hat tip from a man who has repeatedly told the black community that their situation is so dire that they should just give up and throw in their lot with him. “You’re living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58% of your youth is unemployed,” he told Detroit area voters last August. “What the hell do you have to lose?” (One thing that black Michiganders might like to lose is the lead in the Flint water supply, but that didn’t make the final version of the speech.)
He told Congress Tuesday night:
And citizens of America, tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of black history month, we are reminded of our nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that still remains to be done. Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.
And citizens of America, tonight, as we mark the conclusion of our celebration of black history month, we are reminded of our nation’s path toward civil rights and the work that still remains to be done. Recent threats targeting Jewish community centers and vandalism of Jewish cemeteries, as well as last week’s shooting in Kansas City, remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.
This was the first time that the president had addressed hate this directly, particularly with regard to the recent threats faced by the Jewish community. The change in tone was welcome. But it was also a fairly stark turnabout from the remarks he appeared to make earlier that day that confused a group of state attorneys. According to Buzzfeed, the president said that there may have been reasons other than hate for the attacks on the Jewish community. “Sometimes it’s the reverse, to make people—or to make others—look bad.” Said Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, “I really don’t know what he means, or why he said that.”
But the true head-scratcher of the last two days belongs to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. She laudably managed to unite pretty much everyone around one idea: That she has no idea how Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) were born.
On Monday, President Trump and DeVos met with representatives from HBCUs for a “listening session,” which got more coverage for an unfortunate photo of senior adviser Kellyanne Conway than the substance of the meeting. But DeVos released a statement following the meeting that sought to set things right. The statement praised the schools for their “pioneering” role in school choice:
They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education. They saw that the system wasn’t working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution. HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.
They started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not have equal access to education. They saw that the system wasn’t working, that there was an absence of opportunity, so they took it upon themselves to provide the solution. HBCUs are real pioneers when it comes to school choice.
Except that the “system” she is referring to was Jim Crow, a brutal caste system designed to… oh well, you know what Jim Crow was. Does she? The reaction to her statement was immediate. Hundreds of angry Twitter users accused her of whitewashing history, among other things. “Shoutout to those who drank from the Colored Only fountain,” quipped one. “You were pioneers in water choice.” Congressman John Conyers [D-MI] issued a statement of his own. “This statement by Mrs. DeVos reveals either a stunning ignorance of history on the part of the person tasked with overseeing our nation’s education system, or an inability to acknowledge our nation’s shameful history of racial discrimination in education, both public and private.”
DeVos corrected the record in a speech delivered to the HBCU congressional luncheon yesterday. “Your history was born, not out of mere choice, but out of necessity, in the face of racism, and in the aftermath of the Civil War,” she said.
This is a lot of turning about in a short period of time. For the communities involved, it’s not political theater. It’s a painful erasure of a history that puts the future at risk.
Not to mention promises deferred. As Politico reported, one HBCU president asked the White House to consider backing a $25 billion infrastructure improvement package for their campuses and year-round Pell grants for low-income students. It seems like a reasonable starting point for a negotiation that would mean both jobs and improved education. “Rather than focus solely on funding, we must be willing to make the tangible, structural reforms that will allow students to reach their full potential,” DeVos said in her original statement. That doesn’t leave much open to interpretation.