.@DelJAvoli presented HB 1816, requiring that students learn about the dangers and victims of communism. What did @VEA4kids have to say?
Just listen. We can't do it justice. You can't make this stuff up. https://t.co/5Akexs58yD pic.twitter.com/MUabRPOnMe
— Virginia House GOP (@vahousegop) February 15, 2023
by James A. Bacon
HB 1816 would require the governor to annually issue a proclamation declaring November 7 each year to observe Victims of Communism Day to honor the approximately 100 million souls who died at the hands of communist regimes. The bill also would require the history and social science Standards of Learning to emphasize the dangers of communism in classroom instruction.
There may be legitimate reasons for objecting to the bill. But they are emphatically not the reasons given by the Virginia Education Association (VEA) representative shown in the clip above. Here’s a transcript of her remarks:
The VEA opposes this bill. Four out of the five current communist regimes are in countries that are in Asia. We are concerned that this bill would subject Asian-American students to anti-Asian sentiments.
If I were writing a novel aiming to show how stupid woke people are, I could not in good conscience have concocted a statement so obtuse. Let us count the ways in which this statement is so absurd that you literally could not make it up without being mocked for pushing so far beyond the bounds of plausibility…
First, if one studies the history of communism, we would learn that Marxism originated in Europe, and that Marxism-Leninism originated in Russia (and what became the Soviet Union). We would have learned that there were numerous communist regimes in Europe, and that at various times and places there were communist movements in European democracies and even the United States. Is the VEA “concerned” that teaching such facts might subject students of European origin to anti-European sentiments? Of course not.
Second, if you poll Americans who emigrated from Asian communist countries — China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Laos, and (now incorporated into China) Hong Kong — they would almost assuredly be more outspoken and vocal in their anti-communism than native-born American students. Talk to anyone who belongs to Falun Gong. Talk to emigres from Hong Kong. Talk to refugees from North Korea. If there is any segment of the population that would cheer such a requirement, it would be Americans of East Asian origin.
The answer is so insipid that it cannot reflect the genuine reason why VEA opposes the bill. I am not a mind reader, so I cannot say what that reason is. But here’s my suspicion: VEA leaders are so far left in their political views that they don’t want to see communism discredited in Virginia schools. Dangers of Communism Day would hit too close to home.
