Virginia first lady under fire for handing cotton to African American students on mansion tour

A Virginia state employee has complained that her eighth-grade daughter was upset during a tour of the historic governor’s residence when first lady Pam Northam handed raw cotton to her and another African American child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop.
“The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” Leah Dozier Walker, who oversees the Office of Equity and Community Engagement at the state Education Department, wrote Feb. 25 to lawmakers and the office of Gov. Ralph Northam (D).
“But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness,” she wrote.
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"Pam Northam handed raw cotton to her and another African American child and asked them to imagine being enslaved and having to pick the crop."
Well that certainly sounds bad, singling out two black Americans and handing only them the cotton, we should all be outraged.
"Northam’s office and one other parent of a child who was present said the first lady did not single out the African American students and simply handed out the cotton to a group."
Oh, wait, what? So she handed it to all the students, white or black, and asked them to put themselves in the shoes of the slaves who once worked that very plantation, trying to get them to think about what life must have been like and how far we've come, but also how far we have to go in regards to racial equality? Hmmm, this doesn't really sound like such a scandal now does it.
Yes, even boys and girls of Asian & Hispanic descent........
Oh the horrors?
Can you imagine if the docents or Mrs. Northam refused to give the cotton samples to children who appeared to be of African descent?
Oh the lawsuits we could imagine.........../s
You have proof the Mrs. Northam wore a KKK outfit?
I can just imagine how unforgiving the left would be if it had been Melania Trump doing this instead. Dems letting other Dems get away with somebody dressing up in blackface and now this are the reason so many roll their eyes at accusations of racism against Republicans. The left has no credibility left.
I thought tobacco was the cash crop in VA?
Wouldn't it also be illegal to give someone under the age of 18 tobacco or tobacco products?
Personally I think it is all bs false outrage and mostly thefault liberals who are constantly looking for anything to call racist.
Tobacco is easier and more conducive to the weather in the west and southern VA.
Cotton tends to stay along the James River start in 1706 and waned in 1960, but is making a post weevil comeback,
while the eastern part of the state grows vegetables and peanuts.
You read the Lancaster Farmer? My dad got that paper and read it cover to cover every week
It's a small world after all
isn't it
lol
Why not give the kids cookies and say enjoy
Now you're encouraging obesity!!!!!
Peanuts are a Virginia crop, but that might have been taken the wrong way. Maybe an apple?
It's a tour. It's educational. And it's respectful to remember and highlight the life of slaves, even in a cursory way (appropriate for this kind of setting).
Virginia has its problems, but this is not one of them.