RICHMOND, Va. — In a shift for the nation’s first cabinet-level diversity office, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) announced Angela Sailor, a staunch critic of systemic racism education in public schools, will lead and refocus Virginia’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Sailor is a veteran of the George W. Bush White House, and recently served as a high-level policy expert for the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Under a Youngkin executive order issued Wednesday, the office would shift to include an economic focus, with Sailor working to “expand entrepreneurship and economic opportunities for disadvantaged Virginians, including Virginians living with disabilities.”
The Virginia Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion would notably lose the word “equity” in its title.
Instead, “opportunity,” would replace “equity.”
Former Gov. Ralph Northam (D) created the office in September 2019, seven months after a yearbook Blackface scandal nearly ended his nascent tenure in the Executive Mansion.
The office’s animating energy, as announced at its inception, was to address and heal “systemic inequities” across Virginia state government.
Nowhere in Wednesday's executive order does the word “race” appear, as the office’s parameters are redefined to encompass, “the promotion of diverse free speech and inclusive civil discourse, and a role in promoting the honest and complete teaching of history.”
Sailor’s criticism of how racism is taught in American classrooms came into sharp relief within a July 2021 editorial published by the Washington Times and a Heritage Foundation blog.
“In both public and private schools, far too many families are reporting that children as young as five years old are being taught that America’s culture and institutions are rigged to help whites succeed, that they are victimizers if they’re white, and doomed to failure if they’re Black,” Sailor wrote.
“Many school boards are denying that they’re teaching elements of CRT. Whether it’s presented and wrongly disguised as 'diversity and inclusion' or other euphemistic terms, evidence abounds that CRT is spreading in schools.”
A Youngkin spokesperson said an interview with Sailor Wednesday evening would not be possible.
Sailor's appointment still requires approval by the General Assembly, now controlled by Republicans in the House of Delegates and Democrats in the Senate. The nomination marks Youngkin's final pick of 16 cabinet positions.