Virginia Governor Urges Parents to Rat Out Schools for Teaching Kids About “Divisive” Topics Like Racism

One of the great hypocrisies of the modern Republican Party is its insistence that its members are all about limited government, when in reality they love themselves some totalitarianism. An aspiring dictator who thinks he alone should get to decide the outcome of elections? State legislatures that decree what pregnant people can and cannot do with their own bodies? Governors banning private businesses from protecting their employees from a highly contagious virus? The GOP loves to see it.

Of course, one of the areas that Republicans are most hopped up about of late is schools, including what teachers should be allowed to teach children. Conservatives are deeply upset about the idea of young people receiving a factually accurate education of the history of the United States, particularly the less savory parts, like when it was legal for white people to own Black people as property. (And how racism remains embedded in U.S. institutions today.) So they’ve been trying to curb such teachings, and on Monday, Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin took things a chilling step further—assuming one finds actions reminiscent of East German state surveillance chilling.

In an interview with radio host John Fredericks, Youngkin announced that he’d created a “tip line” for parents to report instances of school officials behaving inappropriately, by which he means teaching “divisive” subjects like critical race theory. (Youngkin has already issued an executive order banning the use of such concepts, and has supported legislation against it.) “We’re asking for folks to send us reports and observations,” Youngkin said. “Help us be aware of…their child being denied their rights that parents have in Virginia, and we’re going to make sure we catalogue it all…. And that gives us further, further ability to make sure we’re rooting it out.”

If that sounds an awful lot like something the Stasi would approve of, it’s because the East German secret police was all about relying on people to inform on their acquaintances. Or as Der Spiegel put it: “Neighbors reporting on neighbors, schoolchildren informing on classmates, university students passing along information on other students, managers spying on employees and Communist bosses denouncing party members.”

Youngkin’s bonkers reaction to kids being taught that not every aspect of U.S. history features white people acting in a positive light isn’t the only Republican freak-out on this topic lately. It comes days after Florida’s Senate Education Committee advanced a bill that would ban public schools and private businesses from causing white people to feel “discomfort” during lessons or trainings about discrimination. While this is as insane as it sounds, it’s apparently something leading Florida Republicans fully endorse. At a news conference last month, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who has his eyes on the White House in 2024, called critical race theory “crap” and vowed to pass legislation letting parents sue schools if their children are forced to learn about the actual history of the country in which they live.

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair       

— Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Unlikely Rise and Precipitous Fall at Liberty University
— Eric Adams Pulls Crypto-Paycheck Stunt Hours Before Bitcoin Crash
— Dave Chappelle and “the Black Ass Lie” That Keeps Us Down
— Trump’s January 6 Cover-Up Is Unraveling Fast
— Florida Man Has Growing God Complex
— In 2024, Mike Pence Is Gearing Up to Go Rogue
— New York Attorney General to Trump, Ivanka, and Don Jr.: Don’t F–k With Us
— Inside This Cable News Giant’s Streaming Dreams
— From the Archive: It Came From Wasilla
— Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.