Thread by @MollyMcKew

Here's the hard truth on Virginia:

1- Virginia was the capital of the South not by accident
2- It has never, in any real way, dealt with this history
3- Since the 60s, it has struggled to rectify the glorification of the sacrifice of southern sons ... /1

...(see: everything named for Robert E Lee, even now) with needing to confront the history of oppression, slavery, and cruelty this sacrifice was conducted to preserve (see: the Civil War was for "economic reasons")
4- Decades of avoiding this confrontation is why we're here.../2

...Charlottesville, battles over Confederate monuments, neo-Confederates running for Senate as Rs
5- It's no mystery how a culture that has preserved this duality has projected racial bias onto younger generations, over and over
6- the best thing we can do is break the cycle /3

7- Which means leadership willing to confront their own bias, expose how engrained it is, including in elite culture, and willing to discuss it openly, condemning it in explicit terms so the younger generations learn something... /4

... And then doesn't laugh all this off behind closed doors and continue on, promoting another generation with same bias.
8- this is not a problem of individuals. It is systemic. It is not just Virginia. But wouldn't it be nice if they would be the seed for something better. /5