The Trump Administration’s Uneasy Relationship with Historically Black Schools

Seconds after Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education, walked up to the lectern at a Daytona Beach convention center on Wednesday to deliver her commencement address to Bethune-Cookman University’s graduating class, she was drowned out by booing from the crowd. Students stood up and turned their backs to the stage. DeVos, dressed in doctoral robes, strained to disguise the humiliation on her face. The jeers were so loud that the school’s president, Edison Jackson, issued a warning. “If this behavior continues, your degrees will be mailed to you,” he said. “Choose which way you want to go.” He was summarily ignored. The audience knew that it was Jackson who had invited DeVos to speak in the first place. The two met earlier this year, during a series of events in Washington centered on the future of historically black colleges and universities, or H.B.C.U.s, including Bethune-Cookman. At the time, DeVos described H.B.C.U.s as “real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” acknowledging only later that they were originally products of segregation. The comment provoked a swift but enduring backlash; Representative Barbara Lee, of California, called it “tone-deaf,” and Senator Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, called it “totally nuts.” The crowd’s reaction in Daytona Beach, then, was expected, even by the guest of honor. Right before Jackson interrupted her, DeVos had been praising “the ability to converse with and learn from those with whom we disagree.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Senate Starts to Look at Trump’s Businesses
A Harrowing Turning Point for Haitian Immigrants
The Fidget Spinner Is the Perfect Toy for the Trump Presidency