The controversy over the expulsion of Suparna Dutta, a parent’s rights advocate, from the Virginia Board of Education is still raging. Anne Holton, a board member, and her husband, Democrat Senator Tim Kaine, have made countless efforts to change the narrative. Virginians are still furious that Dutta was expelled from the Board as the only representative of parents’ rights against far left indoctrination. After Dutta’s dispute with Holton, the Board took action. A vicious, defamatory campaign was launched that called Dutta — a woman from India who supports racism — a “white supremacist”.
Dutta was charged with daring to challenge Anne Holton about her condemnation of the Declaration of Independence as a document that “enshrined slavery” and only protected “white property-owning males.” Parents are frustrated by the public schools’ continued teaching of this divisive, racist and destructive dogma.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin named Suparna Dutta as the Virginia BOE’s Secretary in July 2022. To ensure that Virginia schools were free from Marxist Critical Race Theory (racism), and gender-orientation politics, he wanted a parent’s rights advocate to serve on the Board. Youngkin’s commitment to ending far-left education in schools led to a significant shift in Northern Virginia parents who voted Democrat previously.
Dutta, an American born in India and who fled that socialist country to seek freedom in America, united hundreds of parents whose children attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. He opposed the racist policies of TJ’s administration and Fairfax County Public Schools. TJ’s 2021 student population was 70% Asian on a merit basis. TJ cut 20% off the number of qualified Asian students from the school’s admissions last year under the FCPS’s race conscious “equity” agenda. This was a Marxist-leveling move in an ongoing effort to replace racist decision-making with color-blind meritocracy at the schools.
Dutta led TJ parents to victory against the racist admissions policy. Federal district court ruled that the exclusion of Asians based on race was unconstitutional under Section 4 of the Equal Protection Clause. TJ appeals that decision.
The Virginia BOE is a strange group, whose members adore former Virginia Education Secretary Holton. She rarely if ever disagrees with her views. The partisan group was therefore surprised by Dutta’s objection against Holton’s condemnation of both the Declaration of Independence (and Constitution). Holton was Education Secretary under the former Gov. Terry McAuliffe. The Department introduced Critical Race Theory in Virginia Schools during her tenure. Despite this fact, Tim Kaine, along with McAuliffe, claimed that Critical Race Theory wasn’t being taught in Virginia schools. Kaine said that Critical Race Theory was an “invented” and “inflated” issue in a 2020 interview with Chris Hayes of MSNBC.
Northern Virginia parents were wiser. They were shocked to see CRT being taught on their computers during the pandemic. This was old-fashioned racism. One brave student from Loudoun County’s high school described it to a helpless teacher, who insisted that the student accept CRT online. The student refused to accept the false premises of CRT in online classroom instruction. It was to his credit that he outwitted his teacher.
The Board reviewed Youngkin’s history proposal and social studies standards for learning in Virginia Schools at the Virginia BOE meeting. Holton was furious at this historical fact. Holton stated to the Board that both the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence “enshrine” slavery. She stated, “You can’t refer to the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution as a “remarkable document” without acknowledging that they [are] fundamental in enshrining slavery and limiting the protections they provided only for white property-owning males.”
Holton’s statement contains historical inaccuracies that reveal her ignorance of history or bias. The Declaration of Independence does NOT enshrine slavery. It rejects it. Thomas Jefferson also wrote the remarkable phrase “All Men Are Created Equal” and he also wrote a paragraph of 168 words in which he criticised George III for slavery in violation their rights.
Jefferson’s views weren’t unique, but they were shared widely by his fellow Founding Fathers. The following passage was written by him: “He [George III] waged cruel war on human nature itself, violating it most sacred rights of live and liberty in persons of distant people who have never offended him. He captured & carried them into slavery in another part of the hemisphere or to suffer miserable death in their transport thither.” This is the warfare of Christ King of Great Britain’s piratical warfare.
The final draft was rewritten against Jefferson’s wishes by South Carolina and Georgia. However, it clearly shows that Jefferson’s statement “All Men are Created Equal” is inclusive of men and women from all races. Holton conveniently misinterprets the historical record and context to make it seem that “men” is synonymous with humankind, in line with John Locke’s second treatise about government. Holton’s attack on white property-owning white men is also unfounded.
Holton’s revision of history is biased propaganda. This statement is offensive not only to freedom-loving Americans, who revere the Declaration, but also to Jefferson, the Declaration’s author who, as a slave owner, wrote the document that condemned slavery and acknowledged its violation of human right. Kaine’s statement that the Declaration is “fundamental for enshrining slaves” and “limiting the protections…provided to white property-owning males” is a grave error. Suparna Dutta was correct, and indeed invaluable in calling out Holton on her misrepresentations.
Holton also misrepresents Constitution. The original Constitution included the three-fifths clause to count slaves when determining congressional representation. It also prohibited Congress from ending the importation and exportation of slaves for twenty year. However, the original Constitution did not “enshrine slavery”, but rather anticipated its end. The Founding Fathers had in mind the intent of Madison, Jefferson, and Washington to abolish slavery that George III had imposed upon the colonies within twenty years of the Constitution being enacted. They also planned to cut off the slave trade. In fact, Congress banned the importation from slaves in the 20th year of the Act to Prohibit the Importation of Slaves. This was on March 2, 1807. Slavery was a persistent problem in America, driving the Southern economy to the Civil War Amendments. The 13th Amendment abolished slavery, the 14th granted citizenship to all Americans born in the United States, while the 15th gave citizenship rights to all citizens, regardless of race or color. These amendments are not meant to “enshrine slavery”, but merely an extension of the movement that began with the Declaration to get rid of slavery in America. Instead of teaching our children to view our founding documents as inextricably racism, we should celebrate them for what are: the most remarkable defenses of individual liberty in the history.
Concerned by his wife’s denial of the Constitution and Declaration, Senator Kaine joined the fray to end the unrest. WSET interviewed him and he did a classic political bait-and-switch. Although he acknowledged that his wife was aware that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were “exceptional documents”, he said that this was a deflection which skirted the topic. Holton was accused of inflicting an offense by declaring that the Declaration and Constitution “enshrine slaves” and only protect “white property-owning males.” Kaine ignores these falsehoods because he either agrees with them, or can’t defend them.
Another important fact that the Kaines want to hide is that they have not spoken in defense of Supra Dutta after her objection to Holton’s statement. The Kaines did not object to the Democrat-controlled Virginia senate’s infamous vote along party lines in order to remove Dutta. They have so condoned Dutta’s mistreatment — which is the exact racism they wrongly attribute to the Declaration or Constitution.
The Kaines are too busy trying to protect themselves from public ire and instead focus on the damage they do to themselves. They don’t give a second thought to the well-being of a woman whose reputation is being destroyed by their actions or inactions.
