Last week, Gov. Glenn Youngkin launched a tip line in Virginia for parents to report lessons in schools on “divisive concepts.”
The tip line is: helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov.
National and social media were quick to respond.
"Saturday Night Live" spoofed the tip line on Weekend Update.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like Melania Trump’s personal items failing to reach opening bid.
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Starting at the 2-minute-marker, SNL writer and Weekend Update host Colin Jost remarked, "(Y)ou know you're racist when you call the cops about a Black character in a book."
Then he went on to imitate a tipster calling the line to report Mark Twain's "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
On social media, calls to flood the line with fake tips were issued and retweeted thousands of times. Qasim Rashid, a human rights lawyer and Democrat who ran for Senate in 2019 and Congress in 2020 and lost, tweeted:
People are also reading…
GOP VA Governor just set up a tip line to report schools & teachers who teach about racism.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) January 25, 2022
Email: helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov
Whatever you do, don't make a mockery of this with fake tips. That would be a terrible thing to do. RT so everyone knows NOT to send fake tips.
To which Gen-Z for Change, a group of Gen-Z TikTokers with over a million followers, created an autogenerated email to the tip line that blends the name of a school in Virginia with random lyrics from rap and pop songs.
You can visit that page here: https://crtmail.netlify.app/
Or watch the TikTok:
BuzzFeed News wrote about it in an article called "The Virginia Department Of Education Is Getting Flooded With Memes After Creating A Tip Line To Report Schools Teaching About Racism."
The response to Youngkin's tip line has also been covered by MSNBC, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Fox News among others.
On Facebook and Twitter, teachers and parents also asked users to use the tipline to report the positive effects of teachers on people's lives.
Gov. Youngkin has established a tip line to report teachers and schools ☎️.
— Jennifer Rodgers (@MrsJenRodgers) January 26, 2022
I recommend you report:
❤️ Who was your favorite teacher and what did they teach?
📈 What teacher had the most positive impact on your life?
You can report these to: helpeducation@governor.virginia.gov
When the state announced in 2020 that it would launch a new high school-level African American history course, Dianne Carter de Mayo quickly v…
Colleen Curran
Colleen Curran is the living editor for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. She also covers arts and entertainment, pop culture and social media.
