It was so powerful & moving to watch the Elegba Folklore Society pay tribute to the ancestors we welcomed home today, and I enjoyed hearing from the Family Representative Council about their hard work on this project. Honoring the community & our forebears is important to me.

It was uncomfortable to hear @RalphNortham speak at this somber celebration of Black lives. His speech, which was a thinly veiled stump speech for @LevarStoney, spoke on “respecting” Black people. It was jarring to hear this man who has yet to apologize for his blackface say that

I hope that the decision to have Northam speak was a healing, intentional one taken by the event organizers. I hope that he wasn’t there just because he’s the governor of the state and a physician. I also hope he finds some insight from this experience but maybe not.

I also invite @VCU/ @VCUHealth to examine why this event was not as widely publicized to the student body as others or why it was decided to hold it in the middle of a Monday during thanksgiving break when many students aren’t in town. Hardly the respect the ancestors deserve.

I think this fact is especially deserving of scrutiny given VCU’s impact on the community of color in Richmond with its rapid expansion & installation of yet another police force. They had 25 years to plan this event ever since the ancestral remains were unearthed. Why only now?