Janice Underwood

"“It wasn’t about them choosing me, it was really about me choosing them. Because they needed my street cred; they needed someone that was going to come in and tell them the truth.”"

"“Now you see an attempt to undo, erase, or whitewash what Virginians sent the Democratic Party to do in November 2019. I think that is what you see now. For example, now we see anti-equity legislation with coded language…”"

"“We desperately need genuine diversity, equity, and inclusion to allow many of us to access ‘opportunity.’ That’s why it’s so important people understand there’s a return on investment for it.”"

"“The world is bending towards more diversity, equity, and inclusion. So, if Virginia wants to remain competitive across all those sectors, we’ve got to continue the work of One Virginia.”"

"“I think a lot of the work was realized and you know you can’t change 400 years of inequity in two, three years, but we were able to get so much done that in my mind it’s going to be difficult to completely undo it.”"

"“We didn’t come to play any games…We came to save lives in the middle of a pandemic as well as drive reform.”"

"“ This is where we didn’t get it right. Because there’s such a fragility about this work – and a lot of people don’t understand what they don’t understand. The bottom line is most of us don’t know how to talk about this work; we don’t know how to educate others on why we do the work”"

"“We didn’t talk about it, we did not help people or educate people on how to be ambassadors for this work, or how to understand it from a larger systemic lens. And so our work was vulnerable to attacks and weaponization…it was almost like there was a fear, well we can’t talk about it because we’re in the middle of a gubernatorial election.”"

"“Most people outside of the state government bubble, like the suburban soccer mom, didn’t know about the One Virginia mission or online tool kit, which has now been completely erased from the internet. ONE Virginia was about bringing us together, making Virginia work better for all of us…and was not about division.”"

"“I call it a Monster Minority Machine…because these folks leading these tirades are NOT the majority of voices in Virginia, but they are the loudest. In fact, the majority of the voices in Virginia are demanding MORE African American history taught in schools.”"

"“In 2021, many of the majority of these voices were drowned out by the monster minority machine that showed up yelling, screaming, and accusing, and in some case threatening violence. So the result was the reasonably minded majority that also wanted choice, equity, and opportunity for their children and families, were reticent to voice their concerns.”"

"“…there’s the now defunct ideology, “if you’re explaining you’re already losing.” Well guess what, we lost anyway by NOT explaining…You’ve got to be able to define critical race theory and use it in a sentence, just like in third grade”"

"“…because of all of our incomplete knowledge of race and racism, it was like, well, let me just give this tall and somewhat attractive guy in a red vest a chance – he seems harmless.”"

"“…you move two steps forward, you come ten steps back…it happened in Reconstruction and after the election of President Obama. But it also happens with people in power feel threatened.”"

"“…the only thing that gets covered in the media is the sensational hot sexy stuff like, you know like, Robert E. Lee coming down to Richmond or at the U.S. Capitol…The only thing most of the press was interested in was talking about Ralph Northam’s yearbook photo, Robert E. Lee coming down in Richmond, and what was in the time capsule, right?”"

"“I don’t think we went too fast. I think we didn’t build people’s capacity to talk about the work. I think that was the main issue, we just didn’t talk about the work in a way that helped people understand how it was all connected”"

"“…this false narrative [on the Governor’s Schools] was fueled by a monster minority machine that emboldened and really gaslighted members of a diverse Asian community to champion these issues.”"

"“…now, bringing up this difficult history is diagnosed as a divisive concepts that White parents don’t want spoken about…but not because they don’t want their children to bear the brunt of this factual history, but because they don’t want to be reminded about it. Members of the monster minority machine would purport that teaching about this stuff would make students hate their country. I disagree. Perhaps it would teach the next generation of where we got it wrong.”"

"“Governor Youngkin, if he was truly interested in repairing Virginia’s failing schools, he can use critical race theory to interrogate the policies that were used with redlining and Jim Crow laws and all the historical antecedents that get us to failing schools.”"

"“Even though we were told not to talk about [ critical race theory] because we would lose, it was like, well, we didn’t talk about it and we still lost.”"

"” We need more people who respect and affirm diversity, equity and inclusion to run for political office at all levels. We also need people – commonsense reasonable people and elected officials and their communications partners- to speak up and not be so afraid to speak up at school board meetings, in the media, in the local towns square, at the YMCA, grocery store, and on the campaign trail. Because right now, the narrative is being controlled by a minority monster machine…a very small group of parents who have the ability and funding to be loud and apparently get to be threatening to people. And it goes unchecked. This has resulted in the normalization of hating anyone with a different ideology and even political cyberbullying of a 17-year-old.”"

"“…ok parents, member of the minority monster machine who is against critical race theory, look at this language in the Virginia code that says Black people shall not marry white people. Is it ok that we take that out? Because that’s actually ‘critical race theory’ in action.”"

"“I’ve read all of [Angela Sailor’s] works, but I’m not quite sure exactly where she stands. She is not a DEI thought-leader or practitioner. She has a lot of political experience on the conservative side but given her support of HBCUs and her stated priority of helping the Black community, I’m not quite sure of her thoughts on a lot of things. It’s a little bit confusing…I certainly wish her well, because if she does well, then Virginia does well. But to say that I’m nervous…is an understatement.”"

"“You are talking about the people who were so easily manipulated, who vote back and forth, vote against their interests, or don’t understand that addressing issues of inequity take time to demonstrate success….kind of like the townspeople in a Shakespearean play. You know, first we praise Caesar and now we want to kill him.”"