March 10, 2025 Editor, The News-Gazette: The recent decision by the Virginia Military Institute board of visitors to remove retired Army Major General Cedric T. Wins, the first Black superintendent of the institution, is deeply troubling. This move follows a period of meaningful diversity efforts at VMI, which began after a 2021 state-sanctioned report exposed institutional racism and sexism. Wins’ removal comes on the heels of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s appointments to the board of visitors and a disturbing statement made by Martin D. Brown, Youngkin’s appointed chief diversity officer of the commonwealth.
“Let’s take a moment right now to kill that cow. DEI is dead,” Brown declared at VMI on April 21, 2024. “We’re not going to bring that cow up anymore. It’s dead.” These words, reported in The Washington Post on April 27, sent a clear message: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are being actively dismantled in Virginia’s institutions. If DEI is “dead,” what remains? Homogeneity, Inequity, and Exclusion? History shows us where this path leads. It is a return to systemic oppression — policies and practices that reinforce racial and social hierarchies rather than dismantling them.
Declaring DEI “dead” is not progress; it is regression. It echoes the ideologies that once justified slavery, segregation, and the suppression of marginalized communities. It upholds the dangerous belief that some people are inherently more deserving of power, respect, and opportunity than others. This exclusionary stance, rooted in White Supremacist ideology.
It is a dark day when equal voice, opportunity, and respect are no longer valued in our institutions, businesses, and communities. I mourn for the leaders —elected, appointed, and hired —who prioritize power over justice. Silencing those who champion diversity does not make us stronger; it weakens us.
Diversity is not a threat. Equity is not oppression. Inclusion is not division. The real danger lies in abandoning these principles altogether.
REV. SUSAN WORRELL Rockbridge County
