Janice Underwood

"“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.”"

"“ 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.”"

"“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…”"

"“…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.”"

"“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.”"

"“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”"

"“…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.”"

"“…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”"