Black History Month lesson in Virginia causes controversy

A controversial Black History Month lesson taught in a public school is raising a firestorm on social media.

The video was posted on YouTube and was shown to students at a Virginia High School. The video was meant to symbolize the obstacles minorities have faced through history.

The video starts with four runners taking their marks. When they start two white athletes immediately take off while two minority runners stay at the starting block with a red light keeping them there. As they go on, words like slavery, genocide and segregation come up on the screen. The people who made it call it the "Unequal Opportunity Race."

Some on social media like the video, such as a woman who wrote on Facebook, “Very creative way to show how life really is for some of us … To me this not about white shaming or guilt at all, it is about raising consciousness of people of good will (children).”

A man, who also took to Facebook, wrote, “It's videos like this that further racial tensions in America … We need to drop this black/white nonsense and come together as one.”

Action News Jax is reaching out to the makers of the video for a statement about the controversy it’s sparked.

Cox Media Group