Kellyanne Conway's Couch Controversy Is A Fitting End To Black History Month
Photo courtesy of Brendan Smialowski for AFP/Getty Images
UPDATE: More graffiti has popped up on the Howard University campus, following Donald Trump's meeting with a number of leaders from different historically black colleges and universities. This tweet shows several new ones that have appeared, including one that says "Wayne Frederick Doesn't Care About Black People."
A photo of Kellyanne Conway kneeling on a White House couch has caused some controversy online.
In the photo the Donald Trump adviser can be seen kneeling on a couch in an Oval Office while looking at her phone, as Trump is surrounded by a group of leaders of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). The meeting occurred this past Monday.
Reaction posts and memes about the Conway photo were spread throughout social media, with some people offering that the White House senior adviser was being disrespectful. However, other photos popped up that showed why Conway was sitting like she was in the first place — to take a picture of the entire group.
A closer look at another photo also reveals that Conway was not barefoot on the couch, but was wearing beige heels while taking the picture.
With the outrage towards Conway also came the resurfacing of images that showed Barack Obama with his feet perched on Kennedy's resolute desk.
Trump and his administration's handling of Black History Month has been faulty from the start. Recently, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had issued a statement speaking on HBCUs in which she referred to them as "real pioneers when it comes to school choice."
Some have said that DeVos' statement ignored the history of segregation in America, and how black people were denied higher education in this country because of that.
The Department of Education explains on its website that HBCUs were established because "there was no structured higher education system for black students."
"At a time when many schools barred their doors to black Americans, these colleges offered the best, and often the only, opportunity for a higher education," the Department of Education offers.
In other HBCU-related news, someone vandalized the grounds of Howard University recently.
The photo below shows the words "Welcome to the Trump plantation. Overseer: Wayne A. I. Frederick," written on the university's schoolyard. The message is likely a result of Frederick meeting with DeVos earlier this month.