It might be more productive to ask who was never in black face in certain schools and fraternal organizations in that era....
4
Should a person still be held accountable for the incidents that happened over 30 years ago? It appears that the men involved have led clean lives
They have made "mea culpa"!
Enough, time to stop.
3
What's good for the goose is good for the gander. The GOP operatives may have opened a can of worms, or more to the point, a box of rats.
3
I grew up in Mississippi and Louisiana and did not see a single one of my classmates dress up in blackface. Of course it was a girls' school. And. of course there were there were no blacks who dressed up in blackface. And there were no blacks dressed up in blackface.
So perhaps for the next generation, only women and blacks should be allowed to run for North Carolina. North Carolina would be a better place for it!
5
4 down... when you're ready for me to come down there and be your gov, just ask.
4
Let's see the gleeful smirking hypocritical "conservatives" gloat on this one
Personal resaponsibility?
betcha he runs from that because he's a republican
7
@adam stoler actually the only gleeful here are the liberals...”yes we found a republican too. See see they do it too,”.
The witch hunt desperation is so palpable it’s comical.
But wait, didn’t the gop guy did not wear a balckface but just saw a picture in a book? “Oh but he ‘edited’ it”. He is just as guilty. Now people will be criminalize for just existing.
When I went on historical tour in Georgia in the 80s, I wasn’t even living in US, but just a tourist from Latin America, I had pictures taken of me in civil war historical sites. I need no make sure to destroy them just in case they are found 20 years from now and I’m acused of being a KKK, and so anybody who browsed through those pictures albums...
This is getting so ridiculous. American infantilism run amok.
3
This is developing into a #Hey, Him Too! tour of discovery.
The obvious question is to ask, "Really, of all those who attended those schools, who DIDN'T know there were offensive photographs in the yearbooks?"
And all those who were offended are wondering, "What? You're only just learning this NOW?"
If the media starts - or continues - to do a deep dive into every legislator's past yearbooks and discovers the same set of disturbing photographs, what will the expectations be?
More harassment training?
Should each and every legislator resign their position?
Should we hold new elections?
What will salve the spirit?
2
Welcome to generational racial-terrorism. That's what's going on in this new wave of extreme racial paranoia.
3
@cfc Just *try* for a minute to imagine yourself in the position of being black in the USA and know that, no matter what level of wealth, celebrity or education you attain, if you are not well dressed one day the neighbours might call the cops thinking you are 'suspicious', and know that if you are pulled over driving while black you best be very very very obedient. You see your elected representatives living out their 'fun' making sure people who look like you are stigmatized as stupid and comical. Is it really "extreme racial paranoia" to be upset at your continual dehumanization?
4
What is with the white people in the state of Virginia?
As a white person in Illinois and growing up in a very racist community, Cicero, Illinois, I have never once heard of anybody in Illinois doing that.
It must be a deeply ingrained custom. Sounds like it is time to stop it.
8
Apparently, putting on a blackface is the key to future political success in Virginia.
8
Egads! Are you suggesting that most whites in Virginia (or the entire south, for that matter) were racists in 1968?? Shock - shock -shock.
3
singe
February 07 · 03:36:49 PM
So our most honorable and civic minded President is taking shots at the Democrats who wore black face and a black guy accused of sexual assault....but wait now Republican Senate Majority leader Norment is in the mix as having...er..questionable fun at the expense of people of color...and then there were some accusations involving racism and sexual assault following dear leader around if my memory serves me well.
I think everyone needs to take a deep breath and stop pointing fingers. There is a good chance that there are more powerful men in business and government that have done racist and sexist stuff and if the strong winds of change sweeping the country (Did you see all those ladies in white the other night? Did you listen to what Stacey Abrams was saying?) keep blowing they will be falling out of the trees like apples in late Fall.
6
Tough times for all of us if anything we've ever done at any time in our pasts can be brought up and used to negate any good we've done since. I'm not saying that these images aren't hurtful or signs of a pervasive racism. They are. But if we dig deep, who among us hasn't said or done something embarrassing, shameful, or hurtful in the past, intentionally or not? We're just lucky it's not immortalized in a yearbook or somewhere online.
4
@GeriMD Racial bullying (and that's what the images in this article exhibit) is much more than an embarrassment for the perpetrators. It's an indication of deep-felt hatred toward others. The fact that these despicable acts happened fifty or more years ago is confounding. At the time many white people were awakening to the savagery that had been perpetrated on people of color by people of our own race. Where were these "well educated" fools? How could they miss the freedom marches? The integrated casualty lists from Vietnam?
4
@GeriMD You have a point, but the accusations of racism should be applied uniformly. The GOP cannot search the archives for Dems at fault, while covering for colleagues in the GOP guilty of the same.
2
@GeriMD
Yes, we are all human, make big mistakes and need to treat each other humanely. But it is not the right response to these images to say 'long time ago' and 'who hasn't made a youthful mistake'. Not by a long shot. *Especially* not in an era when the President tells his followers that they don't need to apologize. Dog whistle. We need to have an ongoing conversation about *why* it would be fun for these leaders-of-tomorrow in their youth to enact these racist tropes. Not just 'racism' of the past. Young wannabes sense that a fraternity of future leaders needs to bond, and too often this bonding has been forged on misogyny and racism and gay-bashing--you know pump up the 'ingroup' by having a little fun. Except these are the guys in power. Still. So, no, not 'tough times for all of us' if 'anything can be brought up'. . Can't we expect our leaders to be a little better? Or at least, *respond* a little better? With moral leadership? How about engage the issue, not just hope you can weather the storm. I would accept lots of human frailty if I sensed real contrition and engagement with the issues, engagement and ongoing dialogue with the aggrieved and marginalized.
4
When the Northam story first came out the word Democrat was buried at the end of the article.
Now a Republican is swept up and the word Republican is in bold right on top!
Political bias???
So predictable..LOL
@Joe Paper The Times coverage of Northam first admitting he was in the photo, Friday night Nov. 1, when the story broke, notes in the 2nd paragraph he is a Democrat.
7
Thomas Norment: "I'm shocked, shocked, that the Yearbook I was editor of had photos of cadets in blackface."
(With apologies to Claude Rains)
6
RE:
The yearbook includes page after page of seniors posed in starched white military shirts, or sometimes informally, accompanied by breezy descriptions of their sports and social activities. Some of these descriptions refer to students with slurs and obscenities.
If so why not include in the article. Unless the slurs and obscenities are in the imagination of the NYT's PC police
While I wouldn't describe myself as a partisan democrat, I almost always vote for democrats. I have lived in several states, only one of them ex-confederate. I have never lived in Virginia and do not have family or friends there.
Virginia was the seat of Confederate power. It is the only former Confederate state that Trump lost, which is good news.
That many of its elected officials on both sides of the aisle would have donned blackface in their youth seems utterly unsurprising. Why do we insist on being surprised?
What do people stand for now? What have they stood for in office? What have they voted for, administered, or implemented?
When did we agree that as a culture we're simply too stupid to assess the answers to these questions?
8
It's like Virginia Man is giving Florida Man a run for the money.
2
the blackface tradition in the South appears
to be a sort of coming of age ritual for young
white men.as abhorrent as they must know
it is,there appears to be incredible social
pressure to conform. the true courage will
come when they have the moral fortitude
to say no to this alien, antiquated practice.
3
I never knew there were so many pure, self righteous people in this world! These comments and these self flagellations are ludicrous. Where do we stop? Are we really going to judge adults for crass, yes stupid, yes insensitive behavior they engaged in more than 30 years ago? I hope we have more faith in the progression and development of the human species than what is evidenced by these trifling “discoveries” in yearbooks. Liberals wake up! Attend to real issues! Move on. This topic, plus transgender bathrooms, plus sexual harassment claims from years past when social mores were quite different must be addressed but not obsessed over. So everyone confess your peccadilloes, throw them all in the bonfire, and focus on the here and now.
3
I don't know about this particular snowball rolling down the hill. In my past I have told, heard, and yes even laughed at some very offensive racial (read "racist") jokes, especially considering today's mores. All kinds including Polish and "Dumb Blonde" jokes. Am I now to be ruined because of it? Are we all? The only difference between those jokes and these photos (with countless photos to follow, I'm sure) are the times and fact no one recorded the verbal jokes. Perhaps those without sin should be the only ones throwing stones. The rest of us should repent.
4
This isn't a partisan issue. It is a 1960's Virginia white people issue.
I think politicians need to be evaluated on their political careers rather than stupid things they may have gotten up to in high school or college.
4
Blackface started being phased out of nearly all forms of entertainment over EIGHTY YEARS ago, for obvious reasons.
So can people please stop complaining/whining that Northam et al are being undeservedly punished for stupidity of 30 years past and that "sensibilities are different now"? Sensibilities have been different for over 80 years, folks.
3
Yes, it was wrong to dress up in Blackface. However, is he a good governor now? How does he treat people of different races and ethnicity now? What are his views now? This is not the same thing as sexual assault. If someone was stupidly not aware of the implications and offense of dressing up with blackface as a young man but has since very much changed and grown, shouldn't that count? What has he done in the last 20 years? That should count more. (I don't know his record - but good or bad, that is what he should be being judged on)
8
The Left is desperate to make this an issue beyond Dems.
1
People are shocked – absolutely shocked – that such things could go on in Virginia in the 60’s...
This is what was going on in the 50’s...
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/01/01/magazine/look-loving-versus-bigotry.html
“...In 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving were arrested in a nighttime raid in their bedroom by the sheriff of Caroline County, Va. Their crime: being married to each other. The Lovings — Mildred, who was of African-American and Native American descent, and Richard, a bricklayer with a blond buzz cut — were ordered by a judge to leave Virginia for 25 years. This month, the International Center of Photography is mounting a show of Grey Villet’s photographs of the couple in 1965. That exhibit is complemented by an HBO documentary, ‘‘The Loving Story,’’ directed by Nancy Buirski, which will be shown on HBO on Feb. 14. The film tells of the Lovings’ struggle to return home after living in exile in Washington, where Mildred, gentle in person but persistent on paper, wrote pleading letters to Robert F. Kennedy and the A.C.L.U. Two lawyers took their case to the Supreme Court, which struck down miscegenation laws in more than a dozen states. The Lovings’ belief in the simple rightness of their plea never wavered. Asked by one of his lawyers if he had a message for the Supreme Court, Richard said he did: ‘‘Tell the court I love my wife.’’...
2
Per scripture, Moses could not go to the Promised Land because he struck a rock. Interesting that the story of a great leader is undone by a past transgression is so ancient.
3
There will be more dredged up of course. And worse. Hate is one thing. But a lack of critical thought or cultural awareness is another. Do people know what kind of place VMI is? Perhaps they do now. It’s all pretty telling.
5
These white VMI students in black face were young, inexperienced in the larger society and probably unthinkingly reflecting the racial attitudes of their fathers and grandfathers. But VMI had older, presumably wiser administrators, educators and student advisors. The more serious question is what supervision they exercised over this sort of behavior and why they allowed it to be celebrated in the yearbook. They bear as much, if not more, accountability for this offensiveness.
56
In defense of VMI, a place I never visited, it was the Alma Mater, of one of our greatest citizens. George C. Marshall, five star general, Secretary of State and Defense, and author of the Marshall Plan.
Zero tolerance policies always backfire. They do not leave room for extenuating circumstances or unintentional transgressions Often they make no difference between someone who acted without malice or ill intent of any kind and someone who sets out to cause injury and damage.
Where are the people so pure that they have never uttered an insensitive remark or have not given in to social or peer pressure that they lack regret? Find me one person who has not been slighted or mocked or stung by the insensitivity of those of other backgrounds?
The current atmosphere is like sharks circling and thrashing driven by instinctual responses to the smell of blood in the water.
The scales of fairness weigh all the elements of a transgression trying to find a balance. Zero tolerance obviates any attempt at finding a balance. Snap! It's over!
11
@BJW
Decrying this type of mimicry in order to put an end to it for all time has been over long in coming; it has no place in any society, and never has. People then and those now know better.
More than merely "insensitive", it's specifically meant to demean and debase. Outward physical manifestation has been/is very often, if not always, also accompanied by disparaging behavior that "others" and makes mockery of those not of the prevailing culture, especially those subject to and targets of vehement discrimination and debasement. It causes the perpetuation of harmful stereotypes on the backs of those who've been/are unable to defend themselves for fear of dangerous retaliation, effectively denying their humanity.
In other words, whether overtly or subconsciously, the malice of it always exists and is always intentional.
6
@BJW
Are there no issues at all on which you would vote for zero tolerance? Is it truly possible to "find a balance" for every issue? Are there no absolutes at all?
Do you distinguish between abhorrent speech and acts and criminal speech and acts?
RE: race relations and bigotry, how mature must a perpetrator be before we waive the excuse of "youthful folly"? 18? 25? 35?
How influential must a person's position - or the one they seek - be before we say "no" - we can /must do better?
Is there a difference between the abhorrent speech of Steve King and a med school grad posing in a KKK hood?
Do random "you can't join my club" anti semites and racists get a pass, but a Farrakhan needs restraint?
Does a "bully pulpit" change the equation?
Eliminating unproven charges of sexual assault, should Kvanaugh's nomination to SCOTUS have been denied on evidence of immoderate behavior and partisan speech in televised hearings?
Re: regret and apology -- does Northam pass the test? Or do his conflicting responses reveal a self-interested liar?
Re: sexual behavior -are there no areas of zero tolerance? Who gets to decide? Is it okay to forgive some adolescent (or adult) T_T and A-S grabbing (boys will be boys); or is anything non-consensual off limits? Or do we forgive most everything short of rape unless there's a police report and available evidence)
Re: #MeToo? Is this a # too far?
Bullying? In K - 8? High School? College dorms? On the job?
What constitutes bullying anyway?
1
Surprise! The Federal government had to enforce integration in Virginia. My high school integrated in 1965. The fact that racism existed is historical fact, and it was a national concern. That is why there was forced integration. Integration was supposed to catalyze an evolution in human interaction. A few years later, Nixon supported affirmative action as a way to help black Americans achieve equal opportunity. Evolution is a process
In 1968 we had typewriters, dial phones, party lines. We had to iron our clothes, and we cranked them by hand through two rollers to wring them out. We had record players. Girls were not allowed to wear pants, and their skirts had to hang below the knee. Boys were sent home if their hair touched their collar. Evolution is a process.
Racism in a 1968 VMI yearbook? That is not an anachronism.
1
Does anyone remember Al Jolson, a white man and a terrific singer and entertainer who did blackface and dialects in his songs and dances? He was a national hit in the 1930s and, I think, 1940s. Even the northerners loved him!
Google AL JOLSON.
Why on earth would you be surprised that we northerners admired Jolson?
Certainly, not being racist must have been the exception, not the rule in 1968. Schools had just been desegregated, Loving v Virginia had just legalized interracial marriage, and the war in Vietnam - just a few years after the Korean war- was unlikely to make Asians popular.
Historically, I would say this makes this precise case fall under the 'I didn't know any better' category. The problem is that people won't admit to having been brought up as racist and ignorant. But isn't that the problem we all live with? I am not sure Americans are really taught the atrocious realities of slavery, and perhaps more importantly, because that was yesterday, of the Jim Crow era.
I believe that only by acknowledging the truth can the past be left behind - that's true for all countries, not just the USA. I think Nelson Mandela chose the right approach: truth and atonement are the only way to reconciliation. Heartfelt apologies go a long way.
Okay, 'heartfelt', 'politician', maybe that is a bit naïve of me, but I hope everyday our leaders will renew with the feeling of shame.
2
Mr. Norment is clearly telling the truth. We can tell by the intellectual level of the president that few if any Republican ever reads any book that is more than 300 pages long even if it is mostly pictures. Thus he must be telling the truth when he claims that he didnt read the yearbook he edited anymore than Trump wrote the "Art of the Deal"
6
Several commentators here, I think especially of "Grennan
Green Bay," have suggested a Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Virginia. I agree: This is an excellent opportunity.
I was in South Africa when their T&R Commission was up and running. It was broadcast daily and across the entire country, live. It had a powerful, healing and lasting impact on everyone who watched and listened.
Yes, the state of Virginia should get a similar T&R Commission up and running, put it on live TV, invite anyone and everyone to engage it. While we wait for this, I recommend Alex Boraine's book, "A Country Unmasked: Inside South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission" (Oxford University Press, 2000).
1
The revelations came fast. And catch the accused with flat feet. We are the current relation of a common ancestor with the chimapanzee. We forget our animal nature at our peril. The behavior that results in blackface, klan costume, sexual assault should cause outrage. Humans have a history of making the "other" feel little and less, and we seem able to find many "others" to hurt. But. After the outrage should come some clear-eyed thought. That is, how pathetic and juvenile these behaviors are. What does it take not to engage in sloppy actions which belittle people? What does it take to not begin an action that ends in assault? There are many responses we make in our lives. We may reserve the right to dislike an individual for some past or current slight but, to hold hostility or antagonism or aversion for a group of people requires too much energy. It removes our empathy and creates a narrow focus of what is really a problem. When we can no longer put ourselves in another's place, to lack the imagination to feel the soul-ripping action when our bodies, hair, skin, talk are used to shame, to create that hyena response of laughter, then each, and all of us, have died. Humans have had this conversation too many times over decades. When does the realization, in our shambling walk toward our humanity, begin that we have miles to go to reach it? Jenny
1
But the Republicans never resign over outrages like this. They always get away with it.
5
In the early 80s I dressed as aunt jemima for a Halloween party I also used charcoal on my skin. It was a costume and I was and am not racist. How many people were Michael Jackson in the 80s..it was the costume of choice! Pretty soon what we did as toddlers will be suspect!
6
The Republican denies. How novel. Next up: his GOP comrades, including Trump, circle the wagons. Irony intended.
3
These Virginia politicians can make amends as private citizens. The harm these lawmakers (including Northam when he was a practicing medical doctor!) could inflict on millions because of their ingrained racism is depressingly stunning. Just look up studies on this by governments, academia and think tanks. We need a US Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Racism.
1
I have never in my entire life (65 years) seen, in person, someone in blackface and I've lived all over the US. Ignorant, defiant, costumed racism, past or present, isn't American - it's bestial.
Many commenters seem to be saying: "Oh that's just how it was back then -- blackface was accepted -- we didn't know -- and it was just for parties!" That attitude makes forgiveness impossible.
There shouldn't be a "statute of limitations" past which all is forgiven. Slavery and racism are the central evil of American history and atonement is impossible. Therefore, the highest possible standard of behavior must be set -- these men from Virginia do not get a pass. That's how high the standard should be.
2
This is all a precursor to totalitarianism. We are conditioning people to right-think and constant self scrutiny to purge any hint of political correctness. I’m a Democrat. I despise Trump. But if the Democratic Party keeps up this identity nonsense, I’m done with it.
7
It is beginning to look as if the State of Virginia is in need of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to face up to and get beyond a racist past which is simply too close to ignore.
Seriously, time to face up to what had been, apparently, normal, rather than living in denial or secrecy,
There will always be racism, and bias for many reasons, but if political leaders either must deal with this or the power they wield will be seen as illegitimate.
5
I grew up in Virginia, DC, and Maryland. I've always known that racism isn't a left or right issue. It is a mostly white issue. The fact that racism has been more obvious and overt on the right these past few years doesn't change that. What will bring on a sea change is truth, reconciliation, and reparations. If the first step is admitting you have a problem, then we must start with truth.
---
Things Trump Did While You Weren’t Looking [2019]
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-3h2
15
I graduated college in 1980. I'm a white, Jewish, male who went to public primary and secondary schools, and colleges and universities in New York State. All of the schools I attended were primarily white, while having a number of African American students. The idea of blackface was then, and remains now, totally alien to my experience. Was this a Southern phenomenon? A Virginian phenomenon? A VMI phenomenon? God knows, it wasn't a SUNY phenomenon.
24
@gostrytertweets Yes, it is Southern phenomenon. Don't forget Richmond was the capital of the Confederacy.
2
@gostrytertweets I'm kind of curious myself. I would just never think of doing this, with the exception of having halloween makeup to look like a skeleton, which was part black and part white.
@David Konerding
Even that could get you in trouble in this environment.
2
The article could have also noted another aspect of VMI history: Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson was a teacher there when the Civil War broke out. He quickly resigned and took a commission in the Confederate army.
7
@Martin Kasindorf
It was and is a geographical local culture thing. It can pop up in places has not existed too. Some kid might see these story's and think "hey that's a way I can be a real tool.".. or something similar.
It is usually for the reaction in the same way scrawling a swastika in graffiti gets a reaction, not idealistic reasons.
1
I knew it wouldn't be long before some Republicans got snagged in this briar patch....it's not a political party thing, it's what people thought was an acceptable risk in order to be funny. But that was back then...maybe it's time for some new blood in politics. I'm sure we'll hear more of the same and not just in VA.
16
Let’s just ban anyone over the age of 45 from the vote or from public life.
Then we can all be beautiful with the purity and perfection of the virtue ethics of the youth.
Until they turn 45, of course, and then we can reinvent again because the predicates of today will become the outrages of the future.
16
@Curious
Give it up . I'm 72 and never encountered anyone who did this or who would not have known it was racist.
5
Racism was never ok, blackface was never ok, slavery was never ok. Plenty of people knew that in 1984, 1968, 1846. It's appalling that so many of us think this is some new-fangled idea that only young people would understand.
2
@Elizabeth
How about men dressing in drag? How dare they mimic and mock women?! Cultural appropriation! Cultural appropriation! Off with their heads!
I was the co-editor of my high school yearbook in 1977- we had a team also- I just do NOT buy his explanation that he had no oversight of his high school yearbook. We ALL worked on it and the teacher who supervised us checked everything- this doesn't pass the smell test. THIS WAS HIS YEARBOOK. If the Virginia Democrats go down, he should go down.
33
"What's good for the goose is good for the gander." Racism and hypocrisy have consequences in politics; now Norment faces the same public judgment and condemnation that Gov. Northam is facing. Neither side is clean, and both sides should take responsibility for what they've done.
Norment says he's not responsible for every photograph on every page of VMI's yearbook. But he was one of the editors; that means he and the others are responsible for the book as a whole.
Being an adult means taking responsibility for your life, no matter how long ago something happened. Dodging it suggests an ongoing pattern of racism,
24
I am from that generation, from NYC. We never did anything like that. Thought never crossed our minds. It was abhorrent. Still is.
16
This whole sorry episode has become surreal. It is "gotcha" politics initiated by far right forces on the whole panoply of reproductive rights issues. Now they get some of their own medicine, but that obscures the larger issue.
Are Democrats so inflexible, so wedded to political correctness, so unforgiving of long past folly (here I do not mean the sexual assault claim against the Lt. Gov. which is of a completely different level of seriousness) that no redemption, no forgiveness, no more recent acts of liberal politics and racial concord can wash away? Is that progressive at a time we are also arguing to restore rights and privileges to felons, and to undocumented aliens in our country? Yet our own office holders must be sent to the pyre as racial heretics, with no recantation heard or allowed? That's medieval not progressive.
If this is the new face of the Democrats , then Sen. Warren is doomed and who else in the pack may have skeletons? Are only saints with stigmata now fit to run or hold office by the unforgiving left? Meanwhile Trump and his far right minions are squealing with glee and rubbing their hands together. Democrats revert to the circular firing squad once again when that need not happen.
30
@Unworthy Servant
A lot of us out here agree with you, but we're afraid of losing our jobs. That's why we write under fake names. People's lives and careers are being destroyed by this insanity. NOBODY is 100% pure. Everybody has skeletons in their closet. If we listen to the pc warriors, pretty soon nobody will hold office anywhere anymore (oh, except them, of course, because they're blameless).
3
This kind of story is exactly why people in my generation think it's time to get the boomers out of politics, not just the republicans or the democrats. The boomers had their chance and as whole have proven themselves to be morally bankrupt on all sides. Time to pass the torch to a generation that didn't think it was cute to dress up in black face when they were teenagers...
39
@Jason Mulligan
There are millions of boomers for whom equality and ethical behavior matter. Blanket statements are not constructive.
41
@Jason Mulligan Much of this actually has to do with the state of Virginia. In an era when even the public universities of the most repressive deep south states had been integrated, although not without well-documented violent responses by the white "citizens", Virginia only admitted blacks and women to its most prestigious university in 1970! UVA at that time, of course, was funded by the taxes of all residents, but restricted access to white males. I attended as a graduate student from 1980 and although things had changed quite a bit, the depths of the entrenched racial superiority still lingered. Direct the blame where it lies. The old boys club environment was not found everywhere and everyone of that age group is not equally responsible for these types of behaviors. It also has to do with the type of male who seeks political office.
17
@Jason Mulligan: Excuse me Jason. I'm a "Boomer". Neither I, nor my friends, ever dressed up in blackface or made any derogatory gestures to people of other "races" or creeds. We fought for civil rights, for peace in Indo China, among other things, and continue to advocate for progressive causes. Get over yourself.
37
What is wrong in the State of Virginia? Who thought that any of this garbage was acceptable in 1984, 1974, or even 1964? This isn't rocket science -- it's common decency.
54
@Pete Christianson
Ted Danson, a well-known actor, performed in blackface at a Friars Club roast in 1993. His then girlfriend, Whoopie Goldberg, a host on the morning show "The View", was stated as saying she "liked it" and that she thought it was funny. What is wrong with all of us?
14
@Pete Christianson
You think this went on only in Virginia?? Oh brother. Think again. Just wait. This is only the beginning. Hundreds of "incriminating" pictures and text will be forthcoming. It's McCarthyism all over again.
18
@Pete Christianson I'm a 65 yr old woman raised in San Diego, CA -- call me overly protected or naive but in my life have I ever seen anything like these year book pics!
In 1967 required reading in my 7th grade class was the ground-breaking book "Black Like Me" (a white journalist goes undercover as a black man in the south in the '60's). It was eye-openingly informative, totally foreign and an unforgettable, heartbreaking story.
A huge THANK YOU to my mother for raising me in an area of the country that was, an apparently still is, is truly more civilized.
16
Virginia now has the opportunity to show how U.S. truth and reconciliation can work. The wounds of slavery run very deep, and the abscess needs draining--not just in one state, or one region, but the country.
Gov. Northam and Leader Norment should launch a bipartisan effort that gets the whole state involved. Unless it is painful, involves all races and parties, it will be merely lip service.
Admit that the state (region, country) needs healing but they, the pols, don't know how to achieve it. Get a lot of citizens to provide input about the process itself--it won't help if it increases white resentment.
From Jamestown, the concept of chattel slavery spread and infected what would become the U.S. Four hundred years later, Virginia state leaders have a chance to inspire and lead their state, the region and the whole country to heal the last side effects.
51
@Grennan, what a wonderful idea. Sadly, I give it a very small chance of becoming reality.
11
@Progressive Christian
I know. But in a lot of ways it's a bipartisan opportunity to recognize that whether anybody likes it or not, the tendrils of slavery are still poisoning our society and will until we work it out.
So many parts of the 400-year old stain touch on Virginia--Jamestown, Gabriel Prosser, Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet (the highest ranking CS officer to rejoin the US Army after the Civil War), the U. of V's history department and Lost Cause mythology, Woodrow Wilson, Love v Love, are just a few.
Every white person in the U.S. still benefits, and every black person still pays. Some will argue that their families didn't own slaves, or arrived too late--doesn't matter.
Our country still hasn't worked it out, which gives Virginia the chance to admit we don't know how, but must figure it out.
1
I'll take the last statement first as to how the VMI exists. It is all parts of a whole. To dismiss a part of it as history is to dismiss everyone who are historical Alumni. In other words, today's Alumni get a pass but not the racists who attended in it's degrading past.
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Being an editor means the buck stops with you. That is where the editorial control hits the road, or in this case, the printing press. There may be other editors who share the responsibility as well. This wasn't a high school with a teacher supervising. These were young adults. They were in leadership positions and should have known better.
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The Republicans were smirking at the Democrats' predicament until the stain seeped over onto their man. Maybe they will think twice before patting themselves on the back. Maybe, too, the far-right dirt throwers will learn that the tide can sometimes turn on them but all too quickly. This situation will be entangling many more hypocrites before the dust settles.
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@Camestegal
Because this is even close to the same.
Please. Let’s get real
1
Mr. Norment did not take the racist photos in the yearbook he edited. He di not write the racist slurs in the yearbook he edited. He was a young man when he was in charge of what photos and writings appeared in the book. According to the latest Republican thinking, that is the end of it. Now that Democratic governor; that is a whole different matter.
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@Michael
Have to disagree. No passes
As I look back on 1967 I was waiting at a bus stop with 2 African - Americans in The Bronx. Out of no where a car slowed down and yelled " watch out for those to N's next to you. I took action by running after that car and tried to stop the car and have a discussion. They drove away. I returned to the bus stop embarrassed and appalled and apologized to the couple. I was 15 years old.
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I don't think we know what slurs he may or may not have written.
1
How about we accept a five year statute of limitations on this kind of non-criminal behavior. Maybe then we can get back to dealing with our current problems and those of the future.
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With that kind of attitude, we can be assured of repeating despicable behavior just because we don't want to confront it. No thanks, this type of nonsense needs to stop especially when we continue to elect people who forget they're there to serve ALL, not just those who agree with them.
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@David P. Right, except it still is a current and future problem!
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@David P
How do we succeed In the present and the future when continually repeat mistakes of the past?
We have never faced indentured servitude, slavery, genocide (Native Americans, them the Philippines and other venues), the Civil War, Jim Crow, immigration (myths and reality) and much more...
We should not dwell in the past, but at some point we need to honestly face it.
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If this continues, the halls of statehouses and Congress will be empty.
If people show genuine contrition for their moronic behavior, and have led exemplary lives in the intervening years, they need to be forgiven. We're all products of the environment and time in which we grew up, the best we can do is hope to learn from our indiscretions. Let's move on.
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Nah, people would rather sit in judgment because it makes them feel superior. In 20 or 30 years when they or their kids get their digital histories combed through by fanatics for words and images that are commonplace today, then it won't seem so funny
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You'd be right if they'd own up to misbehavior...the problem lies with their willful forgetfulness when it comes to telling the truth. We will move on but the tangled tales we hear are desperate efforts to evade responsibilities.
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@nom de guerre Thank you. Hopefully, common sense will prevail. These young men were a product of their times and environment. What they may have done was not vicious - just an out of control prank. Time and maturity has long ago ended that phase of their lives. Forgiveness more in line with our reactions today, with calls for retribution unseemly. Martin Luther King would smile, laugh and say - Time Heals All Wounds. Then of course, consider the source of these "revealtions" - a Texas Republican - why did he decide to dig out his old yearbook after many years of silence? There lies the rub.
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Seeing a Republican associated with racist acts and not accepting accountability is the status quo since Trump took over the Republican Party. There’s no need for Republicans to hide it anymore; that is their core base, as their fealty to Trump confirms.
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This is Virginia, the heart of the Confederacy - the State where the outcome of the Civil War and The Emancipation Proclamation have never been fully accepted - where racism and prejudice remain alive and well.
Did anyone really expect the culture to be any different?
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@Norman McDougall. No that’s not true. I’m a Virginia native born and raised, and we are not the epicenter of all your misguided stereotypes. Please recognize that of the millions of people living in this beautiful state not all are like this. Some are. But so are some in Canada. Educate yourself
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I am a white male born and raised in western NY State. I retired from the Air Force nearly 40 years ago and I have lived in many different places including the segregated south, plus the DC area. Virginia is quite progressive. Mississippi is not. The problem with Dixie is not so much racism anymore. It is fundamentalist religion that has to promote ignorance in order to survive. Nearly all educated people know that the Biblical version of Genesis is a fairy tale, including Roman Catholics.
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@Norman McDougall--As a 74 white female who was educated in NJ and resided in Fla., Mich, Ga., NY, and NC where I have resided for 33 years. I hold the opinion that racism and prejudice remains alive and well in all of our states.
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No political party has a monopoly on racist behavior.The white supremist movement to the extent that it is political would be the exception. The real question is whether there should be a statute of limitations on morally reprehenslble behavior based on today’s standards that was common on campuses thirty or more years ago? Based on the standards for appointments to SCOTUS “youthful indiscretions “can be overlooked. The full body of work of a politician should be considered and not just bad behavior that is decades old.
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Of course this was going to happen. And this hole has no bottom, for either side.
Now Democrats can feel partially appeased and the circus, which is almost exclusively of their creation, may go on. Personally, I'd love to see a really exhaustive, intolerant and accusatory inquiry into the background of Senator Gillibrand.
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@Wine Country Dude
Such as relentless defense work for the tobacco companies?
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I can only assume that the political fates, what there be of them, conjured the name “Norment” to describe the normalizing of torment the world is experiencing now.
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I love the fact that he pointed out how many pages the book had. I wonder if the publisher of "Women in Love" made the same claim about that work, saying that they didn't know there was sex in the book?
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There are few of us in a rapidly changing society who would not look back with shame at some of the views we held in our youth. Not just the ubiquity of unconscious racism especially in the south but rampant sexism and homophobia. TV shows such as Madmen make a point of reflecting back to us the gap between how we were then and how we are now. I know some will view it is excessively charitable to offer a kind of cultural defense to these Virginians who could not see beyond the demeaning stereotypes then prevalent. What I would want to see from Northam and company however is an honest acknowledgement that they held views in their youth that they now find abhorrent, that they condemn those views in the strongest terms possible, and that they will use their position of privilege to make amends. What troubles me in the current political climate is that it leaves no room for forgiveness or redemption. People who have fallen - even politicians and other public figures- should have a way of redeeming themselves instead of remaining pariahs forever. There is still a lot of wisdom in the biblical passage- let he(she) who is without sin cast the first stone.
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@Jason
I wish I could like your comment, Jason of Brooklyn, thousands of times. These Virginia politicians can make amends as private citizens. The harm these lawmakers (including Northam when he was a practicing medical doctor!) could inflict on millions because of their ingrained racism is depressingly stunning. Just look up studies on this by governments, academia and think tanks. We need a US Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Racism.
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@Jason
The most compassionate and pragmatic comment here.
Bravo
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@Rmark6
"People who have fallen - even politicians and other public figures- should have a way of redeeming themselves instead of remaining pariahs forever."
Absolutely. But first, they should resign.
6
Racism runs deep, deep, deep in the heart of this country. I despair of rooting it all out. But here's a thought: if we want leaders who aren't racists and white supremacists, let's elect more people of color. While we're at it, if we want leaders who haven't harassed and abused and assaulted women, let's elect more women. Electing women of color would be the best of all worlds.
White men have dominated this country's politics since its inception. They've had their shot, and look where it's gotten us. I look forward to living in a country where women like Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are calling all the shots.
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@Jason
I applaud your stance. Yet I personally have cautiously muted my initial blanket enthusiasm for the 2018 elections' record-breaking number of "firsts": for women, women of color, muslim women -- a group more diverse than at any other time in US history.
Why? Because I have been personally shaken by the anti-semitism expressed by Representatives Talib and Omar, their denial that wholesale castigation of Israel has anything to do with anti-semitism (they seem to have no problem with the Saudis or other repressive regimes); and their apparent ignorance of common tropes of Jew hatred -- lifted wholesale from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And unlike the Virginia guys who still haven't figured out what was wrong with blackface 20 years ago, Talib and Omar have yet to show the grace to apologize for what may or may not be youthful ignorance.
Equally disheartening are their sisterly connections to openly anti semitic leaders of the Women's March -- Mallory, Sarsour, and Perez -- who as of today do not disclaim their relations with the unabashed anti-semite and LGBTQ hater Louis Farrakhan. These are not good signs for a bright new age.
But I have not lost hope. The recent Twitter skirmish between Jewish Representative Lee Zeldin and Representative Ilhan Omar ended with an invite (not yet fulfilled?) to have a cup of teas together and talk over their dueling accusations of Islamophobia and Antisemitism.
That is how we can begin to come together.
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@Clairette Rose
I appreciate your comment. Clearly, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are issues that transcend race, gender, or political party, and must be seriously addressed. That said, I never meant to argue that electing women and minorities means that they can never do wrong, and must be unconditionally applauded. Obviously, every single elected official must be held accountable for their actions and opinions. But it's still a generally good thing for us to elect people from groups that have been historically underrepresented, oppressed, ignored, or silenced. They won't be perfect, because they'll still be human, and differences and conflicts must continue to be hashed out. But it is nevertheless a significant and necessary step forward.
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@Clairette Rose
"Talib and Omar have yet to show the grace to apologize for what may or may not be youthful ignorance."
I wonder if you have had a chance to see Omar's recent interview with Trevor Noah on the Daily Show. She addresses her remarks about Israel, acknowledges her blind spot around the language she's used, and clarifies her intended meaning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5gtpWg5-Ns
1
If we want to look at the world "as it exists in actuality, not in theory,” then we must understand that many people currently holding positions of power grew up and participated in an openly racist culture, especially in the South. It seems we will need some sort of deliberate and large scale Truth and Reconciliation, otherwise we will continue living a lie, constantly astonished when the ugly truth confronts us in yearbooks of yore.
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I wish to point out that a “theory”, as the word is used in science, occupies the top step in the ladder of factual knowledge. It does not refer to some casual whim. In science, an unverified proposal is known as a hypothesis.
1
Just looked through my 1968 Yearbook from Washington & Lee, also in Lexington, Va., and saw NO evidence of anything racial.
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No pics of Lee Chapel, or the Confederate Flags within?
If you were there in '68 that was probably before the annual "Pimps and Hos" fraternity party. Nothing racist about that.
You saw nothing racist in your yearbook or memories, just a lot of wonderful traditions, eh?
Because I was also a student at W&L in the 90's and it as was racist (and sexist and entitled) as any otherwise reputable institution could be.
7