Blackface

[Guest]

I can't help noticing that his earliest and harshest critics were prominent fellow democrats. Why do leading Republicans consistently give Trump a pass for far more serious, numerous, blatant and recent racist and misogynistic statements and actions committed by him, not to mention blatantly dishonest and illegal ones? If Governor Northam should be obligated to resign over that one picture taken 35 years ago, Donald J. Trump should have been impeached and forced to resign long ago. Better yet, he should never have been elected in the first place!

The evident fact that Democrats do not seem to shy away from criticizing even their own for wrongdoing, while so many prominent Republicans slavishly support Trump no matter what he does or says is a clear indication that Democrats have significantly more integrity and ethical sense than Republicans. Consider also the case of Al Franken who had to resign over a picture in which he only jokingly pretended he was about to grope a fully clothed, sleeping woman's breasts, while Trump who openly boasted of grabbing the genitals of random women remains the President of the U.S..

[_Gunnar]

Republicans ran a literal neo-Confederate for Senate in Virginia in November.

and the Democrats got a retro-Confederate elected Governor. Whats your point narcissisus?

Being a neo-Confederate is much, much worse than what Northam did / is doing in terms of racism, and your "hair fires" prophecy didn't come to fruition. Maybe next time predict something that wasn't already refuted at the time you predicted it?

Yeah! That too! Excellent point! Like Trump, subgenius simply can't refrain from making a fool of himself. Do you think he will ever get it?

[_EAllusion]

The Virginia GOP ran one of the most overt examples of a campaign based on racist demagoguery in a generation for governor in 2017. That likely was an attempt to double down on the Trump strategy. They followed that up a year later with running a neo-Confederate for Senate. It's quite funny to watch them trip over themselves to get in on that sweet, sweet outrage over Northam while still getting to be the party does that. Attempts at threading that needle aren't exactly cuttin' it, but it is entertaining.

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

In the latest chapter of gotcha racism...



Maybe this will cool McConnell on the Russians. An anon is the person who tipped that reporter on the Governor and now this surfaces? Good timing.

- Doc

[_ajax18]

I think this proves how much more sensitive and tense race relations are becoming even in recent history in spite of the emancipation proclaimation, the civil rights movement, and ultimately the election of Obama. At this rate, one wonders where this will be in thirty more years? I think it will be literally impossible to interact with each other in any way without someone taking offense and setting off a legal war of money, lawsuits and career sabotage. I'm afraid a second civil war would have been a blessing in lieu of the society I see coming.

[_EAllusion]

I think this proves how much more sensitive and tense race relations are becoming even in recent history in spite of the emancipation proclaimation, the civil rights movement, and ultimately the election of Obama. At this rate, one wonders where this will be in thirty more years? I think it will be literally impossible to interact with each other in any way without someone taking offense and setting off a legal war of money, lawsuits and career sabotage. I'm afraid a second civil war would have been a blessing in lieu of the society I see coming.

What's society coming to when you can't dress in blackface next to your friend in a KKK robe, put a photo of it in in your medical school yearbook, and lie about it in a not-pology? Blacks go the right to vote, sorta. That's not enough? Time for civil war, I suppose.

[_canpakes]

I think this proves how much more sensitive and tense race relations are becoming even in recent history in spite of the emancipation proclaimation, the civil rights movement, and ultimately the election of Obama. At this rate, one wonders where this will be in thirty more years? I think it will be literally impossible to interact with each other in any way without someone taking offense and setting off a legal war of money, lawsuits and career sabotage. I'm afraid a second civil war would have been a blessing in lieu of the society I see coming.

Considering that much of the criticism being leveled at Northam is coming from his own party, how is your scenario going to play out? Who is on which side, and for what reasons?

ETA: Specifically regarding the last comment, “I'm afraid a second civil war would have been a blessing in lieu of the society I see coming” ... is the society that you see coming somehow worse than the previous version, in which we bought and sold other folks as slaves, treated a whole class of people as property and regarded them as something less than human, and felt free to string them up in trees for entertainment? Tell us what you see coming that will be worse, and who will be doing it.

[_Gunnar]

I think this proves how much more sensitive and tense race relations are becoming even in recent history in spite of the emancipation proclaimation, the civil rights movement, and ultimately the election of Obama.

If you can't see that the main reason for that is Trump and others of his ilk and their inherently racist and intolerant attitudes and policies, then you and people like you are a major part of that problem. We are now going backwards in fair and just treatment of minorities and civil rights, reversing decades of positive progress in that area. No single individual is more responsible for that deplorable state of affairs than Donald J. Trump.

[_MsJack]

My first impression when I saw the photo was that it was an attempt at off-beat and ironic humor, similar to dressing up as a pregnant nun, or Justine Sacco's ill-fated tweet. "I'll be a blackman and you be a KKK member and we'll be good buddies, har har, aren't we funny."

A horrible, ignorant, and inappropriate attempt at humor (like Sacco's tweet), but not actively meant to be malicious or racist (also like Sacco's tweet).

Then again, the guy was nicknamed "Coonman" in another yearbook (and I don't believe him when he says he has no idea how he got the nickname), and admits to pulling blackface elsewhere. I suspect he's engaged in this kind of humor more than once, and more than twice.

I tend to think someone's career (political or otherwise) shouldn't be blown up over decades-old bad jokes.

Then again, there are some careers you shouldn't go into if you have certain misdeeds in your past. If you thought blackface was cool in medical school, politics is probably one of them.

[_EAllusion]

I tend to think someone's career (political or otherwise) shouldn't be blown up over decades-old bad jokes.

That's my first inclination, but then his subsequent handling of the matter was so spectacularly bad that we aren't just talking about decade old behavior now. He blew his chance at just admitting the issue, expressing how he's changed, and trying to move on in forgiveness.

I was trying to come up with an example that is more modern that gets at the fact that everyone should understand this is racist as hell in the 80's, but also that it's plausible that someone seeped in that culture milieu might plausibly not get it. What I came up with is knowing a guy in the early 2000's who did a gay impersonation that was a total swish. I feel like most of us, at least under a certain age, encountered that.

On the one hand, I can understand how casual homophobia was so pervasive that a certain type of person could think that was both funny and fine and view critics of them as people who just need to lighten up. I can see how their surrounding social network could reinforce that belief. On the other hand, lots of people perfectly well understood that wasn't cool and the reasons why were easily accessible. It's not enough to say "the early 2000's were a different time" because you should've been better than that. At the same time, I can understand it happening back then without a person who did it being forever tarred as homophobic. However, if a video of it is uncovered and they have Northam's response to it, screw that guy.