Seems a lot like the actual story at http://almostblack.com/ except that the writer/protagonist is south Asian pretending to be black to gain medical school admission (and did it well enough to attract harassment by police, suspicion by shopkeepers, and fear by women as side effects).
For a politician, the offense is not that they dressed in blackface 30 years ago, but that they didn’t come clean about it before the election. Explain it, apologize and then let voters decide. It’s the subterfuge that is recent and wrong.
yea, like removing all the cival war monuments, renaming schools and roads…
If the practice was normalized at VA colleges (as it seems to have been) then they wouldn’t even have known to mention it. Do you really think there aren’t dozens of other white men in their 40s 50s 60s with similar yearbooks or pictures in their albums who never mentioned this because it disappeared from memory as another stupid college stunt.
That doesn’t make it excusable.
to me, “yellowface” should be equally as big an issue. Hell, we still have Emma Stone and Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson playing Asian characters in movies just last year.
I mentioned in the other thread that my wife dressed as Stevie Wonder for Halloween in college in the 80’s. Had she become a politician I can not imagine that she would have mentioned this costume and the associated pictures, not because she would have tried to hide it or been embarrassed about it but simply because it was 30 years ago and really is not a lasting memory and would not be germane to her responsibilities in government.
I have a friend from college that has always had political ambitions and we have always joked with him that he better never run for office or there will be people coming out of the woodwork. His sense of humor, in college, was very juvenile with sexual overtones. Nothing he did offended anyone at the time but if pictures came out today (and yes we still have pictures) he would not have the luxury of context and would be vilified. Political aspirations or not I am sure he has some sleepless nights thinking about the “what if pictures come out” as he is a fairly high ranking member of the FBI. The fear of being judged through the lens of today for actions that were socially acceptable 30+ years ago seems to have gone too far when we are talking about losing a career that has been 30 years in the making.
Well it helps it the person who would succeed you is alleged to have done something far worse.
I’m pretty sure I have a pic somewhere in my old photos of two boys who went to my HS dressed as “Ebony and Ivory In Reverse” for Halloween (white kid was Stevie and the AA kid was Paul.)
I think I’m going to leave that one alone.
However cringey that feels now, this seems a far cry from posing with someone in a Klan suit like oh haha, the Klan.
I lived in both NY and VA during the 1980s. I never saw blackface at any parties in NY and it would have gotten you banned on my campus. It would have been encouraged and applauded where I was in VA.
There was a thing among teenagers in the late 80s in NY about sounding black that I found disturbing.
Taking down Civil War statues isn’t just a change of times. They’ve always been offensive to large numbers of people, certainly many African-Americans, and anyone else who doesn’t think we should commemorate treason. It just took enough time and pressure to get that reality recognized finally.
@SouthernHope yep yep agreed.
I think.people are looking for reasons to be offended these days.
Tolerance is being skewed…when someone dresses up as MJ or Bob Marley 25 years ago and now may lose their job.
That is crazy!
It probably wouldn’t have led to loss of job if the governor hadn’t dressed up as generically black with a KKK guy. Thaat is inherently worse, but it makes it hard to draw the line.
The one racial thing I can think of from a yearbook is my brother’s 1978 high school yearbook. Along with all of the other clubs and groups was a picture of the “Grey Student Union” which had a picture containing a couple of white students whose last name was Gray or Grey, one black student with the last name, and one biracial student whose last name was something else. The students had clearly posed for it as a takeoff on the school’s Black Student Union.
Blackface was offensive 30 years ago, and it’s offensive today. The governor probably could’ve just apologized and said he was young and dumb and been okay but for:
1)He rescinded his apology and seem to make a mockery of the issue.
2) He wouldn’t even say if he was he one in black face or the klansman, which tells me all I need to know.
3) He is a liar because there is no way in hell that you don’t know how a picture ends up on YOUR page for the yearbook. You are asked to submit your pictures.
4) He then wanted to expound on how hard it was to get black shoe polish off ones face which tells me , he either did it more than once or ran with a crowd that did.
I don’t think anyone needs to be looking for “reasons to be offended these days”, when there are so many people out there willing be be offensive and feigning surprise when someone protests. I also think it’s the height of arrogance and disingeniousness for anyone who is not a member of a minority group to dictate what is or isn’t offensive to them. To me, that’s whats crazy. Just because you didn’t understand what was wrong with something racist years ago doesn’t mean you can’t be open to learning about it now.
Maybe it “wasn’t a big deal” - to white people.
I can’t help but wonder how most people of color viewed it back then. If memory serves, the practice had been discussed by black people as offensive and hurtful long before the 80’s. I suppose a lot of the white people doing it either didn’t know it caused others pain or just didn’t care. It’s hard to say what someone’s motivation was 30 years ago.
ETA: @partyof5 has weighed in how it was viewed 30 years ago by the people who were actually the butt of the joke. As I suspected, it WAS a “big deal” to many of them.
I guess my feeling is if one (or several) indiscretions from 30+ years ago can cause the loss of a job/position where are we going to find the people to lead us into the future?
On the surface my wife would be that hard to find leader. Never drank a drop, never used drugs, 4.0 undergrad and graduate degrees, charity work from age 15 on, 4 year collegiate letter winner and team captain, Phi Beta Kappa,etc. etc. however she once for Halloween dressed as Stevie Wonder and has never mentioned it in an employment setting. This could be viewed as a cover up for 30+ years as opposed to the simple fact that it is not a memorable event in her otherwise notable life, but if it came to light would be the thing she is judged for, rather than all the good she has done.
Would any of our last 5 presidents pass this test if called to the carpet today? I doubt it based on drug use, womanizing,secret societies, etc. I guess I just believe people can and do change and everything when viewed in a rear view mirror may not be what it seems.
Halloween 30 years ago needs to get a pass unless truly vile - and what parent would let their kid dress as something vile and not be responsible?
But… there’s a difference between a Klan costume and pretending to be Michael Jackson or Stevie Wonder.
Posing with klan costumes and blackface was apparently a thing in those days, as per a UNC frat yearbook that’s been unearthed. And it was done fully knowing how offensive and disgusting that was. In the UNC frat yearbook, two brothers are pretend lynching a “brother” in blackface. I’m guessing more of those will be found.
The fact it was done a lot doesn’t make it any less offensive. It does explain why some didn’t mention it before: they ran with a crowd where that didn’t raise eyebrows nor was considered an especially clever prank or whatever.
That picture is bringing things up that some might have wanted to forget (or totally forget because they weren’t painful to them): not so long ago, it was seen as funny to be a racist, racism was a way to belong or exclude those who couldn’t be, that these people who were cool with it in their 20s are now in the 50s and 60s and some are in power. Lots of racist skeletons in all these closets. And we must look at it collectively - not think it’s just these two guys, or three guys. It was Virginia in the 70s and 80s, and North Carolina, and lots of places. When were the last sundown laws torn down?
Both examples are clearly different from dressing up as Michael Jackson (in my elementary class I swear half the boys dressed as Michael Jackson one Halloween and it was genuinely aspirational, to be seen as cool, rich, famous - okay, different at 20 than at 9 after a huge musical success but still different from blackface Klan outfits, and lynching parodies).
Nowadays, by the way, in my opinion, if a little boy can dress as Elsa then anyone could dress as Michael Jackson or whoever they want. Little kids’ Halloween’s totally different than Blackface.
I hope we dont confuse both because they’re two different matters.
BTW I do think Northam should step down, but I don’t think his career should be over if he continues acting in a way that is positive toward all people. (As far as I know, there’s no indication he has been racist in the past 30 years. So there was a breach of trust and disgust and he needs to make amends, not just in words but in deeds, but I wouldn’t condemn him to political toundra. He can win his way back).
It was a stupid and offensive thing to do and he should apologize.
However, I wonder how long before questions like “Have you ever donned an offensive Halloween costume or told a sexually explicit joke?” start to appear in forms next to a question “Have you ever been convicted for a felony?”
Yeah, I can’t imagine anyone in my high school or college (late 70’s to early 80’s) putting on blackface. There’s no way it would have been seen as not a big deal.
I do remember being faced with a dilemma in elementary school when my teacher assigned a biography project and later told us we were having a party where everyone was to dress as the subject of our book. I was a little blonde who had chosen Mary Mcleod Bethune. The teacher gave me the option to choose another book but I was interested in Bethune and what I’d learned about her so I wore an afro wig and old fashioned dress. I think a few parents may have been confused at the white girl in the afro, but even in 3rd grade we knew blackface wasn’t a good idea.