I realize that everyone and their grandmother are demanding that Ralph Northam resign as governor of Virginia (based on having posed either in black face or in a KKK hood), but I can’t resist piling on the fray. First the silly dude goes through the usual routine of claiming he was young and apologizes for his actions, asks for forgiveness, and all of that. But then he turned around and claimed it wasn’t him in the photo after all. Don’t you get the impression that someone said, “Hey, based on your getup (whether blackface or hood) they probably can’t prove it’s you anyway, so why not deny it?” And the governor is such an idiot that he probably said “Gee, I never thought of that; that’s what I’ll do!” But what innocent person would ever admit to such a thing in the first place?
As if that isn’t bizarre enough, then he turns around and admits to having donned dark makeup for a Michael Jackson impersonation contest. As one commentator pointed out, it’s probably the first time in history that a politician (or anyone on earth, for that matter!) has denied appearing in black face in one situation, only to admit doing it in another. Hello?!? If he admits to doing it once, why wouldn’t he do it twice?
But what strikes me the most is that, by his own account, it wasn’t until 2017, based on a conversation with an African American associate, that he realized imitating Michael Jackson in blackface was wrong. Hello?!? In other words, in this day and age, an educated man in his late fifties had to be told why that was wrong—why it was hurtful and offensive to African Americans. Never mind that the man is a racist, he’s obviously a complete moron! It’s hard enough to believe he would need such a thing explained to him, but the fact that he would happily admit it—and be proud of it, no less!—is nothing short of amazing.
Maybe the man isn’t a “hater,” but he certainly testifies to the seemingly never-ending obliviousness to our country’s racist history that is endemic among white Americans. How else could anyone be so clueless? This country can never be sufficiently educated to is racist past, and this former son of the Cotton Kingdom is more than happy to help out whenever he can!