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I will admit that I've known that the KKK was a bad symbol/type of people since I was in elementary school. But honestly, I didn't even know what blackface was until I got older. I don't even remember but I'd say I was out of high school. Probably once I got on the internet & read about it.
I can understand why it's not right but I do think that if I didn't know what it was through my teenage years. Is this something that would be very subjective on if a photo pops up in the future of a politician/celebrity years from now of something they did young?
For the record I'm not defending the governor. Even if I was willing to believe it wasn't him in the picture you're assuming that nobody ever reached out to him about it & then you realize his nick name in the year book too. Just seems he's dug himself in a huge hole here.
I would just hate to see a white person get destroyed if they had a photo pop up & they really had no idea about the racial impact of what they did at the time.
Well that's the world half of the Liberal voting country has us living in... If you're a man, a conservative, and/or a White male, you'll have a target on your back... It started out as a way for Democrats to gain power, but not it's come full circle....
I am puzzled that none of Northam's classmates have come forward to discuss the photo, the party or the yearbook yet. Otherwise, can't facial recognition software or analyzing his ear lobes help identify if he is in the photo?
Blackface is much more than just dark makeup used to enhance a costume.
Its American origins can be traced to minstrel shows. In the mid to late nineteenth century, white actors would routinely use black grease paint on their faces when depicting plantation slaves and free blacks on stage.
To be clear, these weren't flattering representations. At all. Taking place against the backdrop of a society that systematically mistreated and dehumanized black people, they were mocking portrayals that reinforced the idea that African-Americans were inferior in every way.
The blackface caricatures that were staples of Minstrelsy (think: Mammy, Uncle Tom, Buck, and Jezebel) took a firm hold in the American imagination, and carried over into other mediums of entertainment.
Blackface has also been seen in Vaudeville Shows and on Broadway. Yes, black actors sometimes wore blackface, too, because white audiences didn't want to see them on the stage without it.
We have blackface performances to thank for some of the cartoonish, dehumanizing tropes that still manage to make their way into American culture.
Beyond that, blackface and systematic social and political repression are so inextricably linked that, according to C. Vann Woodward’s history The Strange Career of Jim Crow, the very term “Jim Crow†— usually used as shorthand for rigid anti-black segregation laws in force between the end of Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement — derives from an 1832 blackface minstrel number by Thomas D. Rice.
No doubt some actions can be blatantly racist but other times we just need get over ourselves and take humor and satire for what it is.
Hard to do when you have major media like Huffpost, NYT, WP, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, etc screaming RACIST whenever a white conservative or white celebrity does it.. Hell, Megyn Kelly was fired and labeled a racist by the left for saying the exact same thing you just said...
Not all black-face forms are intended to be racist. Ganguro, per its Wikipedia entry, "is an alternative fashion trend among young Japanese women that started in the mid-1990s, distinguished by a dark tan and contrasting make-up liberally applied by fashionistas." However, I would recommend not doing this fashion trend in the U.S. given the bad history of black-face here.
So why did he say it was him the day before? The problem is the flip flop. The flip flop was a response to the outrage of him admitting he was part of the photo. He also admitted putting on black face at a different occasion. Who does that? Its not a big stretch to say he did it once he probably did it more than once. Perhaps tomorrow he will say he never put on black face. It was another memory lapse.
Its just like Roy Moore. His memory was hazy except where it benefited him.
Yep, huge issue. He keeps changing his story. It's like the American people are a focus group and he's testing out different advertising campaigns.
He also had a nickname in his college yearbook that I won't repeat here. He said people called him that but he had no idea why. Really, dude?
No doubt some actions can be blatantly racist but other times we just need get over ourselves and take humor and satire for what it is.
The example you've given is part of why I thought of that. The movie was a good movie for some. So let's say a group of friends try and do something similar. A couple black guys dress white & their two white friends dress black. Nobody knows the racial tensions about it. yet years later the two white people are crucified for their actions.
Did you even watch his press conference yesterday? These aren't allegations. This are things that are known.
.
At least then unlike Kavanaugh people are relying on facts.
At the same time, I do think stuff done as a youth is not relevant 35 years later, unless it involved political corruption as it occurred.
I abhor racist stuff like what Va gov did, but do not think it should impact unrelated job performance a third of a century later. (I assume he is not working on a minstrel show now.)
Redemption is NOT a political matter IMO.
PS: THat being said, Va pols calling for his head may get their way. The Emmett Tills relatives would understand why.
Personally, I am not too keen on forcing a politician to resign for something stupid and controversial they did 30+ years ago. It's not like he committed a heinous crime or something.
Plus, he apologized for it and that ought to be good enough.
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