US Politics February 2019: This is one of the great losers of all time.

Yeah, that's why I'm leaning b). Like I totally buy that people who harbor horrible ideas in their early twenties are capable of turning it around and becoming decent people later in life. I'm just not particularly convinced that those people need to be elected officials.

Per the Wapo article I posted above, minstrel shows were still popular in cville into the 1970s and people have lauded their participation in minstrel shows in very, very recent obituaries. It's all sorts of fucked up.

No one had to sit me down and teach that to me

really? you just magically grasped the history of blackface as a child?

Like, you probably still have some internal work to do, my dudes, so why not do it while you're like selling real estate or something instead of representing a diverse constituency.

xposts

I mean I know I'm biased here cuz it's a Dem but I don't think Herring should be stepping down over this

Northam should definitely go though

(I say this as someone who has children that are of the age where I need to explicitly explain why certain depictions of various ethnicities are racist and not ok)

xp

I love Elie Mystal and his headline made me LOL "Virginia A.G. Admits To Wearing Blackface As We Enter The ‘I Am Spartacus’ Part Of Black History Month"

I would argue that there's a pretty distinct difference between an eight-year-old's tragic mispronunciation of Niger (ahem, guilty) and someone in their early 20s thinking it's totally cool to engage in Stepin Fetchit cosplay.

i want to know who’s funding the outlet that broke these stories

xpost Yeah, no one told me it was bad, I just knew. My parents never instilled in me much of anything more than the general importance of education, but at the same time whatever their political or personal leanings (my dad definitely leaned conservative, though he never told me who he voted for) I never once saw them treat anyone less than respectfully, so I guess they lead by example? Now, on the other hand, as a family we watched "Airplane!" last year, and my kids looked at me and said, "um, isn't this kind of racist?" And I had to explain, yeah, it's racist - and sexist, and homophobic, and etc., and that's sort of what makes it funny. It's OTT offensive. And that was tough to explain to them. But I've never felt the need to teach them about racism and so on because they've always seemed to grasp it, but have no problem talking about it as needed. I think having diverse schools and good teachers/curriculum clearly makes a difference!

maura otm, follow the money

xpost I saw an interview with one of his medical school classmates, iirc, and they said everyone knew about the pictures and were shocked it took this long for them to come out.

Even if it's an organized effort by the GOP, it's not like they're inventing a picture of the gov in fucking blackface and/or a klan robe, or an accusation of sexual assault or whatever. Now, why this is happening now ... who knows. Why did all the Al Franken stuff come out when it did?

the candidates are breaking these stories themselves!

politicians*

in both cases because they were "unearthed" and promoted by RW media outlets/opposition researchers

the candidates are breaking these stories themselves!

this is only true in Herring's case, I think?

minstrel shows were still popular in cville into the 1970s and people have lauded their participation in minstrel shows in very, very recent obituaries.

Robert Byrd (an actual Klan member) was in the Senate til his death in 2010

George Wallace renounced his racism and won a fourth and final term in 1982 with a large amount of black support. He also appointed several African-Americans to the state cabinet.

A lot worse than dressing up like Kurtis Blow in that dude's personal history.

Can't believe that anyone schooled in his personal history could have ever believed his renunciation of racism was the tiniest bit sincere.

The michael jackson thing he admitted to seems qualitatively different than the minstrel photo with the kkk guy.

OF COURSE Morbius is still getting mileage out of "Robert Byrd was in the Klan!!!"

xpost He became a born again Christian, right? Point being that he couldn't make anyone trust him except through his words and actions, whether they believed him or not. Whether that's enough to justify forgiving one of the most virulent racists in US history is a different debate, but I suppose related to what we're talking about now.

a morbs in the thread is worth a byrd in the klan

I am ok with all these jackasses resigning if it means less-->0 people wear blackface or push down heads for coercive oral sex.

xpost Speaking of the MJ thing, the only explanation I can think of for his confusing bullshitery is him being told there was a picture of him in blackface in the yearbook, him thinking of the admitted MJ incident and then immediately saying yeah, it's me, my bad, and then seeing the picture of someone in blackface next to someone in a Klan Kostume and thinking, whoa, I said I dressed up as MJ once, but that's not me hanging with a klansman! But that's not what he said. What he said only flies - and still doesn't excuse his actions - if he's not sure it's him in blackface or the klan uniform, because the implication is that he did it enough that he can't be sure. His heartfelt mea culpa only makes him look worse.

Is that second thing what the lieutenant governor is accused of?

Yeah. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/2019/02/06/daed33aa-2a30-11e9-b2fc-721718903bfc_story.html

Installing Cox as governor by "conveniently" "discovering" preexisting flaws in the D officials all at once is amusing, on a nakedly Machiavellian level. But I am not sure it will fly.

... have you ever met a Republican?

That sounds worse than wearing blackface in the 80s. xp

does it really even matter whether it's him in either the blackface or klan uni??

If this is all calculated perfectly by republicans to install a republican than hat’s off i guess.

Impressive stuff

when we said more black faces in government, we should have been specific.

— shalewa sharpe (@silkyjumbo) February 6, 2019

xp granny i think he’s claiming he thinks he’s neither but isn’t sure

right, but I'm saying it doesn't matter if he was in the pic or not. it's on his yearbook page! are we to believe he never saw it or had anyone inform him about what was on it???

The very existence of the GOP at this particular point in time seems to be overwhelmingly predicated upon their exploitation of any and every possible loophole. Like they only ever win because they're always using a fucking Game Genie.

I dont think i ever looked at my yearbook page for college. I have heard of people manipulating other people’s yearbook page for revenge. It’s improbable that this happened here but who knows.

isn't sure

because wearing a klan outfit or blackface was just not unusual enough to recall with any exactitude?

Have their been polls of black virginia voters on this? That’s whose perspective matters, not mine

again, NOBODY saw that page and was like "uh dude have you looked at your yearbook page????????"?? gimme a break

Med school yearbook page??? Idk

I am unaware if my grad school had anything like a yearbook. I’m assuming not but I don’t know.

I’m not defending the dude, but i do think it’s plausible he forgot about the existence of this photo and maybe he never even saw it

It caught him off guard, obviously

so you're not confident that there isn't a super racist photo on your college yrbook page, got it

They interviewed the yearbook guy who did yearbooks that year and Eastern VA Med actually stopped with the yearbooks in 2014 because of students posing in confederate uniforms.

lol @ my friend Shalewa being linked in this thread by someone who's not me or crüt.

I’m 99.9999999999999999999% sure but i also have never seen that yearbook xp