“So, my senior year of high school I moved to Indiana for my senior year. At the new school, seniors got their own parking spots and could paint it however they wished.
In my randomly assigned spot, the previous senior had painted it with the Confederate flag.
People didn’t notice this would be a problem until I showed up and then everybody noticed it would be a problem.
It was quickly repainted. Not even by me. But by members of the football team which I had been practicing with a little bit over the summer.
I tell this story now because I notice how the #RalphNortham conversation isn’t really focused on the harm he caused to his classmates in real time. There were black people in his school in 1984. And 1985, and 86 and so on. Imagine what they must have thought.
Imagine, coming into medical school, excited and terrified at the same time, flipping thought last year’s yearbook that’s lying around somewhere, and coming across blackface bro and Klansman friend. Imagine not knowing which one of your classmates will be “the one” your year.
Imagine literally never being able to show your OWN damn yearbook, from your successful time at MEDICAL SCHOOL, to your children because you don’t EVER want them to see the racism you went through.
Northman never apologized to those classmates. He’s had 35 freaking years to do so. He didn’t go up to black people at the reunion and say “hey, maybe you saw our yearbook from that year? I’m sorry, deeply sorry, I ruined it for everybody.”
It’s not a victim less crime. It’s not a politically incorrect foible. Northam hurt people, and didn’t apologize for it until he got caught and wanted to keep his job.
Don’t say stupid shit like this, Northam. For fuck’s sake. Even if it’s true, this doesn’t erase the moral odiousness of the photo, and neither does it help you politically in any way whatsoever – on the contrary.
if Northam isn’t in the photo, he still chose to include it, or at best allowed it to be prominently included, in his medical school yearbook page. F’ing medical school. “First, do no harm.”
Doesn’t matter who is under the blackface or the hood. And don’t tell us you’ve never seen it before.
The AP went to the school library to verify it. I wasn’t aware medical schools have yearbooks (and from what reporters have been saying, neither were they), so it’s not terribly surprising that it was missed.
It is possible that the yearbook staff put it in for him without his permission (the whole page is on him, so it’s extremely unlikely to be someone else). But that just goes to show that it wasn’t just an isolated thing among a couple of people.
“That is not me in that photo. Even though it was on my yearbook page. It’s fake news. The yearbook is fake, lies spread by the fake media. I’m not racist. Saying I’m racist is disgraceful.”
MSNBC said that it was student published, and also that there were only about 40 people in his class.
This was the same year that Jessie Jackson had a creditable run for president, and an African-American, Douglas Wilder, was a (successful) candidate for Lt. Governor of VA.
I’m not one for demanding that people resign for stupid mistakes in their past. But, man, this guy is making stupid mistakes in the present — beginning with the failure to cop to this long ago, apologize, and make affirmative amends before he got outed.
shoulda looked at the photo again before posting that question – there’s definitely a beer there, and where there’s a guy in blackface with a beer, there’s definitely a future Republican hack lawyer.
This is no different than the Trumpster claiming he wasn’t sure that was his voice in the Access Hollywood tape. And now Northam has admitted to going blackface (just a little shoe polish on his cheeks) for a Michael Jackson impersonation/dance contest.
I didn’t think he could make the fiasco worse. But he has!
Yes! Even if he wasn’t in the photo, even if he never went in blackface, he PICKED this photo to put on his yearbook page. The editors didn’t sneak it it or anything. The “it wasn’t me” argument is a distraction.
