I said it in the earlier thread on the Governor, and I’ll say it again, back in the 70s/80s this was NOT totally abnormal behavior in college “frat” circles. I got pilloried there, and I’ll get pilloried here, but that is just the reality. College kids did really stupid things.
Lots of people in southern states, and VA was very racist, would play to tropes for fun. Its not funny today, and we have moved on, but it happened.
And as I noted re Northem, while the behavior was rather common where I came from (growing up partially in Stillwater, OK) which was the state ag university, I also saw some of this at Cal in the 80s. There is was controversial, and people would say something, but even at the most liberal college in the US, people in frats would still do these type of things.
Someone like LBJ, who did more to promote equality in the US than any other person, did far worse things, and certainly said things that would cause folks to blanch today. read his bios/stories about him. (I.e. what happened in the 50s and 60s was far worse than what happened in the 80s) standards change.
I am not defending the behavior, which I personally saw (and said) was inappropriate in the 80s, but I do think there is some need to look at who people have become, and what they have done, since what they did in the 80s.
The list of prominent white folks in VA (and elsewhere) who wore blackface is going to require some server-class hard drives to record.
Who’s left?!! The governor’s driver? (Hat tip to Morning Joe) 
Something in the water? H2Oy vey…
Why can’t they just do us all a favor and dress up as Ethel Merman?
Crap, but this is Virginia after all, we are going to need to put an statute of limitations on blackface, or keep looking on the succession order to find someone that only has confederate re-enactments or at most a rebel flag in his front porch.
Shaking my damn head.
I will say he’s at least playing the politics of this more intelligently than that fool Northam did.
Can we lower the minimum age for governor to 12?
So now, if Northam resigns over his picture, and Fairfax resigns over the sex abuse allegations, and Herring has to resign over these admissions, who’s going to be left?
At the same time lets not pretend it was something other than mocking. I was in my teens in the 80s and it wasn’t rocket science to recognize it was racist.
Probably best to be on the safe side and just elect women.
Click for images
No, he also has a problem. He reached under his babysitters blouse and fondled her “pillows” when he was three years old.
There is likely a generational aspect to this, although younger people certainly are capable of ignorant racist behavior. However, whatever the explanation, there needs to be a zero-tolerance response to the discovery of these kinds of actions. If Democrats are truly to be an inclusive party, then we must be respectful of everyone in the party. People make mistakes, but public office requires a trust between representatives and constituents. Blackface violates that trust. Northam and Herring will have plenty of opportunities as private citizens to rebuild relationships on an interpersonal level
Probably some republican that has recently expressed support for the Chancellorsville White nationalists and has expressed anti-Semitic views, but since it’s a republican then he is Kosher.
Well at least Fairfax will not have to worry of being accused of this…
Yeah, it’s not like women ever do stupid things:
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/school-apologizes-teacher-wore-blackface-african-history-lesson-190635400.html
The problem that I have with these kinds of apologies is that they don’t really address the bottom line — the racism that is intrinsic to Southern White culture. These frat boys aren’t “insufficiently sensitive” to the pain caused by their actions — they’re racists acting out their white male privilege.