A5
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2019
Blackface scandal spotlights embedded racism
Virginia governor
rejecting calls
to step down
By ERRIN HAINES
WHACK
Associated Press
When Virginia Gov. Ralph
Northam refused to resign last
week, he did so in the shadow
of a Capitol built by a found-
ing father and a slave owner,
in the former seat of the Con-
federacy still wrestling with
what to do about statues that
honor those who fought to
preserve slavery.
The 35-year-old photo on
his yearbook page of a per-
son in blackface and another
person in a Ku Klux Klan
robe has brought about a stun-
ning reversal of fortune in
Northam’s political career
and laid bare for the nation
just how deeply racist behav-
ior remains interwoven in
American culture, institutions
and politics.
In rejecting calls to step
down, the 59-year-old white
son of Virginia came across
to many African-Americans
as displaying a sense of white
privilege.
“What we have learned
over the last 24 hours along
with all the incidents of the
last two years brings front
and center the need for this
nation to deal with the ques-
tion of race once and for
all,” NAACP President Der-
rick Johnson said in an inter-
view Saturday. “Because
we have (President Donald)
Trump in the White House,
who has created a political
landscape of intolerance and
racial hatred, this has exposed
a wound that has been fester-
ing for a while now.”
The incident came on the
fi rst day of Black History
Month and as Virginians pre-
pare to mark the 400th anni-
versary of the arrival of the
fi rst enslaved Africans to the
settlement of Jamestown.
“I think a lot of black folks
are tired of apologies and
talking,” said Wes Bellamy, a
councilman in Charlottesville,
Virginia, who has worked for
the removal of Confeder-
ate statues in the city. “This
is another ugly stain on our
state’s history. We are going
to have to commit ourselves
to making this right — not
just with our words, but with
our resources.”
Should Northam, a Dem-
ocrat, ultimately step down,
Lt. Gov Justin Fairfax would
become the second black
governor in the South since
Reconstruction. Last month,
Fairfax, the only black offi cial
currently elected statewide,
sat down in protest as the
Virginia Senate recognized
AP Photo/Steve Helber
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, left, accompanied by his wife,
Pam, speaks during a news conference Saturday.
Lee-Jackson Day, which hon-
ors Confederate generals
Robert E. Lee and Stonewall
Jackson.
Virginia is still heal-
ing from the racial wounds
infl icted in August 2017,
when white supremacists
marched on Charlottesville to
protest the removal of a statue
of Lee. Many of the mostly
white men who converged
on the city chanting racist
slogans and burning torches
were about the same age that
Northam would’ve been as
a student at Eastern Virginia
Medical School.
Northam’s age belies the
assumption that their actions
refl ected the tenor and tone
of the era. In 1984 when the
photograph was included in
Northam’s yearbook page,
civil rights activist Jesse Jack-
son was running for presi-
dent. Pioneering black enter-
tainer Bill Cosby was the
star of one of America’s most
popular television shows.
African-Americans
were
climbing the nation’s social,
professional, political and
economic ladders at unprece-
dented speed.
In his initial apology,
Northam said that the photo
does not represent who he is
now. A day later, he denied
being in the photograph at all,
while admitting to wearing
blackface to imitate Michael
Jackson at a dance contest.
The incident is the third
in recent weeks: Last month,
Florida’s secretary of state
resigned after photos from a
2005 Halloween party showed
him in blackface dressed as
a Hurricane Katrina victim.
Also last month, videos sur-
faced of people in blackface at
the University of Oklahoma,
including a man walking near
campus. Two students with-
drew from the university and
apologized.
Such incidents are not only
hurtful; they can be harmful
when they happen at insti-
tutions of higher learning
and are perpetrated by peo-
ple who go on to impact the
lives of people of color as
decision-makers — from pol-
iticians to doctors. A recent
University of Virginia study
showed that black Ameri-
cans are systematically under-
treated for pain relative to
white patients, and that white
laypeople and medical stu-
dents and residents hold false
beliefs about the biological
differences between the races
— beliefs that can affect the
perception and treatment of
black patients.
The trust Northam, a pedi-
atric neurologist, established
with his patients was not
unlike the faith he sought from
voters. In running for gover-
nor, many people — includ-
ing the 87 percent of black
voters who supported him —
saw Northam as a candidate
who belongs to a party associ-
ated with justice and equality,
who ran against an opponent
tied to a president who has
been accused of racism.
Their vote for Northam
was, in part, a rejection of
those views and beliefs. The
governor’s defi ance amid
the roar for him to step aside
among even his Democratic
colleagues, black and white,
casts doubt on Northam’s
ability to represent these
voters going forward, said
NAACP President Johnson.
“If we cannot recognize
African-Americans are full
citizens entitled to humane
treatment by our public policy
makers, how can we expect
public policy to meet the
needs and interests of those
communities being portrayed
as less than human?” Johnson
asked.
It also raises a critical
question: In politics, should
sincerity and repentance for
a racist past matter more than
the hurt feelings of Americans
who live on the receiving end
of racism?
Northam’s lieutenant gov-
ernor doesn’t think so.
“I have worked closely
with Ralph Northam over
many years. He has been a
friend to me and has treated
my family and me with hos-
pitality and respect,” Fairfax
wrote in a statement Saturday,
noting that he is a descen-
dant of people enslaved in
Virginia.
WORLD IN BRIEF
Associated Press
Pentagon sending another
3,750 troops to Southwest border
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon said Sunday it will
send 3,750 more troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to put up
another 150 miles of concertina wire and provide other sup-
port for Customs and Border Protection.
The additions will bring the total number of active-duty
troops on the border to 4,350.
The announcement is in line with what Acting Defense
Secretary Pat Shanahan had said last week when he provided
estimates for the next phase of a military mission that has
grown in size and length. Critics have derided it as a political
ploy by the White House as President Donald Trump seeks
billions to build a border wall.
Members of Congress have questioned whether the bor-
der mission is distracting troops from their main work of
fi ghting extremists abroad and training for combat. The fi rst
active-duty troops were sent to the border on about Oct.
30 for a mission that was to end Dec. 15. It has since been
extended twice.
Plane breaks apart over
California neighborhood, 5 killed
YORBA LINDA, Calif. — Five people died and two
were injured after a small plane apparently broke apart Sun-
day over a Southern California suburb, raining debris on a
neighborhood and setting a house on fi re, authorities said.
Four people in the house that burned in the city of Yorba
Linda were killed, along with the pilot, who was the only
person in the twin-engine plane, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt.
Cory Martino said.
The Cessna 414A reached an altitude of about 7,800 feet
and then made a rapid descent, according to the National
Transportation Safety Board. The debris fi eld spanned about
four blocks.
The main cabin of the airplane and one engine came to
rest at the bottom of a ravine in the backyard of a house
and the other engine landed on a street, creating a hole. The
house where the four people were killed caught fi re.
European nations raise pressure
on Venezuela’s Maduro
LISBON, Portugal — A key group of European Union
countries endorsed Venezuelan opposition leader Juan
Guaido as the country’s interim president today, piling the
pressure on embattled President Nicolas Maduro to resign
and let the country hold a new presidential election.
Maduro, for his part, stood defi ant, accusing the United
States of preparing a coup in the South American country
and rejecting a U.S.-backed effort to send emergency food
and medicine into his country.
Spain, Germany, France and Britain delivered diplomatic
blows to Maduro’s rule by publicly supporting Guaido after
giving Maduro a Sunday deadline to call a presidential elec-
tion, which he didn’t heed. Sweden, Denmark, Austria, the
Netherlands, Lithuania, Finland, the Czech Republic and
Portugal also lined up behind Guaido, the self-declared
interim president who also has the support of the United
States and many South American nations.
The European countries urged Guaido to hold free and
fair elections as soon as possible.
New Jersey Sen. Booker declares
presidential candidacy for 2020
WASHINGTON — Cory Booker leaped into the 2020
presidential race on Friday with a call for Americans to unite
in a time of bitter polarization while some of his Democratic
rivals are taking a more combative stance as they vie to take
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THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
on President Donald Trump.
Booker’s entry into the Democratic primary was steeped
in history and symbolism, befi tting his status as the second
black candidate in a historically diverse fi eld. Invoking the
legacy of the national movements for civil rights and for
women’s suffrage, the New Jersey senator urged a return
to a “common sense of purpose” and cast his appeal to the
nation’s better angels as an uplifting alternative to Trump.
The 49-year-old Booker told reporters outside his home in
Newark that “love ain’t easy,” adding: “The people I admire
are the people that lead by calling out the best of who we are
and not the worst. So, I’m running for president because I
believe in us. I believe in these values.”
Whether Democrats are in the mood to embrace Book-
er’s optimistic persona after two years of fuming about
Trump’s presidency remains to be seen. With Massachusetts
Sen. Elizabeth Warren running as a champion for the mid-
dle class in a fi ght against powerful interests, and California
Sen. Kamala running on taking on Trump directly, Book-
er’s fate may hinge on a bet that the electorate will respond
again to the soaring oratory that helped Barack Obama break
through in 2008.
Evening listings
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F EBRUARY 4
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