# Virginia gov. yearbook page has Klan and blackface pictures **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 1, 2019, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809 "2019-02-01T22:05:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Ancient\_Erudite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Ancient\_Erudite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ancient_Erudite)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/101 "2019-02-02T13:55:08Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > It’s because he never sought to hide his past, and admitted and recognized how terrible it was, and apologized for it, committing himself to opposing racism as a Senator. > > However, the existence of a dead, reformed racist Democrat does not excuse the continued support of Republicans for many living unreformed and unapologetic racists, including the current occupant of the WH, who spent years spreading a racist, evidence free conspiracy theory, who has praised white supremacists, and who has said many racist things himself. So you are saying any racists who follow Bryd’s ( former KKK Man ) lead whether its a genuine change of heart or not can do the same? Sorry, I don’t subscribe to that line of thought. I see a double standard. If Byrd was a Republican, he would have been forced out. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/102 "2019-02-02T14:01:00Z")
That is, of course, ridiculous. Byrd functioned in other times and attempting some sort of gotcha bit derides both sides of the discussion. It shows a lack of effort and seriousness. Now, onto something real. I heard about this on the radio yesterday and at first: 1. Huh. There’s some sort of problem with his yearbook. Survivable. 2. Uh oh. It’s in a picture he’s in. Blackface. Dang. Maybe some sort of idiot frat thing he was near. Not good, but OK. 3. He says he’s IN the picture. OK, that’s a…weird…disclaimer. But how bad could it be. 4. See pic. Well, he’s either the guy in blackface or he’s in the klan outfit. Damn. That’s it for him, then. At least that accounts for the weird ‘in the picture’ thing. ---
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/103 "2019-02-02T14:02:25Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Since I’m not a member of either major political party, I’m not obligated to take a partisan stance. I don’t care what was in Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook. I don’t care what was in Ralph Northam’s med school yearbook. Why should I care? Not caring about past racist or sexist behavior is implicitly a partisan stance because it is the same stance as the Republican party. Perhaps you’re not a card-carrying member, but if you support what they support and attack what they attack, then that’s really a distinction without a difference. Nobody buys it. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/104 "2019-02-02T14:05:55Z")
> [@Ancient\_Erudite](#): > > So you are saying any racists who follow Bryd’s ( former KKK Man ) lead whether its a genuine change of heart or not can do the same? > > Sorry, I don’t subscribe to that line of thought. I see a double standard. If Byrd was a Republican, he would have been forced out. The Republicans haven’t forced out their current unapologetic racists. It’s a joke to suggest that they’d force out a reformed racist who apologized. You’re not living in reality. Trump’s world is not reality. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/105 "2019-02-02T14:08:41Z")
Nm. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/106 "2019-02-02T14:13:08Z")
As a matter of fact, I’m going to call the Byrd stuff out as a hijack. It’s worthy of its own thread, mind you. But in this one it’s a distraction. No more of it, please. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/107 "2019-02-02T14:19:07Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > What was fascinating was all of the comments from Republicans at first who were eagerly waiting for “spin” from tbe Democrats. Instead, without exception, they all called for him to resign. Hell, some of them didn’t even bother to wait. Erick Erickson called out the left as a bunch of hypocrites for their silence about Northam [at 5:34pm EST yesterday](https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/1091514143516037120), when the story _was still breaking_, and nobody had really had time to comment in the minutes since it had been verified that this wasn’t a Photoshop job by a right-wing ‘news’ site. A little over-eager there, Erick? :rolleyes: Then he had to take a whole 'nother line on everything once essentially the entire Democratic world said Northam had to go. Why anyone takes this dipshit seriously is beyond me. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/108 "2019-02-02T14:24:48Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The “Coonman” nickname was in his VMI undergrad yearbook; the blackface/KKK pic was in his med school yearbook. > > ‘Coon’ was of course another derogatory term for an African-American person, like ‘n\*\*\*\*r.’ So maybe this wasn’t the first time he dressed up in blackface? It would seem to be quite a coincidence if he got such a nickname some other way, and the yearbooks would suggest that he was rather proud of both the costume and the nickname. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/109 "2019-02-02T14:32:16Z")
A couple of things from Twitter, because they said it better than me. (And why rephrase someone’s 280-character tweet?) [1)](https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1091508894306832385) > [@](#): > > Republicans: “See?! This is clearly racist. Ralph Northam should resign.” > > Democrats: “I mean, yeah, we totally agree. He should resign.” > > Republicans: “You’re such hypo–oh… uh, well, okay.” > > Democrats: “So, what about Trump?” > > Republicans: … Or what about Rep. Steve King, or Rep. Steve ‘I’m David Duke without the baggage’ Scalise. [2)](https://twitter.com/DavMicRot/status/1091697287166943232) > [@](#): > > Republicans actively support leaders who sexually assault, are racist, xenophobic. No one really expects them to care, and they don’t. Democrats force out popular and effective leaders who sexually assault, are racist, xenophobic. Everyone expects them to care, and they do. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/110 "2019-02-02T14:33:57Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > So maybe this wasn’t the first time he dressed up in blackface? It would seem to be quite a coincidence if he got such a nickname some other way, and the yearbooks would suggest that he was rather proud of both the costume and the nickname. That would be my WAG, certainly. Less than a half-hour until his presser. I’ve got to run errands, so I guess I’ll hear about it when I get back. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/111 "2019-02-02T14:34:55Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > A couple of things from Twitter… They Republicans are slow off the mark. I’m surprised nobody has come up with the unfalsifiable: “If the Lt-Gov was a Republican, you wouldn’t force him to resign, so you are hypothetical hypocrites”. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/112 "2019-02-02T14:46:16Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > They Republicans are slow off the mark. I’m surprised nobody has come up with the unfalsifiable: > “If the Lt-Gov was a Republican, you wouldn’t force him to resign, so you are hypothetical hypocrites”. See post 93 of this very thread, from the guy who says that a Republican racist would have been drummed out of office. Hilarious! I’m not from Virginia and I’m a little tired of the Democrats having to keep a pristine house while racists, harassers, and philanderers in the Republican party continue on in their merry way, but ultimately I like that the Dems have a much cleaner house. So, I vote resign. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/113 "2019-02-02T15:05:14Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > See post 93 of this very thread… Ah, right, I must have failed to read that post carefully for some reason I can’t imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/114 "2019-02-02T15:23:54Z")
A question (not trying to make any point, just wondering): What if he had done the same thing, but there wasn’t a photo of it? What if one of his classmates had come forward and said “I remember that time he dressed up in blackface, and went to a party with that other guy dressed in a KKK outfit,” and plenty of other people corroborated it? Same facts, but perhaps different emotional reaction without the visual. Would there be the same level of outrage? ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/115 "2019-02-02T15:28:51Z")
> [@galen\_ubal](#): > > _laughing at myself_ > > After all that work, I had the bright idea to go to CNN’s _actual_ YouTube site, [and there it is,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WneijwUwpVU) at about 40 seconds in. > _Mea culpa_, **octopus** , you were right. > > Northam should still resign. 😃 These days, you’re 100% justified in being skeptical in everything. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/116 "2019-02-02T15:40:22Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > What if he had done the same thing, but there wasn’t a photo of it? I suppose then he might have claimed that he and a buddy stupidly improvised a costume one time while drunk, and he totally regretted it the next morning. The peripheral circumstances in the actual case are much more serious indictments of his judgment and principles - and it’s not just the visual impact _per se_. It’s the fact that a lot of careful (sober) thought and design clearly went into these costumes; and in deliberately placing the photo in the public record in his yearbook he wasn’t even neutral about it, he was _proud_ of it - after presumably having some considerable time to consider the matter. As a 25-year-old. ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/117 "2019-02-02T15:40:53Z")
NYT Political Correspondent is reporting that Northam is now claiming to Dem leadership that it is not, in fact, him in the racist photo. Which is quite odd, because he already apologized for it. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/118 "2019-02-02T15:42:38Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > These days, you’re 100% justified in being skeptical in everything. Cite? ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/119 "2019-02-02T15:44:24Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Cite? I see what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2019, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809/120 "2019-02-02T15:45:11Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > I suppose then he might have claimed that he and a buddy stupidly improvised a costume one time while drunk, and he totally regretted it the next morning. > > The peripheral circumstances in the actual case are much more serious indictments of his judgment and principles - and it’s not just the visual impact _per se_. It’s the fact that a lot of careful (sober) thought and design clearly went into these costumes; and in deliberately placing the photo in the public record in his yearbook he wasn’t even neutral about it, he was _proud_ of it - after presumably having some considerable time to consider the matter. As a 25-year-old. These are good points. Although, do we know that it was he who chose to include the photo in the yearbook? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/virginia-gov-yearbook-page-has-klan-and-blackface-pictures/828809.md?page=7)