What’s most interesting is that African Americans are on average less likely than Democrats to support his ouster. Only by 3 points, but still.
There’s a danger for white folks who want to oppose racism that we’ll focus on the wrong things–focusing, for example, on the symbolic over the pragmatic. It seems pretty obvious to me that white folks should be taking their lead from black folks on how to respond to dumbassery like Northam’s. This helps clarify what that lead would look like.
Well, as someone said- we do want to get more black faces into higher office… but not quite like this.
That’s for damn sure. That’s why what asahi got warned/noted for was so damn obnoxious. He mocked the idea that Northam should be judged by his actual legislative career rather than this 30 yr old picture. Yes, asahi. Yearbook pictures are more important than stuff that actually matters.
When you say “black folks” do you include politicians? Because they have almost exclusively called for him to resign. So are black politicians completely out of touch with regular black folks?
I’d love to see some numbers on:
-Black politicians who have called for him to resign
-Black politicians who have called for him to stay in office; and
-Black politicians who have kept mum, figuring this wasn’t worth getting involved in.
I suspect the last group is pretty big, but I dunno.
Those black politicians calling on Northampton to resign:
The entire Virginia legislative black caucus
The nation’s and Virginia’s first black governor: Douglas Wilder
Former Atty general, Eric Holder
Sen. Kamala Harris
NAACP president Derrick Johnson
Rep. Bobby Scott
IMHO, since no crime has been committed and the whole question is whether he can govern Virginia, only Virginians’ calls to resign matter much.
= 17 people, I think.
Like the old saying goes, “Better the Dr. Coonman you know…”
Wow. Really?
I mean, yeah, it’s interesting. I don’t understand the reason for the difference between “All the Virginia legislative black caucus say to resign” and “only a little more than a third of black Virginians want him to resign.” But the difference is there, and we should be looking at it.
Just as blackface’s impact is largely symbolic, it’s possible the caucus’s calls for resignation are largely symbolic. Maybe they know he’s unlikely to resign, but want him to recognize what thin ice he’s on.
Or maybe the poll was taken at a different point during this clusterfuck of a news story than the caucus’s call was made.
I dunno. It’s interesting.
You know who’s better at healing racial divides than a doctor?
Someone who doesn’t think it’s funny to dress in blackface with a KKK member
Do you think that accurately describes Ralph Northam right now?
Dropping a racial slur (even if anti-white and even if originally spoken/written by the subject of the thread) does nothing to move the discussion forward.
Do not do this again.
[ /Moderating ]
:eek: Just to make things really easy on him, the Governor yesterday referred on a news talk program to the first slaves brought to Virginia as “indentured servants”.
He’s given no reason to think otherwise.
Indentured servants? I’d bet he believes the Civil War was about States’ Rights and calls it the War of Northern Aggression.
To quote Wikipedia:
Bolding mine.
He’s technically correct, apparently, but that was a pretty dumb thing to say.
Eta: ninja’d!
He did acknowledge that in the interview: