…you were a white college student in the 1980s who didn’t wear “black face.” For fuck’s sake:
RICHMOND — Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) said Wednesday he dressed in blackface during college, elevating the Capitol’s scandals to a new level that engulfed the entire executive branch of government.
“In 1980, when I was a 19-year-old undergraduate in college, some friends suggested we attend a party dressed like rappers we listened to at the time, like Kurtis Blow, and perform a song,” Herring said in a statement. “It sounds ridiculous even now writing it. But because of our ignorance and glib attitudes – and because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others – we dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup.”
Herring acknowledgment comes as Gov. Ralph Northam (D) faces calls for his resignation after a photo emerged on his 1984 medical school yearbook page featuring someone in blackface standing next to someone in Ku Klux Klan robes.
I owe commenter Sasha an apology. The other day, during a discussion about Northam, I said there was no fucking way a white college student in 1984 could have not known that putting on “black face” was an aggressively racist thing to do. She said she knew white people who wouldn’t have thought it was a big deal. She was right.