John Blake, a CNN writer, has a different take on the controversy surrounding Virginia Governor Ralph Northam and the recently discovered photographs from his medical school yearbook of one student in blackface, the other wearing a Klan outfit.
He writes:
What more do you need to know? The damage to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s credibility is so beyond repair that some critics say he has to go.
But here’s an uncomfortable truth that photo won’t reveal:
Some of the biggest champions for black people in America’s past have been white politicians who were racists.
Some of our best friends were racist
A pop history quiz:
Who was the white Southerner who used the N-word almost like a “connoisseur” and routinely called a landmark civil rights law “the n—– bill.”
That was President Lyndon Baines Johnson, the greatest civil rights champion of any modern-day president.
Who was the white judge who joined the KKK, marched in their parades and spokeat nearly 150 Klan meetings in his white-hooded uniform?
That was Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black, who incurred the wrath of his fellow Southerners when he voted to abolish Jim Crow segregation in the court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.
And who was the white politician who also used the N-word freely, told racist jokes and said African-Americans were biologically inferior to whites?
That’s Abraham Lincoln, the “Great Emancipator” and arguably the nation’s greatest president.
The point of these examples is not to offer a historical loophole for any leader caught being blatantly racist.
What happens to Northam is ultimately up to the people he serves and to his conscience.
But what I’m saying is that what matters to some black people — not all, maybe not even most — is not what a white politician did 30 years ago.
It’s what he’s doing for them today.
Who would pass the racist abstinence pledge?
I’m wary of those commentators who say they speak for an entire race of people. When a white friend sometimes asks what black people think of an issue, I sometimes tell them, “I don’t know, I missed the Weekly Meeting for All Black People in America.”
Yet I feel confident in saying this: Most are not shocked to hear that a white politician who is a purported ally is accused of doing something racist…
If black people only worked with white allies free of any racism, bias or past mistakes, we would be alone.
Before the yearbook incident, Northam won the support of Virginia’s black community. He forcefully denounced the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville that took the life of a young woman. He successfully pushed for the expansion of Obamacare in Virginia. Former President Barack Obama campaignedfor him. He won almost 90% of the black vote in his successful run for governor in 2017.
That might help him, or it may not be enough.
What matters for some is not one act from a person’s life but the entire play. Do they push for equality in the end?…
One of the reasons Johnson was such an effective champion for blacks is that he understood the Southern mind better than most. He was fighting against the same demons that he grappled with. He knew what buttons to push against the racist politicians who stood in his way.
Yet there is not much room for a politician to evolve in today’s environment. There is a “rage industrial complex” that fixates on the latest racial flashpoint: an outrageous video, remark or image that’s passed around social media like a viral grenade.
Meanwhile those banal acts of racism that don’t get caught in a photo or a tweet go by unremarked.
Here’s when I know there’s genuine racial progress.
It’s not when a white politician is caught being racist and people demand his or her head. It’s when people show the same amount of public outrage over the everyday acts of racism — voter suppression, racial profiling, redlining — that define so much of our everyday lives.
Now that would be shocking.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I was glad to see this posting. I’ve been wondering why the total outrage against a man who did something wrong back when he was in college. [Look at what happened to K, the Supreme Court Judge. He certainly isn’t an example of exemplary living but the majority of conservatives sure stood up for him.] Now a Democrat does something wrong and it’s “off with his head”. “What matters for some is not one act from a person’s life but the entire play. Do they push for equality in the end?…”
I agree with the comment, “It’s when people show the same amount of public outrage over the everyday acts of racism — voter suppression, racial profiling, redlining ” that matters.
Where is the outrage against Trump? Everyday he proves that he is a racist, bigoted, xenophobic, misogynistic creep. No problem with that.
What eventually happens to Northam is up to his voters. Maybe I’m jumping at a conclusion that isn’t fair but it seems some people are more above the law than others.
Thank you. I was glad to see this posting too. Sorry to disagree with you, Bernie Sanders. Still love ‘ya.
This normalized racism is likely connected to the wider attack on the poor classes. It’s reminiscent of Buck v. Bell when the SCOTUS supported the forced sterilization of “feeble-minded” Carrie Buck. Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote that “three generations of imbeciles are enough”. Yet again America will always end up doing the right thing….after exhausting every other option.
Good insight on Lyndon Johnson there. He was successful because he understood what he had to work against, which included aspects of his own personality. I feel for the people who worked so hard to get Northam elected. I think he’s history. And a special thank you, magical internet, for fostering umbrage and self-righteousness over the particular, instead of outrage over the general/structural racism of this country.
Truman was another president who freely used the n-word but integrated the armed forces (Executive Order 9981, issued on July 26, 1948).
What a shame, Northam was good on public education and was not a fan of charter schools. He bungled this whole year book photos and black-face issue and he’s lost the support of his own party, it does not look good for him. His actions and policies in office were not racist, quite the opposite.
The real acts of racism are voter suppression, unfair applications of justice, education and housing. It is far better to judge a person for who he is today, and not what someone did thirty years ago. Young people sometimes engage in tribal stupidity, which may or may not represent someone’s real character. I hope Northam rides the storm and stays in office. I believe Al Franken fell on his sword too soon. The Democratic party lost a very good senator that never really got to defend himself in a due process hearing. Again, the man that Franken is today is very different from the one that was starting out in his comedy career.
Both MLK and JFK purportedly cheated on their wives. Do we remember them for their foibles or their accomplishments?
I willl not forgive Kirsten Gillibrand for driving Franken out of the Senate without a hearing or dueprocess
Yep.
There were EIGHT women who accused Franken of sexual impropriety. How many more women would it have taken for you to believe them, Diane? Serving in the Senate is a privilege, not a right. Franken was not worthy of that privilege, even if he was “our guy”. Apply the same standards to your own side that you’d apply to the other side.
He should have had a hearing. We don’t convict people based on allegations.
After one woman told her version of events, I remember Franken say that it was not the way her remembered it. He never got a chance to tell his side of the story because it turned into a witch hunt. We will never know because he did not get due process. I am not defending Franken. I am defending his right to be heard.
Excellent perspective! My first thought when the Northam news broke was rush to judgment! The French moralist and essayist, Michel de Montaigne wrote, “There is no man, good as he may be, who, if all his thoughts and actions were submitted to the scrutiny of the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life.”
Fair enough about the past not defining who you are today but…..his presser was awkward….and disgraceful. He almost moonwalked and clearly did not understand the gravity of what was occurring in this cultural moment.
“Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax would become Va.’s 2nd Black Governor if Northam resigns”.
What is his view on charter schools? And, does Blake discount Fairfax’ effectiveness for reason?
Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, during the campaign “opposed direct additional public funds to charter and for-profit private schools.” His opponent was a charter-lover.
Northam’s ipponent in the general election was to the far right of Trump.
The yearbook photo ruckus with the Virginia Governor is, in my estimation, totally blown out of proportion, and this Op-Ed succinctly expresses what’s being overlooked, which is the PRESENT -and- the TRACK RECORD.
There’s a significantly vast difference between the photo under question, and Iowa Representative Steve King, whose words and actions are not merely oblique, but blatantly white supremacist / racist.
I think also about late former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, who remains the only four-term Governor the State has ever had.
Several years following the 1972 assassination attempt upon him in Maryland, he campaigned for, and won re-election to a fourth and final term in 1982 while wheelchair bound… and with the broad support of the African American voting community in the state, without whose support UAB political researchers have said he would not have won. He experienced an epiphany moment, a genuine change of heart motivated by a faith / religious conversion experience, and made a heartfelt and genuine apology – which was accepted – to the same group whom he once used as a political tool for his own selfish ambition.
And good, bad, or indifferent, his infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door” is today what he is largely remembered for. But there was much more to the man than that, and in a memoir, his son George Wallace, Jr., has shared that privately, his late father was genuinely repentant about his earlier politically expedient deeds.
Two towering figures in our nation’s history, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also owned slaves. Should we also throw that baby out with the bath water?
Tomorrow, or next year, the popular consensus about other matters now considered socially acceptable or reprehensible will undoubtedly change. Who will that dragnet catch then?
Of course, I don’t know about you, but I can’t identify either of those two characters in the photo. Can you?
Considering also the source of the image – a well-known GOP radical with ties to Steve Brannon and Roy Moore – that itself speaks volumes.
And the Virginia Governor’s track record similarly speaks for itself.
WSB
I understand your point… empathy can kick in unexpectedly. But, skepticism is warranted. The following is a false equivalency but, introduces the issue of skepticism.
Should John Arnold and Bill Gates be given a pass if they scale back their drive to take common goods from the sons and daughters of working people?
Gov. Northam did not use his political power to try to trash civil rights legislation and he did not praise the “good people” in the neo-Nazi movement or Ku Klux Klan or strike the names of African-American citizens off voting rolls using specious claims that are not applied to white Republican voters.
Northam apparently, 30 years ago in medical school, dressed in black face as a costume in which he (or someone else) posed as an African-American man. Aside from the fact the man in the photo has put something on his skin to change the color, there is no other offensive stereotyping – the man is dressed as if he just played a round of golf at his country club. And it seems as if it was a joint dress-up, where someone thought it would be “funny” to dress up together as an African-American man and a Ku Klux Klan member. It isn’t funny. It is offensive. But it is also offensive when someone puts on a Nazi uniform or a white person dresses as a Native American or an Asian. It would be offensive if a couple of college students dressed up as Hitler and a Hasidic Jewish man drinking together for their joint costume. As a Jew, I might think that was offensive or perhaps not, but I don’t think that automatically makes them Nazis nor anti-Semites.
The context matters, and that is what is missing from this debate and has always been missing when Republicans get Democrats to eat their own (see Al Franken).
Two years AFTER this photo was taken, white actor C. Thomas Howell starred in a major Hollywood movie called “Soul Man”, in which he pretended to be African-American (and was made up to look African-American) to win a scholarship to Harvard Law. The movie also starred James Earl Jones and Rae Dawn Chong.
Looking back at that movie EVERYONE now thinks it is offensive. And yet it got made. And yet it made a lot of money. And yet famous non-racist actors who were not so desperate for money that they’d abase themselves to be in a racist movie acted in it. So why are people insisting that everyone who would be associated with a white person dressing as an African-American in 1984 must be racist? Not only did Soul Man get made, but people went to see it. Two years after the Northam photo was taken.
Because people were not “woke”. Just like they had offensive team mascots (and in some cases still do). That’s why rather than judge a person as to whether their child ever wore a feather in a headband and dressed up as an “Indian”, we should judge a person on their actions. Brett Kavanaugh wasn’t judged for wearing a shirt in high school that said “When a woman says no, she means yes”. He was judged because he and his friends devoted an entire yearbook to trashing the reputation of a specific young woman they didn’t like. Kavanaugh was judged for allegedly sexually assaulting a young woman.
As far as I can see, Northam has spent his political life supporting policies that are anti-racist, not racist. If that isn’t true, he should be rightly criticized for supporting racist policies and then his dressing in black face can be seen in the context of a man who is currently racist.
But if he has not acted to promote a racist agenda and in fact, his choices have been just the opposite, then to demand a resignation for a 30 year old photo seems over the top. But then again, I thought when people were demanding Al Franken resign entirely based on the photo of him mock reaching toward the breasts of a woman clearly wearing body armor completely covering her chest it was also absurd. That photo told me that at one time Al Franken was insensitive to women’s issues and had no understanding of how what he saw as “humor” could be completely and utterly offensive. It did not tell me that Franken was either a sexual predator nor sexist pig.
The first time I heard the “Hugo Black argument”, it was made by a conservative a few months ago. If Al Franken hadn’t resigned, the case against Roy Moore would have been weakened. The next politician suspected off racist behavior who finds himself presented with evidence from the past, will cite Northam as his defense, if Northam fails to resign.
The context for Northam’s 1984 photo-
!969- a foundation gave universities funds with the purpose of educating professors to teach African-American history.
1974- southern states prepared plans for desegregation of their state universities.
Trump is a racist who praises other racists.
Why doesn’t he resign? Why was Jeff Sessions appointed Attorney General? Why does Steven Miller write immigration policy?
The Trump administration is racist
In words and deeds. It locks Brown children in cages and defends it.
Why does everyone accept racism NOW yet find it horrifying 35 years ago?
Agree completely. Too many Americans are doing too little to demand fairness and compassion now.
Republicans shouldn’t have selected Trump as their candidate and 49% of the general public shouldn’t have voted for him.
Putin helps elect Republicans. He is THE White dictator that racists admire.
Yes, and it’s a shame they didn’t find it horrifying when Bill Clinton signed the Crime Bill (“Super-Predators!”) and eliminated Aid to Families With Dependent Children, because we all know racism and racist legislation was a thing of the past until Trump brought it back…
The yearbook photo ruckus with the Virginia Governor is, in my estimation, totally blown out of proportion, and this Op-Ed succinctly expresses what’s being overlooked, which is the PRESENT -and- the TRACK RECORD.
There’s a significantly vast difference between the photo under question, and the matter of Iowa Representative Steve King, whose words and actions are not merely oblique, but blatantly white supremacist / racist.
I think also about late former Alabama Governor George C. Wallace, who remains the only four-term Governor that State has ever had.
Several years following the 1972 assassination attempt upon him in Maryland, he campaigned for, and won re-election to an unprecedented fourth and final term in 1982 while wheelchair bound… and with the broad support of the African American voting community in the state, without whose support political researchers at UAB have said he would not have won. Wallace experienced an epiphany moment, a genuine change of heart motivated by a faith / religious conversion experience, and made an unfeigned heartfelt and genuine apology – which was believed and accepted – to the same group whom he once used as a political tool for his own selfish ambition.
But good, bad, or indifferent, his infamous “stand in the schoolhouse door” is today what he is largely remembered for. Yet there was much more to the man than that, and in a memoir, his son George Wallace, Jr., has shared that privately, his late father was genuinely repentant about his earlier politically expedient deeds.
Two towering figures in our nation’s history, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also owned slaves. Should we throw that baby out with the bath water?
Tomorrow, next week, or next year, the popular consensus about other matters now considered socially acceptable or reprehensible will undoubtedly change. Who will that dragnet catch then?
Of course, I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t identify either of those two characters in the photo. Can you?
Considering also the source of the image – by a cohort of well-known radically extremist GOP operatives with validated white supremacist ties to Steve Bannon and thrice disgraced Alabama jurist Roy Moore – that itself speaks volumes.
And the Virginia Governor’s track record similarly speaks for itself.
History is much more complex than many make it out to be, and people and times change.
But the frothing churning waters of our 24/7/365 modern corporate global news media still need a dead horse to beat, and now they have another one.
Giddyap!
That photograph in a yearbook was taken in the early 1980s, more than thirty years ago. Northam says he was not in that photograph and even if he was, who Northam was then may not be who Northam is today. Northam admitted to wearing blackface for an event but claims he was not in that photo and photos that appear on yearbook pages may not all include images of you but images of events you attended.
So instead of judging Northam from a photograph that was taken decades ago when he was probably in his twenties, look at his political profile on sites like Vote Smart and decide if he is racist.
Judge Northam on who he is today, not who he allegedly was back then. If you judge Northam from then, then you are falling into the hands of the Trumpists and Republicans who will do anything to get rid of elected Democrats so they can turn Democrats against Democrats.
https://votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/90253/ralph-northam#.XFh_MS17mUk
For instance, if in 2020, Trump ends up running against Cory Booker (and you don’t like Booker), Schultz, and the Green Party candidate for president, and the polls said the two who had the best chance to win were Trump and Booker, who would you vote for or would you throw your vote away to make a statement and let Trump win?
You summed up the situation perfectly. I live in NJ. I have written to Booker and called his office. I live in South Jersey and have asked for a meeting with him about his lack of support for real public schools, to no avail as yet. I will get in touch with his campaign office. Booker needs to be educated and stop taking corporate money. In the meantime supporting any 3rd party is the height of chauvinism at the extreme. Al Franken should still be in the Senate.
The Black Caucus is deciding between Kamala and Corey. If you call to express your opinion (202-225-7084), a person answers.
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/02/cory-booker-charters-public-schools-president
‘There are many good reasons to oppose Cory Booker’s bid for the presidency. One of the main ones is his long-standing drive to destroy public education.’
Brett Kavanaugh’s yearbook also dates to the early 80s, more than 30 years ago. So, forgive, forget, move on? Or only for Democrats, not Republicans?
In both cases, Kavanaugh and Northam were old enough and lived in an enlightened enough time period to know what they were doing and that it was wrong. They should be judged by the same standards.
So now dressing up for Halloween or a costume party as an African-American man having a drink with someone in a Ku Klux Klan outfit is no different than devoting your yearbook to trashing the reputation of a specific teenage girl that you know by naming her throughout the yearbook and claiming to be members of her “club”?
That’s like saying that if you ever allowed your child to put a feather in a headband and pretend to be a Native American it is absolutely no different than if you allowed your child to direct ugly racial slurs at the only African-American girl in the neighborhood.
I have no doubt that at some point in high school or college you did or said something that was racially or culturally insensitive toward Jews or African-Americans or Asians either or ignorance or trying to be funny. I remember back when it was “funny” to tell “Polish jokes”.
That is very different than directing a racial slur or trashing of a reputation directly toward someone.
It’s the difference between being INSENSITIVE and re-telling someone a “Polish joke” when you were in college because you thought it was funny and didn’t think about how offensive it was and going up to person born in Poland and directing slurs at them to intentionally hurt them.
It’s the difference between dressing up for Halloween as a “Jewish American Princess” or using the word JAP as a general term and directing anti-Semitic slurs at a Jewish person that you don’t like.
I hope you or your friends never watched the movie Soul Man 2 years after this incident happened as so many Americans did (including James Earl Jones, who starred in it) because you know that an apology for going to that movie in 1986 and not understanding how offensive it was can never make up for what you know is something that is unforgivable. I hope you never used the word JAP or allowed it to be used by any of your friends or family without immediately cutting off ties.
Are Bernie Sanders stories of a woman fantasizing being raped “forgivable”? (FYI — he was trying to use SATIRE but it was offensive to many people so trying to be funny is not an excuse to you).
Are Elizabeth Warren’s stories about her Native American heritage “forgivable”?
Or are they exactly the same as Brett Kavanaugh choosing to trash the reputation of Renate throughout the yearbook and 35 years later claim that it was a COMPLIMENT?
Does Bernie Sanders have to step down, too?
I agree. Everyone should be judged by the same standards, … but who decides what those standards are?
Republicans
or
Democrats
The Alt-Right
or
individuals labeled as LIBERALS since this group doesn’t seem to have any organizational skills to compete with the Kochtapus and/or the Alt-Right lying misinformation, FAKE conspiracy theory generating media machine that Trump watches religiously as if these sources are the voice of his god, the god of greed, … but not the God.
Are there really “liberals” out there that fit the definition the Alt-Right has invented and repeated a billion times to demonize them?
I often imagine those alleged “liberals” running around like chickens without heads.
Sorry for changing the subject. I couldn’t help myself.
If the Democrats kick out anyone who ever did something stupid or offensive, not many will be left in office. Who has not done something that they later regretted?
Republicans, on the other hand, withhold judgement so Kavanaugh has a lifetime appointment and serial sexual predator Trump is president.
I’m not sure why progressives are getting roped into dancing to the alt right’s tune.
That tune is: As long as we can find anything a Democratic politician has said in the last 40 years that can be used as innuendo to imply he is racist, we expect you to jump in and demand the politician’s immediate resignation.
I remember when Jesse Jackson used the term “Hymietown” which I found offensive. I didn’t decide that every bit of good Jesse Jackson had done in his lifetime was worthless because the fact that he said “Hymietown” meant that he needed to step out of the public eye immediately and apologize and admit he had lived his entire life as the worst kind of anti-Semite.
Just like I did not expect Bernie Sanders to say “I am the worst kind of anti-feminist and hate woman and I apologize that my anti-woman and anti-feminist beliefs caused me to write about women’s rape fantasies.”
I expect a politician to acknowledge that dressing in black face or talking about rape fantasies was offensive and should not be condoned and he apologizes for being insensitive and offensive 30 or 40 years ago but he hopes the entirety of his actions the last 30 or 40 years demonstrates not racism or sexism but that was simply someone being insensitive to racism and sexism.
Once again another attack on due process…from the “progressive left wing”.
Whatever happened to “innocent until proven guilty”.
Shades of the attempted internet/media/resistance “lynching” of Bret Cavanaugh.
To be consistent now they are forced to eat one of their own!
I’m not a fan of either party but I hope Northram sticks it out.
What if he wasn’t in those photos.
And what if he did dress as Michael Jackson for a talent show. How many kids, including white kids loved Michael Jackson and wanted to be him.
If a goon squad led by Democrats and Republicans, presidential candidates, including our current president, the entire unified mainstream media including FOX can so easily toss aside the key democratic right of due process when it involves one of their own swamp creatures–imagine what they will do to us when the US working starts fielding independent working class candidates coming out of a fighting labor movement like we’ve seen in West Virginia, Los Angeles etc.
I live in Virginia. I voted against Northam. Nevertheless, I support his continuing in office. I do not remember half of the things I did in 1984. I hope his apology is accepted, and he can do the job that the majority of Virginia voters elected him to do.
When have we put reason above emotional reaction? Back during the communist hunting days, we had a hard time separating the issue from the problem. We still seem to.
Back in those days, the problem was that Russian communists and those who shared their goals were out to subvert efforts to improve a free society, both in the United States and around the world. Here in the United States, the communist issue was very different, with accusations of being a communist being thrown around for the purpose of making and breaking political careers. People who had been to a socialist meeting in college were skewered in the rabid press, their political careers washed up on the beach of what they did when they were in college.
Now we have other gotcha issues. We have to, because Mikhail Gorbachev famously robbed The right of its communist issue. Without communism, the parties have to look different using other headline grabbing things about what people did when they were young. Just as the democrats were sensitive to the communist issue in 1948, they are being hypersensitive to the personal belief issue today.
I suspect Northam will be forced to maintain the purity of the Democratic Party as they go after republicans who refuse to acknowledge their failings. I am not sure this is a good strategy. Trump supporters will forgive all crimes he has committed to get the one or two things they want: an end to abortion and protection from the dreaded different looking immigrant.
A McCarthy-esque atmosphere has emerged around race. “Racist” is the new “Communist”.
Northam has been potentially destroyed by a right wing publication. How accurate is this?
…………………………………
With Northam Picture, Obscure Publication Plays Big Role in Virginia Politics
Big League Politics, an obscure right-wing publication, has put both Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax on the defensive.
A racist photograph on the 1984 yearbook page of Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia.
An accusation of sexual assault against Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax.
Both reports — the first triggering an earthquake in Virginia politics last week, the second setting off an aftershock on Monday — were originally published by an obscure right-wing news site, Big League Politics, which has promoted conspiracy theories and written favorably about white nationalist candidates…
Patrick Howley, the editor in chief, said he received the photograph showing a pair of figures in blackface and Ku Klux Klan robes from a “concerned citizen,” declining to add more details.
But one of Big League Politics’s owners, Noel Fritsch, described the source of the photograph as “some people who were classmates of Northam,” who brought it to light out of anger at the governor’s remarks early last week defending late-term abortions…
I’m sure I’m going to get my lips ripped off for saying this, but I think the outrage against Northam is warranted. Yes, he’s good on other things, but he blew off this situation as being silly, and not the highly racist display that it was. By 1984, people KNEW that this sort of thing was bad form, and he, as an adult who had just graduated from medical school, did it anyway.
And the due process stuff? On here, we have (rightfully) called for the resignation of many who have done similar things to Northam, but were Republican. Now, most Republicans repulse me, BUT as a Democrat, I should demand the same standards of Democrats as I do Republicans. This is an example of that.
(Now going to hide as the blowback hits me in the face).
No blowback here. What you said is spot on. If one’s “standards” vary based on whether the accused is “our guy” or “the enemy”, one does not have standards.
I didn’t hear you calling for Bernie Sanders to step down from the Senate yet, but I have no doubt that you and TOW will be posting that shortly.
After all, if one’s “standards” very based on whether the accused is “our guy” or “the enemy”, one does not have standards.
Oh, never mind. I forgot that happened 2 years ago and you didn’t call for Bernie to resign from the Senate immediately. What exactly is your definition of “standards”?
No lip ripping from me, either.
“Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.
“This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.
“I recognize that it will take time and serious effort to heal the damage this conduct has caused. I am ready to do that important work. The first step is to offer my sincerest apology and to state my absolute commitment to living up to the expectations Virginians set for me when they elected me to be their Governor.”
Everyone who said they would have accepted an apology and an acknowledgement that what he did was wrong doesn’t seem to realize that was the FIRST thing Northam did.
This is a much better apology than Bernie Sanders gave when we found out he was writing stories and publishing them about women having rape fantasies.
^^^Of course this apology led to people immediately calling for him to resign since he is a Democrat.
TOW says: “but he blew off this situation as being silly, and not the highly racist display that it was.”
Ralph Northam says:
“Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive,” he said Friday.”
Is it “blowback” to point out when you post something that is patently untrue or do I need to shut up because truths must not be challenged?
And when are you going to demand Bernie Sanders resign from the Senate for the highly sexist and offensive things he wrote about women having rape fantasies? When someone posts that Sanders blew it off as being silly and not the highly offensive display that it was, must everyone agree even if it is as patently untrue as what you said?
TOW says “he blew off this situation as being silly, and not the highly racist display that it was”
I really hope that Threatened Out West will explain how this statement is anything like you claim that Northam did.
“Earlier today, a website published a photograph of me from my 1984 medical school yearbook in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive.
“I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now.
“This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.
“I recognize that it will take time and serious effort to heal the damage this conduct has caused. I am ready to do that important work. The first step is to offer my sincerest apology and to state my absolute commitment to living up to the expectations Virginians set for me when they elected me to be their Governor.”
THAT is Northam’s very first statement. That was exactly what it should have said — I’m not sure how it would have been possible to make that an even better statement than it was. Maybe you can tell me, TOW what you would add to it as I’m sure it isn’t perfect but I can’t see what I would add.
Honestly, I fear for this country when we have people on the left who use lies to make their points the way Republicans do. You can absolutely state that dressing in black face was a racist and awful thing to do in 1984 but you didn’t just do that — you posted with absolutely certainty that Northam “blew off this situation as being silly” to help convince people of your POV. And that was not true.
TOW, I really expected better from you. It’s fine to be critical of an action the way I might have criticized Jesse Jackson for saying “Hymietown”.
It is NOT right to lie and say ‘Jesse Jackson laughed it off and said it was perfectly fine to say Hymietown and there was absolutely nothing wrong with it and that’s why I think he needs to disappear from politics.” I truly hope you can understand the difference because otherwise our political discourse is completely debased and has become exactly like Trump wanted it — say any lie to make your point because the truth does not matter. And never ever acknowledge that you made a mistake and were wrong.
And perhaps think about why so many of the same progressives who were convinced that HRC was the most evil person ever to run for President and no different than Trump keep insisting that Northam completely laughed off that photo. Maybe you are listening to propaganda instead of spending time figuring out what is true and what is the most exaggerated attacks designed to convince people that Democrats are no different than Republicans and should never be allowed to take Republicans’ place in power.
“‘It’s what he’s doing for them today.”
That is a good question. What is Northam doing for blacks today? The piece is a little, um, light on answers to that question. Virginia’s black community supported him. What does that mean? What percentage of eligible black voters voted for him? I mean, yes, they preferred him to his Republican opponent, but did they really support him? Or was there just no other alternative?
He spoke out against a racist rally. Well, bully for him. Never let it be said he didn’t do the least he could do. I sure hope he spoke out against a racist rally – so did everyone with an ounce of decency.
He expanded Obamacare. Again, bully for him. Did he go for any form of single payer? Obamacare isn’t particularly friendly to blacks or other minorities – it just raises premiums which makes health coverage nearly out of reach, but simultaneously punishes people who can’t afford it.
And the biggest thrill – Barack Obama campaigned for him. Woo hoo. What did Obama himself ever do for black people? I mean, besides lecturing them about fatherhood while incarcerating more and more of them?
If Northam wants to talk about what he’s done for black people, what’s his position on “three strikes”? The disparity between powdered and crack cocaine? What has he done about racial profiling and police brutality? Has he ever even uttered the phrase “Black Lives Matter”? Did he ever tell his running mate that “superpredators” was not, er, polite?
What’s the employment gap in Virginia between blacks and whites? The wealth gap? The incarceration gap? How does he feel about affirmative action? Can blacks in Virginia obtain affordable safe housing? Are they preyed upon by predatory lenders? Are schools in black neighborhoods equitably funded? What’s he doing toward integration so we don’t even have to talk about “black neighborhoods”?
Those are the issues that would tell us “what he’s doing for them today.” Not some pretty words he’s spoken or who campaigned for him.
You brought up some very good points. Is there someone in the state politics of Virginia who supports all of this?
There needs to be an investigation, not just the full swing of the right wing attack machine. It is possible that all of this came because of Northam’s comment on abortion rights. Apparently Fox has been hitting full blast on this subject.
The manufactured abortion issue is the ONLY thing the right wing has for the Jay Sekulow and Foster Freiss religious right to salve their consciences. It’s an unsupportable, thin thread holding Christian hypocrites to the GOP.
Should Bernie Sanders be forced to resign for writing the essay with all the fantasies men supposedly have about raping women?
It offended many people. He should have known better — even back then – that writing explicitly about rape or women fantasying about being raped was only something sexists do. It doesn’t matter whether was trying to be funny or use satire — the explicit female rape fantasy that Bernie wrote about offended many women and he should have known better. No apology can make up for it, right? I missed the progressive movement calling for Bernie to immediately step down from running for that one. In fact, they still thought he should be President!
As for thinking about what Bernie has done for women lately? Has he been the leader in the fight to get the Equal Rights Amendment passed? When he voted AGAINST the Brady Bill and other gun rights legislation, was he thinking about how many women were killed by guns?
I didn’t help the right wing do their dirty work by claiming that Bernie’s rape fantasies meant he should stop running. And while other Democrats rightly criticized him for it, they did not try to make sweeping judgements about how this revealed Bernie’s true character and hatred for women and meant he should step down and that it was unforgivable.
The progressives should stop being played. What Northam did was offensive and should be criticized just like what Bernie wrote about women’s fantasies about rape was offensive and should be criticized.
But to say that Northam should step down is over the top, especially if you did not say Bernie should immediately resign from the Senate.
Democrats are going after Northam for something that possibly happened decades ago. What needs to be looked at is, ‘Is Northam a good leader NOW?” His behavior certainly wasn’t worse than K’s who got on the Supreme Court.
Republicans let the Dems get all twisted up in identity politics while they focus on serving the wealthy and the powerful.
Well the problem becomes “Northam can’t be a good leader anymore because of this”, which is exactly what the Republicans want.
Northam seemed to be a decent politician. But look at everything dienne77 wrote. “He expanded Obamacare. Again, bully for him. Did he go for any form of single payer?….What’s the employment gap in Virginia between blacks and whites? The wealth gap? The incarceration gap? ” If we now judge Democrats by this standard and anyone who hasn’t solved every issue gets excoriated as no different than a right wing Republican like Trump. And the double standard is ridiculous since it is much harder to be a Governor where your entire life isn’t mouthing progressive platitudes you will never have to figure out how to enact.
There is so much hypocrisy that helps the right wing do their dirty work. This is about forcing out a Democrat who isn’t helping the Christian right enough for a very bad choice in a Halloween costume more than 30 years ago. Have we really lost our mind this much?
You want to know what helps the right wing, NYCPSP? It’s when supposed left-wingers like you go after Republicans like Brett K. with a vengeance, but then you excuse Democrats for doing the same things. Roy Moore was a sexual predator who had to go, but Al Franken was railroaded. Brett K. should be hung for his yearbook, but Northam can be excused because it was over 30 years ago (incidentally, Northam was considerably older than Brett K at the time of their respective yearbooks). See the hypocrisy that right-wingers love to point to??? That’s what convinces people that Democrats don’t mean word one of the virtue-signaling that they put out.
How about a little consistency? When people show themselves to be racist, sexist, backwards jerks with poor judgment who have never apologized or atoned for their behavior, they should not hold public office. Would that be too much to ask across the board? Brett K and Roy Moore both should have been ousted. So too should Franken and Northam.
dienne77: You are forgetting what each has done AT THE CURRENT TIME!
Here are some comments and what we can expect from K:
Robert Jeffress, one of Trump’s most significant evangelical advisers, said in a statement emailed to journalists, “Evangelicals are ecstatic because in less than two years President Trump has filled a second Supreme Court vacancy with a second conservative—just as he promised. The fact that the president chose another conservative justice is more important than the name of that justice. This is a huge win for President Trump.”
Likewise, Paula White, another of Trump’s main evangelical advisers, highlighted how Trump’s pick of Kavanaugh showed that “President Trump has done it yet again, fulfilled a promise exactly as he said he would.”
” when supposed left-wingers like you go after Republicans like Brett K. with a vengeance, but then you excuse Democrats for doing the same things.”
key mistake in what you wrote: “doing the same things”
Did you hear ANYONE saying Kavanaugh should resign his job as a federal judge immediately?
What you heard is that he should not be confirmed to a lifetime job.
But you always know that Democrats should resign from their jobs stat.
Except for Bernie, who you are fine with talking about women’s fantasies about being raped which you think is so forgivable that you wanted him to be President.
There is only one hypocrite here.
By the way, I don’t think Bernie should resign over that. Just like I don’t think Northam should. I think the voters should know about it and decide if that one photo is more important than everything he did for the 20 years afterward. I’m guessing we agree about Bernie. Why don’t you check your biases.
By the way, now people are calling for Elizabeth Warren’s resignation. Do you agree with that? Or do you excuse imperfections in the past that do not reflect the entirety of her life?
Are you really going to go there? You cannot see the difference between Roy Moore raping children and what Al Franken supposedly did? Just like you insisted there was no difference between Trump and HRC.
Does Bernie need to resign? yes or no? I’m not talking about running for President, I’m talking about him stepping down right now and doing what you insist he should have done as soon as we found out about the hurtful things he said about women and rape fantasies.
I don’t think Bernie needs to resign. You seem to think he must.
My other comment is in moderation so I’ll ask this one question again:’
Does Bernie Sanders need to resign from the Senate right now for posting that women have rape fantasies and other degrading things?
Since that commented posted, I will try one more short comment.
I did not call for Kavanaugh to immediately resign from the federal judgeship he currently had. Neither did any Democrats as far as i can tell. They called for him not to be confirmed for a lifetime appointment. And, by the way, Kavanaugh committed perjury about what he did and said he was “honoring” Renate which is very different than Northam apologizing.
If the voters don’t want to re-elect Northam they should not. What he did is not something that calls for resignation, as you know since you certainly did not call for Bernie Sanders to resign from his Senate seat.
Check your double standard, please.
Don’t know if this will post but…
There is a false equivalency in equating Judge Moore’s rape of an underage girl and what Al Franken did even if you believe every single accusation is true.
And there is nothing wrong with criticizing Franken for it just like Moore was criticized and the people voted knowing about the accusations.
You seem to be afraid of democracy when you call for the immediate resignation of someone for a terrible photo in his yearbook 30 years ago. Northam didn’t commit a crime. People aren’t coming out of the woodwork to talk about how awful and racist he was toward African-Americans, even 35 years ago.
Northam – maybe – was part of a costume design that was offensive 35 years ago. James Earl Jones was part of a movie that was offensive an even shorter time ago. To call for an immediate resignation when there is no evidence beyond a bad costume that he acted in racist ways for the remainder of his life is truly beyond my understanding.
carolmalaysia
“Dems get twisted up”. DINOS use identity politics to serve the billionaires. Corey Booker- case in point.
Northam and/or Fairfax could prove they have Democratic values by shutting down Koch influence at the PUBLIC George Mason University. The multiple Koch-funded GMU centers are, IMO, no different than private employment at a right wing think tank where faculty and curriculum are decided by Steve Miller and Bannon.
All Democratic governors could send Frederick Hess’ ideas packing. He called for the donor class to use money to get what they wanted in academic departments, “Don’t Surrender the Academy”, posted at Philanthropy Roundtable.
Fairfax and Northam know academic freedom is a bedrock of democracy and it is imperiled at a flagship public university in Virginia. Why don’t they show all of us, including Black Americans that the Koch’s don’t own higher ed?
Last year, UnKochMyCampus.org published, “Advancing White Supremacy through Academic Strategy”.
I don’t know if anyone’s still reading, but for anyone who might care what black people themselves have to say about the matter: https://www.thenation.com/article/ralph-northam-resign-virginia-racism/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%2002052019&utm_term=daily
And be sure to read the comments to see a bunch of whitesplaining to a black man about what is or isn’t offensive.
There is not a person I know who does not agree that it is offensive, nor are they excusing it.
However, some people believe that if the person did something racist more than 30 years ago, but has acted since then in ways that are not racist, then resigning your office immediately seems very disproportionate to what was done. Northam immediately apologized and made no excuses. He didn’t say it was okay. He said he would have work to do so that the people of Virginia would trust him and he hoped to be judged on the entirety of his life.
FYI, John Blake at CNN is African-American.
There is something vaguely racist to me about dienne77 pointing to an interesting and valuable perspective of one African-American man and characterizing it as “what black people themselves have to say about the matter”.
You did not characterize John Blake’s comment as “what black people themselves have to say about the matter” because it is the kind of thing that racists do when they act as if one person’s actions or words represent the actions of an entire race of people.
It’s interesting because it contrasts with how she didn’t use a similar characterization about the comments in the article and say that they were “what white people themselves have to say about the matter”. She said the comments were “a bunch of whitesplaining” which is arguably correct. But saying that is definitely not the same as saying one should read the comments to see what white people themselves have to say about this issue. There seemed to be an understanding that not all white people are represented by a bunch of comments and to characterize those comments as what “white people themselves have to say about the matter” when referring to them is not appropriate.
Just saying that it is easy to make a mistake like that when you are white and not an African-American person who has experienced what is sometimes referred to as “microaggressions” by people who do not think what they are saying is as racist as it is.
I think most people who are white – myself included – are guilty of unconsciously doing things that can be perceived as microaggressions. And I think it is up to us to be aware of it and try our best not to repeat those kinds of thoughtless actions.
^^^It is like this comment that Senator Bernie Sanders made less than 3 months ago:
“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American,” Sanders told the outlet. “I think next time around, by the way, it will be a lot easier for them to do that.”
Saying that a white person who felt uncomfortable about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American is NOT NECESSARILY RACIST can be perceived as a very racist belief.
That does NOT mean that Sanders should immediately step down and as far as I know there weren’t people calling for it. I don’t think it was hypocrisy if you weren’t demanding Bernie Sanders immediately resign his Senate seat. I don’t think that meant that no Democrat or progressive could criticize the racist things Congressman Steve King says just because they didn’t call for Bernie’s immediate resignation.
So I don’t understand how dienne77 decides when a politician needs to immediately step down or not when they do or say something that demonstrates that they still have some racist beliefs.
Equating K and Northam is not the same. They both had problems 30 or more years ago but we need to look at what is happening NOW. K looses. Notice, “his activities in the White House under President George W. Bush, and that he had displayed partisan bias and a lack of judicial temperament.”
…………………………….
Robert H. Tembeckjian is administrator and counsel to the New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct, and he served on the American Bar Association advisory committee that revised the Model Code of Judicial Conduct in 2007.
During the contentious Supreme Court confirmation process for Brett M. K, and soon after he was confirmed on Oct. 6, dozens of ethics complaints against him were filed. All were dismissed on Dec. 18 by a federal judicial review panel, without investigation, because once K was elevated to the Supreme Court, he became immune to ethics oversight that applies to judges in lower courts.
Allegations that the review panel had deemed “serious” — that K had testified falsely during his confirmation hearings about his personal conduct and about his activities in the White House under President George W. Bush, and that he had displayed partisan bias and a lack of judicial temperament — went into ethical limbo.
The fate of the K complaints seems to have stirred House Democrats to action: The first bill introduced in the 116th Congress, H.R. 1, includes, along with provisions for voting rights and campaign finance reform, a measure to require the development of a judicial code of ethics that would apply to all federal judges, including those on the Supreme Court.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. is on the record as opposing such a move. In 2011, he addressed it at some length in his year-end report on the federal judiciary. Roberts argued that the justices already adhere informally to some ethical strictures, and that the separation of powers doctrine precludes Congress from imposing such a mandate on the Supreme Court…
Also, anyone who says they are “the same” should be able to cite where Democrats called for Kavanaugh to immediately step down from his job as a federal judge.
What Democrats said is that he should not be confirmed to a new position, not that Kavanaugh should immediately step down from being the federal judge he currently was.
Plus Kavanaugh never apologized nor acknowledged that he did anything wrong 30 years ago. He specifically said he and his friends honored Renate when they devoted their yearbook to trashing her reputation publicly.
Clarence Thomas’ wife received a “paycheck” of about $600,000 from the Heritage Foundation. Judge Thomas forgot to report it until it was exposed by the media.
When I was four-and-twenty (apologies to AE Housman)
When I was four-and-twenty
I got some good advice
“Don’t dress as KKK
Or blacken up the face”
“Wear clown-face and wear clownshoes
And keep it racist free”
But I was four-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.
When I was four-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
“The blackface is just racist
And not for decent men”
“And someday it will haunt thee
And make you pay for hate”
And now I’m eight and fifty
And oh, ’tis late, too late
“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American”
Is the comment above just as offensive as wearing blackface or not? And does it matter whether the offense was committed 3 months ago or 30 years ago?
Just wondering.
The situation is getting more weird here in Virginia.
-The governor may resign, over the photo incident.
-The Lieutenant governor is under investigation for alleged sexual abuse.
-Now, the attorney general has admitted to wearing blackface in 1980 at a party see
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/06/politics/virginia-attorney-general-blackface/index.html
If these three all resign, the next person in line for the governorship is a Republican.
And I read that the source of that almost forty year old photograph of the governor allegedly wearing a costume that made him look like an African American was released by a Alt-Right conspiracy theory, serial lying website/media site.
“A far-right conservative website was reportedly tipped off about the racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam’s medical school yearbook page by one of his former classmates.
“A source from Big League Politics told the Washington Post the individual reached out because of “anger” over Northam’s recent comments about a bill that would loosen restrictions on abortions.” …
The Post also spoke to Patrick Howley, the editor in chief of Big League Politics who previously worked at Daily Caller and Breitbart News. He said a “concerned citizen” pointed out the photo to his team, but he declined to identify his source citing a confidentiality agreement.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/tip-for-racist-photo-came-from-ex-classmate-angry-with-ralph-northams-abortion-comments-report
An Alt-Right, extremist, lying, conspiracy theory site leaks the photo and I think that makes it smell like a cooked up conspircay to get rid of the Democrats that lead Virginian and replace them with an Alt-Right Trump Troll.
I have heard that the Black Caucus in the VA legislature will make the decision about who stays and who goes.
Sounds right to me.
Otherwise the state will flip to Republican and that’s not good for Black Virginians. They will get a Trumper
“They will get a Trumper.”
Yesterday I read a comment someone left here (don’t remember who wrote it) on this site that if they had a choice between Booker and Trump, they’d vote for Trump.
No one that thinks critically and logically should ever want to vote for Trump because you don’t like a candidate who is a corporate Democrat.
Booker for all of his faults and flawed thinking is not Trump. Sensible people should never want a Trumper in a position of leadership and power.
Now if Booker is a Trumper, instead of voting for Trump or Booker, write in AOC.
Lloyd Lofthouse: Indiana’s voting system is on Apple iPads. There is no place to write in anyone’s name. it is strictly vote for whomever is on the tech ballet.
I also believe that not have a paper trail and depending upon tech is allowing an expert in the system to create their own desired voter outcome.
I wonder if Virginia’s voting system was implemented by Republicans.
And now the 3rd in line Democrat in Virginia has admitted once putting brown on his face for a costume in 1980.
Are we done with the circular firing squad yet?
Everyone agrees now that it is offensive and racist to do this. In the 1980s and even today, people who truly believed they were not racist did and said things that WERE racist. And they did and said things that were anti-Semitic, anti-Asian, anti-Muslim, anti-woman, and I am certain many more. The movie “Soul Man” came out in 1986 and while many people rightly noted how awful of a movie it was, the people who made it did not do so at the time in order to be hurtful. They were racist because they were ignorant.
Just like Bernie Sanders statement 3 months ago was racist because he was ignorant:
“I think you know there are a lot of white folks out there who are not necessarily racist who felt uncomfortable for the first time in their lives about whether or not they wanted to vote for an African-American”.
There are people who have spent their lives doing racist things and promoting racist divisions and racist public policy. And there are people who, in the past, made racist statements or dressed in offensively racist ways out of ignorance. To pretend that there is no difference between those two types of people seems ridiculous. I don’t want Bernie Sanders to step down. And I don’t want Northam to step down. I want them to be judged on whether they have acted as racists in how they governed and whether they have acknowledged that what they did was not acceptable.
What the heck is going on in Virginia, for God’s sake.
The craziest thing is that John Herring, the Virginia Attorney General, just admitted he wore blackface and put on a wig while in college. But just a few days ago he demanded Ralph Northam’s resignation for doing the same thing!
Do you think Herring just didn’t remember that he had done the same thing or did he know he had done the same thing but assumed it wouldn’t come out and he’s such a hypocrite that he was willing to attack the Governor as such a terrible person for doing the exact same thing he had done?
I think there are probably many of us who have amnesia about offensive and racist costumes we may have worn at some point many decades past. Not specifically dressing like Michael Jackson with blackface, but dressing as someone who is Asian or Jewish or Hindu or Native American or female. Technically, a whole lot of female impersonators with their exaggerated female dress could be accused of being rabid sexists. And even in the late 1980s and probably well into the 1990s major movies had white stars playing characters of a different ethnicity or race.
So glad you’re back, Flerp!, & w/your comment & NYT article.
Something IS going on, methinks (the news from A.G. Herring, as well).
If all of them go (& should NOT!), who is next in line? Would that be the Speaker of the House, & is he/she a Republican or a DINO?
The plot thickens!!
&–I agree 100%–Franken SHOULD have had a hearing.
Whatever happened to due process? Of course, I am not saying this should occur in the case of serial offenders (ahem–IQ 45, & nothing has happened in his case).
Oh, wait–this was known BEFORE the elections, & the @$!& Electoral College got him elected anyway.
At this late date sure no one is reading this (except for Diane), but have learned that the VA Speaker of the House is, indeed, a conservative Republican.
As I’d said, methinks something is VERY rotten in VA…now people are saying (this, from 2/7/19 Democracy Now! broadcast) that they believe the Fairfax (Lt. Gov. accused of sexual harassment at DNC Convention) story has been concocted by Northam supporters who want to keep Northam in office, Fairfax out (of governorship).
A horrendous, unprecedented conundrum, to be sure. And I thought ILL-Annoy was bad…
From what I hear, the Black Caucus in the VA Legislature will decide who Resigns and who does not.
How many innocent people and children have been killed by white gun-toting men who are citizens of the US? Apparently this is just fine BUT finding some brown immigrants who do misdeeds is a justification for condemning a whole race. The number of immigrants who have been severely abused, raped and threatened to be killed in their homelands never enters the equation.
This is a posting from the WH.
………………….
Border Agents Just Apprehended Convicted Child Molesters and an MS-13 Member at the Texas Border Where There’s No Barrier
“U.S. Border Patrol agents said Thursday that they apprehended several illegal immigrants at the southern border in Texas, in places where there are no physical barrier walls to deter illegal crossings,” Eddie Scarry reports in the Washington Examiner.
“Among those caught crossing into the U.S. were a Mexican man with a previous conviction in Georgia for child molestation, a Honduran man with a record in North Carolina showing a conviction for ‘Indecent Liberties with Child,’ and another Honduran male with a Florida record that identified him as a member of the violent MS-13 gang.”
I just got this from a Fox friend. How would you respond? It’s a bunch of hogwash but this is what is being spread.
…………………..
A Close Look at the New Radical Muslim Agenda in America
Have you heard? Congress has more women serving right now than ever before! Apparently, that’s because America is more bigoted than ever before! No, we don’t understand liberal “logic” either.
In the midst of all these new Congresswomen are two who stand out in particular. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are active Muslims and now official Representatives in our legislature. That might not be so bad, but they’ve made their un-American agendas clear, and those agendas are downright frightening.
Between the two of them, there’s a lot to cover. So, today, we’re going to review the legacy and policy of Rep. Ilhan Omar. Brace yourselves. This won’t be pretty….
As for religious freedom, Amazon provides paid prayer breaks for Muslim workers. It also supplies prayer mats (purchased at company expense) and works steadfastly to accommodate Muslim workers through Ramadan and other religious events.
You might notice that other religions aren’t mentioned here. That’s because Muslim workers at Amazon get more special treatment than groups of any other religious affiliation. That said, there are no legitimate claims of Amazon restricting religious practices of any kind…
As a member of Congress, she has supported a 90-percent tax on the wealthy, single-payer health care, free college tuition for all, the abolishment of ICE, a state-level boycott of Israel and the financial support of Iran. These are all radical positions, and they hold a frightening commonality.
Every one of these policies is aimed at the destruction of America and the promotion of an Islamic state in its place. She knows that her economic policies will destroy our economy. Without it, who will stand against the violent rise of Islam across the globe?…
https://www.americanlibertyreport.com/articles/a-close-look-at-the-new-radical-muslim-agenda-in-america/
I responded, “Thanks for the information. I wasn’t aware of this.”
It pays to know your enemies. [No wonder people vote and stand up for Trump.] I read that Amazon workers aren’t even given bathroom breaks and pee on themselves. So now, Amazon is providing prayer time and prayer rugs? Unbelievable.