General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For those calling for Northems head, do you know Cory Stewart? [View all]DemocratSinceBirth
(99,710 posts)I grew up and went to college in the Deep South, with parents who did the same. In my 25 years in the region, I saw one person in blackface, and no Klan hoods ever. I encountered the man in blackface at a Halloween party in the mid-2000s. He had painted himself brown to dress up as the rapper Lil Wayne. Any memory I had of my own costume is lost to history, but Ill never forget his. I also remember the handful of times Ive ever heard a white person say the N-word out loud in front of me. White people say or wear those things because they want to scare or shock. It works. You remember.
My dad, raised in small-town Georgia in the 1950s and 60s, often scoffs at the kind of hand-waving Northam is doing in an attempt to keep his job. Even half a century ago, even in the rural South, his conservative parents made clear to him how he was expected to treat people, and what kind of language they wouldnt allow. Everyone knew right from wrong, and blatant acts of racism have always been blatantly racist. This was true when my dad was a kid, and it was certainly true among grad students in the mid-1980s.
A Klan hood has always been a Klan hood: Its meant to terrify and intimidate, to make legible the violence intended by the person wearing it. Youre supposed to remember a Klan hood. Northam, I would expect, remembers too.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/ralph-northams-yearbook-page-speaks-itself/581941/