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THREAD. After much fun at Northam's expense, a serious though: A few tweets have run along the lines of, "Even in the South, 35 years ago, everyone knew that wearing a Klan outfit or blackface was racist." Having been in college myself at that time, I started nodding. 1/x
But then I pause. EVERYONE knew that this type of behavior is racist? That means Northam must have been racist (he admits in his Friday statement that what he did was racist). It means his partner in crime was racist. But there was a compiler/editor of the yearbook, right? 2/x
That supposedly responsible person accepted Northam's photo. -- and let it go, right? Was there a faculty advisor? Did that person approve it too? My point here is that either everyone knew this was something REALLY ugly and racist OR they were doing something what they 3/
bizarrely thought was "funny" and no one stopped to think, "Oh, it's funny, but really ugly and maybe we shouldn't do it." IOW, the 20/20 hindsight we have now that EVERYONE knew this was something you didn't do might not have been as strong back then. 4/
To make it a bit clearer:, a personal anecdote: I went to a small liberal arts college in Maryland (below the Mason-Dixon line). Of a student body of 400, I was one of five or six blacks over 4+ years. In 1985, senior class leaders bounced around ideas for a fundraiser. 5/
They settled upon a "slave auction" -- seniors would be "auctioned" to odd jobs for the winning bidders. Yeah, yeah, already, you're thinking, "What the hell?" In fairness, this was a school where which studies Greek and Latin classics. So, it's theoretically possible to do 6/
a "Greek" or "Roman"-style slave auction. Even so, I approached the planners and said tread carefully. I didn't hear about it anymore, so I assumed it got dropped. Instead, I awoke to find posters declaring, "Welcome to 1865: It's a real live slave auction!" Um, WHAT? 7/
I, well, got upset. But, here's the thing. There were quite of few other, white friends -- including other seniors -- who were stunned. There was an African-American underclassman who I'd become friends with who came up to me with whatever the 1985 version of "WTF?" was. 8/
I put together a strongly-worded letter (no, seriously, it was an "open letter" to the student body), got it co-signed with a couple dozen other people infuriated, stuffed copies in mailboxes. A day or so later, the fundraiser was cancelled. Yes, there were bruised feelings. 9/
My African American pal and I had a tense discussion with the organizers. We cleared the air. And, it should be noted, I'm friendly with them to this day. I don't consider them racist then or now. It was an insensitive action -- but an ultimately learning moment. 10/
In the days that followed, I felt out of sorts. Even though I had many friends who had my back and immediately supported me and whatever I wanted to do in response, I was still feeling alone, wondering if I did the right thing. Then, something happened. 11/
The auditorium attendant (African American, like the entire grounds crew). Jimmy, came up to me. I had chatted with him over the years as I had a work-study job in the dining hall. He said to me, "Thank you for speaking up about that. These kids, they just don't know." 12/
It had quite the impact. "These kids just don't know." In truth, *I* was a "kid" myself. I didn't know. Irritated as I was with the class leaders who ignored my cautionary heads-up, in fact, this was bigger than me -- bigger than them. Other eyes were watching. 13/
So, beware the "EVERYONE knew such-and-such was racist in 1985" trope. Ralph Northam is a few years older than I am. He *should* have known better. But so should several other people involved in getting that photo into that yearbook (Hey, kids! It WASN'T a selfie!) 14/
The definition of racism isn't as set in stone as we might like. The spectrum of racially insensitive or "microaggression" (ugh.) to out and racism is, to use an in-vogue phrase, "fluid." Some get it right away. Others? "They just don't know." 15/END
.@threadreaderapp unroll please.
