Thread by @RobertaLipp

When @jonlovett takes on almost any topic, (like Ralph Northam), I recommend you listen.

“We are in this period of reevaluation. It’s on gender, it’s on race, it’s on a host of other issues—it’s why we are talking about Confederate monuments now. 1/9

It’s why in some circumstances we’re talking about sexual harassment and sexual assault now. 2/9

We have realized that even in recent years our thinking of ourselves as having gotten over certain problems, our thinking of ourselves as modern, our thinking of ourselves as being post-history in some sense is wrong, it was just completely false. 3/9

And one of the hardest parts about that is there are these two things sitting side by side. One, our standards are going up, and that’s a really positive thing. 4/9

And then we are taking those standards and saying, who is living up to them and who has always lived up to them, and some people are just failing. You look back at that yearbook photo and it’s not just about Ralph Northam. 5/9

It’s about the fact that there was a culture of that school, a glibness around race and a racism baked into the culture of that school that made it a place where people felt safe to dress that way, a place that was not safe for people of color at all. 6/9

And right now we are looking back and saying no, it is not acceptable, that the idea that you could go along with that is a completely morally reprehensible way to have gotten where you are and your explanations are not acceptable. Your denial is not acceptable. 7/9

And the only way we’ll get better is by rejecting the kinds of acceptable racisms that came before, including blackface. People say well, blackface has gotten less acceptable. Well actually racism has gotten less acceptable. 8/9

That’s all. We’re talking about the fact that racism has gotten less acceptable.”

Damn, Lovett.

overcast.fm/+H1PXnDCs0 @crookedmedia

9/9. Fin.