A couple Twitter friends recently dismissed the notion of "systemic" or "institutional" racism, believing that only individuals can be racist. This 1983 Bowie MTV interview provides an excellent rejoinder.
Two years before, Bowie had been one of the 1/x
faces of the network's "I want my MTV" debut promotion. Here, the role of interviewer and interviewee switch when Bowie ask VJ Mark Goodman why the station didn't play more black artists. A defensive Goodman tries to explain programming: 2/x
"We have to try and do not just what we think New York and Los Angeles will appreciate, but also Poughkeepsie or the Midwest, pick some town in the Midwest that will be scared to death by Prince (who we're playing) or a string of black faces and black music." 3/x
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/