There is cynicism, and then there is CYNICISM…
Embattled Virginia Governor Ralph Northam continues to defy calls for his resignation over a racist college yearbook photo that detonated last weekend in a hysterical media firestorm.
Capping off a week when he defended a Democrat bill that would legalize infanticide and the resulting criticism, Northam was shellshocked when the three-decades-old picture of him either in “blackface” or full KKK regalia was published by conservative website Big League Politics.
The governor initially apologized over the picture but flip-flopped the very next day by denying that it was him although he did confess to wearing “blackface” but only as a tribute to Michael Jackson and before his horrified wife stopped him, was prepared to do the moonwalk at the press conference.
Democrats screamed for Northam’s head and were led by 2020 frontrunner Kamala Harris (who once sang his praises) but despite his poor judgment, the governor has been the beneficiary of some astounding luck.
The man who would be replacing him, the black Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax was tripped up on his way to the governor’s mansion by credible allegations of sexual assault that were tantamount to rape and is currently pleading for the hyper-politicized FBI to investigate his accusers.
Not only that but the third in the line of succession, Attorney General Mark Herring also admitted that he had dressed up in “blackface” throwing the entire situation into such a state of abject chaos that Northam looks like is incredibly going to survive.
According to a report, the disgraced racist is furiously working to patch things up with black voters and he will sensitize himself to their oppression by reading the take of Kunta Kinte’s family as told in Alex Haley’s epic novel “Roots” which was a smash hit miniseries back in the day before Northam’s ill-fated college picture was taken.
Virginia governor @RalphNortham to learn black sensitivity by going back to somebody else's Roots https://t.co/wDMlZ4GlLk
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 9, 2019
Via The Washington Examiner, “Virginia governor to learn black sensitivity by going back to somebody else’s Roots”:
Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s aides want him to read his way out of trouble.
If you can believe it, the aides’ strategy for helping him survive his “blackface scandal” involves assigned reading, including Alex Haley’s book Roots and an essay written by the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates, according to BuzzFeed News.
It’s the whitest solution to a blackface problem that only the whitest of whites could have devised.
At first the governor apologized for the yearbook photo. Then he backtracked, after his apology failed to kill the controversy, by denying any involvement in the photo. Northam then held a press conference wherein he maintained he couldn’t possibly be the man in blackface because he “vividly” remembers looking different the one time he dressed in blackface to impersonate Michael Jackson for a dance competition.
So his defense for wearing blackface was that it was a different sort of blackface.
This all really happened, even the part where Northam nearly “moonwalked” for reporters.
Suffice it to say, the governor has had a rough go of it, looking like both a supremely incompetent fool and a baby boomer racist.
Additional details according to BuzzFeed which broke the story:
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, still facing calls to resign as governor a week after the revelation that his page in a medical school yearbook features a racist photograph, is now tightly focused on coming up with plans to survive.
His office has begun to explore how it might recalibrate Northam’s legislative agenda to focus closely on race and equality, sources close to the governor tell BuzzFeed News. The move would mark a brazen attempt to hang onto his office by shifting the conversation away from Northam’s admission of having once worn blackface and his denials that he is featured in the racist yearbook photo, either as the person in blackface or the person in a Klan outfit. Northam’s policy team is looking at crafting a set of proposals based on the premise that the governor’s mistakes have rendered him keenly aware of inequity and the lack of justice faced by black Virginians 400 years after the first African people arrived in the Commonwealth, at Point Comfort, in 1619.
Governor “Coonman” also is going to reading up on racial grievance hustler Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay “The Case For Reparations” in what is nothing short of an overtly cynical effort to pander to black voters in the commonwealth.
And it’s working like a charm too:
Majority of black Virginians support @RalphNortham staying in office amid blackface scandal, new poll shows https://t.co/yh487bgq5b
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 10, 2019
Or at least it was…
Alas, Northan will never be accused of being the brightest bulb in the chandelier and during a damage control appearance on CBS’s “Face The Nation” on Sunday morning, his racism slipped out when he referred to the slaves as “indentured servants” much to the shock of interviewer Gayle King.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam: "We are now at the 400-year anniversary — just 90 miles from here in 1619. The first indentured servants from Africa landed on our shores in Old Point Comfort, what we call now Fort Monroe, and while—"@GayleKing: "Also known as slavery" pic.twitter.com/AiX96MU1rJ
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) February 10, 2019
Oh, Charlie Brown! You Blockhead!