Blackface. Someone else can give you a more eloquent and detailed history of minstrel shows and its role in American history. What Virginia Democrats are confronting right now is a sort of scale of atrociousness of blackface. On one end, there are the instances in which the individual's goal is clearly the dehumanization that was at the core of the minstrel shows. Here's my attempt to describe a worst case. Some hardcore Steve King-types head to Howard University, go to a public square there, and put on a old-fashioned, straight-up minstrel show, in blackface. How's that for bad? On the other, let's put Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder, where the joke was the inappropriateness of blackface, and just how offensive it was that his actor-character did it, and went as far as he did. One can take a never-ever stance on the use of blackface that deems Tropic Thunder inappropriate, just as one can argue that all uses of the n-word are inappropriate, including in satire when spoken by someone made to be the villain through the use of the word, but that's a spectrum. Somewhere in there is the clueless idiot who puts on blackface to imitate Michael Jackson in 1984, and has to be stopped from moonwalking during a press conference by an ever-beleaguered spouse. Pity the spouse. How close is that to the minstrel show rather than Tropic Thunder? I have no idea.
Now, though, there is a "GoFundMe" campaign to go through politicians' yearbooks looking for similarly racist photos to the one where Northam was either the asshole in blackface or the asshole in the klan robes, 'cuz... [facepalm].
Ceteris paribus. All other things. They're never equal. Under what circumstances would you vote for someone who once wore blackface? When the alternative was a child molester? [Hi, Roy!] Are you dramatically less concerned about someone who only rapes adults, as appears to be the case with the Lieutenant Governor? When the alternative was a nutjob who might nuke the planet in a fit of pique? What issues are more important to you than blackface? I know there's something. You could be the leader of your local Black Livers Matter movement, and I could find a circumstance in which you'd vote for someone who wore blackface in 1984. Say, if the alternative were Steve King... Ceteris paribus. Maybe you see part of where I'm going here.
What did you think of Ralph Northam before you saw that photo? Before his attempts to... dance around the issue? In context? He's a politician. Politicians intrinsically suck because politicians are the people who seek power, and anyone who wants power shouldn't have it. Unfortunately, someone needs to be put in positions of power, and therein lies the basic problem of politics.
Which brings me to the history of politicians with troubling histories on race. John Dingell just died, and speaking of people who spent really long periods of time in Congress, does anyone remember the late Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV)? He was once the kind of guy who, shall we say, needed a weekly budget for bleach. For, um... his sheets. Klan, OK? Dude was in the klan. And then, as time passed, he was one of the people who tried to move left on race and civil rights. By no means would I consider him a perfect Senator, but does the end of his life and career look anything like that of a race-baiting demagogue? No. Byrd's history with the klan was something that politically aware people generally knew, and accepted as something from his past. He moved on.
Contrast that with George Wallace. He was racist demagoguery personified, but it was at least partially strategy from him, and towards the end of his career, he made moves in the other direction on issues of race, yet we remember him today as an icon of the segregation era. Part of the difference is that Wallace built his early political career on segregationist demagoguery, whereas Byrd's political career never had the kind of Wallace-level bile. Of course, few careers did, but even Wallace got some forgiveness during his lifetime. From history? Depends on who's doing the writing.
Politicians are complicated critters. (Except the ones who are just pure evil. Fine. I'm contradicting myself, but c'mon. Steve King is just over-the-top racist.)
Who gets forgiven, and for what?
Let's turn this around, then, and think about this outside the realm of politics. I'm going to ask you about the possibility of certain individuals having worn blackface at some point in the past, and how much you'd care, to the point of dissociating yourself from the person. You will be graded, and some of these will be harder than others. Because I like messing with people.
1. Your spouse/S.O.
2. The owner of your favorite restaurant
3. Your favorite musician/member of your favorite band*
4. The producer of your favorite album from your favorite band
5. The sound engineer from your favorite album from your favorite band
6. The secretary at the studio where your favorite album was recorded
7. Your doctor
8. The secretary at your doctor's office
9. The contractor you hired to do some work on your house (OK, for some of you, this isn't a thing yet)
10. An employee hired by the contractor you hired to do some work on your house
11. The owner of the grocery chain where you've been shopping for years
12. The manager of the branch of that store
13. The checkout clerk at one of the registers at that store
14. The truck driver who delivered some of the groceries to that store
15. The leader of some local community organization to which you belong
16. A fellow member of that organization
17. Your boss
18. Your employee
19. Your coworker
20. Your neighbor
21. Um... are you African-American? Did I forget to ask that? If you aren't, then assume you are, and re-answer 1-20. To quote Bugs Bunny, "ain't I a stinker?"
I'm not going to tell you that there are correct or incorrect answers here. I don't generally give multiple choice exams 'cuz they suck. This is just a way to clarify your thinking on the topic of blackface. When do you care, and when do you have to acknowledge that you live in a society surrounded by people who have done things that... yeah. Is it practical to go through life interrogating the history of every person and organization with whom you interact to ensure that they pass your standards? No. Where do you draw the line? That's up to you, but thinking through the process in a realistic way matters, and understanding that you can't interrogate everyone's history, and that you will interact with bad people, is part of dealing with human society. Three cheers for misanthropy!
Now, think about the questions above to which you answered that you'd maintain some association. Maybe, for example, you don't really care that much about whether or not the secretary at the recording studio where your favorite album was recorded once wore blackface. Maybe you don't care about the contractor. You just care about finding someone who will do a good job for a fair price. That's hard enough!
And yet, with politicians, there's something else going on, with a lot of people. My first book, Hiring and Firing Public Officials: Rethinking the Purpose of Elections, argued that we should stop thinking about elections in metaphoric terms, and stop thinking about politicians in abstractions. It's a job. Elections are hiring mechanisms. Hire whoever does the job.
Is there, then, a difference between "hiring" a governor and hiring a contractor to work on your house? When I need work done on my house, I'm not going to ask for contractors' yearbooks to look for blackface photos. I'm just not. I'm not going to check their social media feeds, or anything like that. I just want the job done right, at a fair price. I know a guy. He does good work at a fair price. That's it.
With politics, though, people imbue meaning beyond mechanical tasks to the individuals themselves. Representation. Of what? The pushback that I have faced to the argument in that book is that the individuals who serve in public office are, themselves, supposed to be representative. Voters want the people in public office to serve some symbolic purpose, and consequently attach personal importance to the people in office beyond the mechanical performance of their duties. Ralph Northam could do everything that the Black Lives Matter movement wants, and that photo would leave people who want a symbol unsatisfied. To what extent do people value that? That's part of the issue here.
Not all of it. There's another part when Northam sounds like a damned weasel and doesn't just say, "yeah, that was me, and I was a stupid, horrible kid. I feel terrible for the pain that causes because it was wrong, and I know it. I wish I knew then what I know now, and growing up is hard," or something like that. Own up to it. That's part of why Byrd has a different legacy, politically, than other politicians who were in the klan. It's harder to forgive a weasel.
Then again, notice how much we are talking about this rather than what looks like multiple sexual assaults committed by the Lieutenant Governor? I'll be curious if the second allegation against Fairfax takes the heat off Northam.
*Yeah, it's always music with me.
Related Posts :
Gold Star Widow Shares The Call That She Had With President Trump When Her Husband Was Killed
Don't get distracted. Important things are happening in Congress.- Afghans Flee Military Training In U.S. With Canada Being Their Ultimate Destination of Choice
- Chinese Official: Top Chinese Officials 'Plotted To Overthrow Chinese President Xi Jinping'
- U.S. Congresswoman At Center Of Fallen Soldier Row Accuses John Kelly Of Racism And Lying