Jim Crow jumps into the game
History in blackface slaps the present moment awake.
What? The governor put that picture on his yearbook page? In 1984? The wave of outrage, the demand for his resignation -- from Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's own party, the Democrats -- can't be dismissed with a shrug and an apology. His career may be over, thanks not simply to an act of youthful stupidity but to the context that made it possible: good old American racism.
The controversial shows two guys standing next to each other, holding cans of (most likely) beer. One is dressed up in a
