More than three decades after graduation, the governor of Virginia has fated a yearbook photograph long since forgotten. The Democrat Ralph Northam was forced to make a public apology after a website posted the 1984 image yesterday.
Then a person in the white robe of the notorious racist sect Ku-Klux-Klan poses next to someone with a black-painted face. Who is from the two Northam, can not be seen. The politician confessed in his statement only, the photo show him „in a costume that is clearly racist and offensive“. He could only apologize for his „hurtful“ behavior from today’s point of view.
Double provocation
The picture provides two reasons for indignation: Members of the Ku Klux Klans, founded in 1865 in the USA, spread fear and terror during night raids in their typical white robe with burning crosses and murdered many African Americans. Blackfacing, on the other hand – the dark make-up of white people to depict blacks, for example in the theater or at costume festivals – is criticized as a racist stereotype.
Not only the Republican Party in Virginia and the Civil Rights Association NAACP, which fought against discrimination against blacks, demanded that Northam resign due to the annual photo.
Many politicians from the ranks of Democrats demanded his resignation – including presidential candidates Cory Booker, Julian Castro and Kamala Harris. A willingness to resign, however, Northam in his personal statement did not recognize
