while he should definitely resign I just want to point out we now have a supreme court justice, for life, will never resign, who has done far more horrible things because they include assault and acts also into his college history
the imbalance of justice for the right vs the left is just not proportional, at all
I thought some more about what you said, that race is a social construct, and I think I understand what you’re saying by that. For example, in Japan, they (obviously not all of them, but it’s a widespread belief) have this belief that blood types are really important for personality, dating, employment, etc. They have beliefs that some types are compatible for dating.
It’s nuts.
Obviously blood types are an observable thing, they are not made up, but the social aspects of them, like the idea that some blood types should date some other types, and statements like this (on the article I linked):
Blood Type A personalities are generally very considerate, calm, honest, sensible, creative and somewhat cautious
Blood Type Bs can also be irresponsible, selfish and at times, crave drama
are obviously socially constructed, and false, and ridiculous to anyone who doesn’t believe in them. The people who do believe, do so without any evidence to support it. (Fortunately I think they don’t take it very seriously, sort of like how we view astrology.) Blood type is real, but implying anything about who people are from it is socially constructed, so it would be totally absurd to look at a school and say, “I don’t want my child to go there because there are too many blood type Bs there and they are irresponsible”, or “let’s base our immigration policy on blood type and take Type As because they are more calm and honest”.
I believe that’s what you’re saying?
More than tasteless I’m afraid. I grew up in Virginia and know full well the kind of people there who would do this whether it be for Halloween, frat parties, or school year books. For them it’s a continuation of Virginia Good 'ol Boy behavior that has been around since the Civil War. Many see it as “tradition” and as in the case of Northam often times it’s disguised as prep or private school “antics”.
To be clear the 1980’s were no different in certain parts of Virginia than they were in the 1880’s. Confederate flags still fly in peoples yards, the KKK remains active and the Good 'ol Boy prep/private school network is strong.
Seriously, I don’t know how much more evident it can be.
Drawing from the Encyclopedia Brittanica (a surprisingly good resource for race theory), racism’s core ideology has three components. First, it’s the belief that humans are separated into biological categories called “races”. Second, it posits that racialized physical traits are the source of personality characteristics like intelligence, sexuality, and work ethic. Finally, the ideology holds that these racial categories exist within a hierarchy and that some races are superior to others.
http://www.orchestratedpulse.com/2014/08/racism-white/
It’s a preposterous ideology. By the same token, one could posit that I would be a murderer simply for the fact that I have detached earlobes.
I would agree in general, but as I noted above Northam went to and thrived in an integrated majority African-American public high school and then attended VMI, an integrated military college. Especially as someone who aspired to positions of leadership throughout his life, he had zero excuse for not saying to his medical school Good Ol’ Boy classmates that “these costumes are not OK”, and less excuse for putting the photo on his yearbook page.
A real leader isn’t a giggling bystander to what he claims to find abhorrent. A real leader doesn’t deny responsibility for his errors. A real leader doesn’t betray the people on his team, be it the HS basketball team or his fellow cadets or his constituents. A real leader would resign if he did any of those things.
In my experience VMI sits in a network of Virginia private schools that were once all white or all men or women. The Good 'ol Boy network in Virginia consists of people that have gone thru this system since before segregation. While the school has changed it’s composition the older alumni, the white donor class, continue to inject a way of life that perpetuates the garbage we are seeing today.
I hope that he does resign. Good riddance.
I’m sure it still does, but it was desegregated 15 years before Northam went there, which means he had classmates who were African-American there like he did in HS. Sometime around medical school it looks like he decided that his future was with that racist donor class.
So we can expect them to call for Steve King’s resignation in the near future?
Didn’t think so.
He’s now denying it was him in the photo.
In addition to being a social construct, racist ideology is a ripe field for pseudo-science. From the phrenologists of the 19th century to the Nazi theorists and Jim Crow eugenicists of the 20th century to Charles Murray to the current crop of genetic determinists, there are always woo peddlers willing to give a science-y gloss to those who promote ethnic and racial hatred and discriminatory practises but are too cowardly to own their bigotry.
So if he resigns, the Lt. Governor takes the position. The Lt.Governor of VA is far more progressive and a better choice anyway. No great loss there.
BTW we should be demanding Steve King resign as well.
Now he’s using the classic, “it was some other white dude not me - what are you trying to say we all look alike, you racists?” defense.
Northam told the source he was in touch with some of his former Eastern Virginia Medical School colleagues, who said they believed many of the pictures in the yearbook were mixed up.
Of course not, but now their hypocrisy is on even clearer display next time they try to argue Steve King shouldn’t be forced to resign over his racist behavior.
Meet the new governor of Virginia
https://www.ltgov.virginia.gov/
even brett kauvanaugh’s calenders are more believable.
YOU don’t get to decide what does or does not hurt other people.
more on topic:
and that’s still another big step away from: i know about a thing, and i’m going to use hateful symbols about it as a joke for my in-crowd.
No, I don’t get to decide anything, I have no power. I do, however, reserve the right to have an opinion, even if it isn’t one that is popular.
I also have the quaint idea that it’s better to judge politicians based on their recent policy decisions than some stupid picture they may have taken 30 years ago, and that you can forgive old sins. I also wonder how many of the democrats who now call out for the resignation of Northam are hypocrites who have their own skeletons in the closet they hope no one will ever find out about. (That the republicans who want his resignation are hypocrites is a given). So few people are entirely without sin, and those who are may not even be the best leaders, as the simplest way of doing nothing wrong is doing nothing at all.
And finally, I shudder to think about what Facebook and Google will be able to do in the future with their huge databases of what people have said and done in en environment where one picture can ruin a man’s career. This whole attitude is perfect blackmail fodder.
