The wife of the Blackface/KKK hood Governor, Ralph Northam handed out balls of cotton to black children on a tour of the governor’s mansion. She then told them to imagine being enslaved.
We should look at the bright side. At least she didn’t take them into the fields to pick cotton.
The Washington Post published the story and reported that there was a lot of backlash. Mrs. Pam Northam is under fire now, but a lot of the furor is Washington Post-driven. It looks like only one child, an eighth-grader, complained.
THE BACKLASH
“The Governor and Mrs. Northam have asked the residents of the Commonwealth to forgive them for their racially insensitive past actions,” Leah Dozier Walker, director of the state Education Department’s Office of Equity and Community Engagement wrote to legislators this week, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
“But the actions of Mrs. Northam, just last week, do not lead me to believe that this Governor’s office has taken seriously the harm and hurt they have caused African Americans in Virginia or that they are deserving of our forgiveness.”
Just as things were starting to calm down for Ralph Northam, his spouse handed a ball of cotton to black children touring the governor’s mansion and asked them to imagine being enslaved https://t.co/BMUi0H2YGB
— Fenit Nirappil (@FenitN) February 27, 2019
Oh my Lord! Virginia first lady handed cotton to black students on mansion tour. Yes, the same Pam Northam who told her husband that it was not appropriate to moonwalk during his press conference about wearing blackface while impersonating Michael Jackson.https://t.co/wfQOGiYB4h
— Tracy Jan (@TracyJan) February 27, 2019
Just as things were starting to calm down for Ralph Northam, his spouse handed a ball of cotton to black children touring the governor’s mansion and asked them to imagine being enslaved https://t.co/BMUi0H2YGB
— Fenit Nirappil (@FenitN) February 27, 2019
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If Pam Northam had done this to a white child, perhaps she may gotten somewhere. Only slavery is slavery, but one thing that white folks probably don’t have to do nowadays is ask young black children to imagine what it is like to live in a racist America. https://t.co/7SVguP0Zwj pic.twitter.com/lEgoF1L9kh
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) February 27, 2019
The moon-walking Governor has been saved by the allegedly more egregious behavior of his Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax who is fending off two sexual assault allegations. Northam’s wife handing out cotton to black children probably wouldn’t have been an issue if her husband’s medical school yearbook photo hadn’t included him in either blackface or a KKK hood. It is important to note that after apologizing, Northam said he didn’t think it was him.
Pam Northam responded to the clamor:
“As First Lady, I have worked over the course of the last year to begin telling the full story of the Executive Mansion, which has mainly centered on Virginia’s governors. The Historic Kitchen should be a feature of Executive Mansion tours, and I believe it does a disservice to Virginians to omit the stories of the enslaved people who lived and worked there–that’s why I have been engaged in an effort to thoughtfully and honestly share this important story since I arrived in Richmond.
I have provided the same educational tour to Executive Mansion visitors over the last few months and used a variety of artifacts and agricultural crops with the intention of illustrating a painful period of Virginia history. I regret that I have upset anyone.
I am still committed to chronicling the important history of the Historic Kitchen, and will continue to engage historians and experts on the best way to do so in the future.”
wpDiscuz
