Another bombshell dropped in Virginia’s racially charged Democratic politics on Wednesday, when Attorney General Mark Herring admitted to wearing blackface during a college party in 1980.
This news comes on the heels of Virginia Governor Ralph Northam allegedly wearing either blackface or a Ku Klux Klan uniform – take your pick! – in his medical school yearbook in 1984, and Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax being accused of sexual assault.
“I accept full responsibility for my conduct”
BREAKING: Virginia's Democratic AG Mark Herring, who called on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam to resign over wearing blackface, has admitted he also wore blackface to a party in the 1980s.https://t.co/JvhHb3Fh9P
— Axios (@axios) February 6, 2019
Herring released a statement Wednesday saying that he wore a wig and brown makeup to a party 39 years ago in an attempt to portray rapper Kurtis Blow as an undergraduate at the University of Virginia.
“In 1980, when I was a 19-year-old undergraduate in college, some friends suggested we attend a party dressed like rappers we listened to at the time, like Kurtis Blow, and perform a song. It sounds ridiculous even now writing it. But because of our ignorance and glib attitudes – and because we did not have an appreciation for the experiences and perspectives of others – we dressed up and put on wigs and brown makeup.”
“This was a onetime occurrence and I accept full responsibility for my conduct,” Herring said.
Herring was one of the state’s top Democrats calling for Northam to resign. If Northam and his potential successor Fairfax were not able to assume the governor’s chair due to their respective controversies, Herring is next in line in that chain of command.
“It is no longer possible for Governor Northam to lead our Commonwealth and it is time for him to step down,” Herring said of Northam over the weekend.
Virginia’s Democratic Party hasn’t commented on these developments yet.
How is it that the party that preaches diversity and tolerance, and bashes Republicans for supposedly lacking it, contains two prominent Democrats in the state of Virginia who took part in ridiculous racist antics in their youth?
Maybe Virginia Democrats need to institute a new query before taking on newcomers for high office.
https://twitter.com/DavidBozell/status/1093190151319240704