Black face mask or blackface mask?
A TV station in Virginia was left red-faced after posting an unintentionally problematic tweet.
At a Monday press conference to talk about the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Ralph Northam decided to demonstrate to Virginians exactly how to wear a protective mask.
“In a striking moment, Gov. Ralph Northam put on his own black face mask. He urged every Virginian to do the same,” NBC-4 in Washington, D.C., wrote on Twitter.
The TV station quickly pulled down the post. “Correction: We made a misjudgment in a tweet about Gov. Northam’s face mask. We sincerely apologize for the error,” the station tweeted.
.@NBCWashington deleted this truly amazing tweet pic.twitter.com/49hvzBVENa
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 6, 2020
Correction: We made a misjudgment in a tweet about Gov. Northam’s face mask. We sincerely apologize for the error.
— NBC4 Washington (@nbcwashington) April 6, 2020
You may remember back in February 2019 that the Democratic governor made headlines. A yearbook photo surfaced purportedly showing Northam either in blackface or wearing a Ku Klux Klan robe.
Northam immediately apologized for the racist photo. “I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now. … That photo and the racist and offensive attitudes it represents does not reflect that person I am today. … I am deeply sorry,” the governor said.
But the next day, Northam said he’d searched his memory banks and realized he wasn’t actually in the photo. The mainstream media let it go right away.
Then last May, a months-long probe into whether Northam was actually in the picture ended with no conclusion.
“With respect to the photograph on Governor Northam’s personal page, we could not conclusively determine the identity of either individual depicted in the Photograph,” according to a final report from the Richmond, Virginia, law firm of McQuireWoods, which was hired by Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) to probe the matter. The report also found “no information that the photograph was placed on [Northam’s] personal page in error” and also could not “conclusively determine the origin of the photograph.”
Northam attended EVMS and graduated in 1984 with an M.D. degree.
“McGuireWoods contacted over 80 people connected to EVMS and interviewed 30 people connected to EVMS as part of its investigation, including five members of the yearbook staff. Investigators also interviewed Northam and members of his staff,” The Daily Progress reported.
The Virginian-Pilot also reported that the report found “two EVMS presidents, including current president Richard Homan, were told about the racist photo while Northam was running for political offices and decided not to make it public.”
Northam was interviewed twice by the law firm and said he was “positive” he’s not in the racist photo but didn’t know who is.
“He just wants to exonerate himself, but doesn’t want to throw anyone under the bus,” the report says.
Northam told the investigators he was “very slender” in college and medical school and that the legs on the person in blackface are “much thicker than his.” He said the person in the KKK robes was “much shorter” than him and that he would’ve remembered standing next to someone in those robes or dressing up in the robes himself.