Skip to main content

Virginia AG Mark Herring Admits Wearing Blackface in College

posted onFebruary 7, 2019
>

Article snippet: Herring issued a statement saying he wore brown makeup and a wig in 1980 to look like a black rapper during a party as a 19 -year-old undergraduate at the University of Virginia. The revelation further roils the top levels of Virginia government. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D) are already facing controversies, and Herring would be next in line to be governor after those two men. Herring said he and two friends dressed up to look like rappers they listened to, including Kurtis Blow. “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,” he said. “That conduct clearly shows that, as a young man, I had a callous and inexcusable lack of awareness and insensitivity to the pain my behavior could inflict on others. It was really a minimization of both people of color, and a minimization of a horrific history I knew well even then.” Herring, who plans to run for governor in 2021, is among those who have urged Northam to resign as governor after the discovery of a photo of someone in blackface on his 1984 medical school yearbook page. The photo that appeared in Northam’s half-page profile shows someone in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood and robe. Northam faces a tsunami of resignation calls from leading Democrats, including Senate... Link to the full article to read more

Emotional score for this article