Virginia Blackface Accusations - Real Reason

[thoughtone]

Firstly, I absolutely think that Virginia Governor Northam should step down. Despite his so called record being favorable to Black Virginians. What ever that means. Soon after the Northam discovery, a women has accused Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault. Now we hear that Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring wore Blackface during his college days.

What do these three Virginia elected officials have in common? They are all Democrats.

The fourth in succession to the Governorship is Republican House of Delegates Speaker Kirk Cox.

source: The Brad Blog

Cox won his election, thanks only to a questionably "tied" Delegate election in 2017 that left the GOP in control of the House, after a Republican election judge changed his mind in order to create the tie, and a subsequent lot was drawn from a ceramic bowl to break it.

Far more notably, and far less reported, is that a decade of unconstitutionally gerrymandered House of Delegates districts drawn by the GOP to dilute the voting power of African-Americans gave Republicans as many as 8 more delegates in the House than they likely would have won with fair districts. One of those districts was "won" by Speaker Cox himself, according to a new district map ordered for use in this year's 2019 House elections by a panel of federal judges just weeks ago. Without the racial gerrymander, he likely wouldn't be in the House at all, much less in a position to become the next Governor, replacing a guy who admitted only that he put shoe polish on his face to dress as Michael Jackson in a dance contest 25 years ago.


Virginia has off year elections this year and all 100 house memebers are up for re-elecion.

It is obvious that republicans expect another Bluewave this election cycle and even more so with the new voting districts being draw that will not be favorable to the GOP. You can bet they do not want the entire Virginia state house dominated by Democrates, at least until the next Governor's leaves, since in Virgina, the Governor is term limited to a single term.


Are these political accusations a coincidence or a result of republican opposition research?

 

[QueEx]

Are these political accusations a coincidence or a result of republican opposition research?

Either way; now what ???

 

[thoughtone]

Either way; now what ???

Time will tell.

 

[thoughtone]

Republicans play the long game. Republican Governor means that he has control of the state's census in 2020.

Power grab!

 

[QueEx]

Republicans play the long game. Republican Governor means that he has control of the state's census in 2020.

Power grab!

You're right; but democrats are going to have to figure out how to handle this.

If we get right down to it, the democratic-room could be full of once-blackfacers -! We're not too far away from the era of segregation and the era immediately thereafter, hence, there could be a large number of those still around, many in government, who have at some point in their lives, black-faced. And we don't know who is yet to be discovered as a, once or former -- black facer.

What do we do?

What do Democrats do?

Judge them by what "appears" to be in their hearts today and their near-past?​

Judge them individually and case-by-case based on their conduct over the past ???? number of years and today?

Or, do we out-right reject each and every once-black-facer -- point-damn-blank?

Or, do we out-right reject each and every white person because he/she "might" just turn out to be a black-facer -- point-damn-blank?

​

 

[QueEx]

Do the once-black facers pull a Kavanaugh -- and deny, deny, deny that they black-faced?
Does contrition count for anything ?

 

[QueEx]

Mississippi; Republicans -- not to be outdone . . .


Racist frat party photos raise questions
about Mississippi lieutenant governor

© Provided by USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves drops the gavel,
calling for a recess subject to his call as the Senate waits for Gov. Phil Bryant to expand the call of the Special Session of the
Legislature, Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 28, 2018, at the Capitol in Jackson, Miss. Since both chambers passes a state lottery bill,
they are waiting for the expanded call so they can deal with the BP economic damages settlement.


JACKSON, Miss. — As politicians across the country face increasing scrutiny over their high school and college yearbooks, photographs of Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves’ college fraternity wearing confederate Army clothing have resurfaced, as well as stories about a racist 1994 party.


Reeves was a member of Kappa Alpha at Millsaps College when the fraternity threw a party featuring Afro wigs and Confederate flags tied around pledges' necks. Some attendees were allegedly in blackface and used racial slurs in a confrontation with two students.

Images from Reeves' college yearbook were published Friday on the website of a Democratic super PAC American Bridge. The story was also reported by the Huffington Post.

Reeves is the Republican front-runner in the 2019 governor's race.

After the Senate adjourned Friday morning, Reeves, through a spokeswoman, declined an interview.

More: Ralph Northam was far from alone: Why blackface keeps coming up

More: 'Tumultuous': Virginia politics in chaos amid Northam, Fairfax and Herring scandals

More: NAACP president: Dehumanizing African-Americans with blackface has real consequences​

His spokeswoman, Laura Hipp, provided this statement: "As a quick Google search will show, Lt. Gov. Reeves was a member of Kappa Alpha Order. Like every other college student, he did attend costume formals and other parties, and across America, Kappa Alpha’s costume formal is traditionally called Old South in honor of the Civil War veteran who founded the fraternity in the 1800s."

According to a 1994 article by the Associated Press, "Millsaps faculty and staff committee concluded a number of fraternity members on Oct. 8 went on an all-night drinking spree, donned Afro wigs and tied large Confederate flags around their necks."

One student accused fraternity members of shouting the N-word, according to The Purple & White, the student newspaper at Millsaps.

Photographs from yearbooks of Millsaps College showmemers of Kappa Alpha in Confederate Army garb while Reeves was a members. It's unclear whether Reeves is in the photographs.

The Purple & White reported that Kappa Alpha faced several punishments as a result of the party. The president of Millsaps banned Kappa Alpha from using the Confederate flag as a symbol of their fraternity and banned the fraternity from having parties until the following year.

Fraternity members were also required to pay for and attend sensitivity training.

That same fall, the Millsaps College chapter of Kappa Alpha received the J. Edgar Hoover award, an award for excellence from the fraternity's national organization.

The racist party and its aftermath apparently rocked the campus of the small liberal arts school in Jackson, according to coverage by The Purple & White.

The student who accused fraternity members of using the N-word worked as a columnist at The Purple & White, but the paper also featured voices in support of the fraternity.

“It is interesting that the black students are the most vocal about punishment,” one student wrote. “After years of being powerless, pushed around, stepped on, and stereotyped, you would figure they would most of all understand that the actions of a few do not signify the belief of the whole.”

Contributing: Luke Ramseth, (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion Ledger. Follow Giacomo “Jack” Bologna on Twitter: @GBolognaCL

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Racist frat party photos raise questions about Mississippi lieutenant governor


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/r...t-governor/ar-BBTlrad?ocid=spartanntp#image=1

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[SPECTRE1]

There are many government facilities such as the CIA that are located in Virginia. Many Congress people live in Virginia or may engage in recreational activities, shopping, or even a baseball game. As you can see from this write up, white supremacist are a national security threat to our government especially as the demographics of the population changes or other triggering events that might provoke an attack. They may see the government as a threat to their survival and may take action. Having one of their own in political office may embolden them to commit an attack without fear.

Something like this may have been overlooked in the past for the governor of Virginia but now it is too much of a risk. They are cleaning house of racists and bigots. There has been more people that have died in the Civil War then all wars combined. The greatest threat may be internally, not some jihadist fighter that is 3000 miles away.

 

[MASTERBAKER]

Now that’s a dilemma. Do you impeach a black man over sex assault allegations, when two white men who admit to racist acts won’t step down? Dems in VA, good luck with that...


Justin Fairfax Puts Virginia Democrats in Bind on Impeachment

Democrats risk alienating women or African-Americans depending on how they respond to allegations that Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of Virginia sexually assaulted two women.CreditDrew Angerer/Getty Images

Image

Democrats risk alienating women or African-Americans depending on how they respond to allegations that Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of Virginia sexually assaulted two women.CreditCreditDrew Angerer/Getty Images
By Jonathan Martin, Alan Blinder and Campbell Robertson

• Feb. 9, 2019

RICHMOND, Va. — Justin E. Fairfax’s refusal to resign as lieutenant governor of Virginia in the face of two allegations of sexual assault has presented Democrats with an excruciating choice: whether to impeach an African-American leader at a moment when the state’s other two top leaders, both white, are resisting calls to quit after admitting to racist conduct.

Less than a week after Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark R. Herring admitted to wearing blackface as young men, Mr. Fairfax on Friday afternoon faced a second detailed assault accusation in three days, transforming what had been a crisis for Virginia Democrats into a searing dilemma for the national party.

The political turmoil for Democratic leaders this weekend is unfolding at the intersection of race and gender, and risks pitting the party’s most pivotal constituencies against one another. If Democrats do not oust Mr. Fairfax, at a time when the party has taken a zero-tolerance stand on sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, they could anger female voters. But the specter of Mr. Fairfax, 39, being pushed out while two older white men remain in office — despite blackface behavior that evoked some of the country’s most painful racist images — would deeply trouble many African-Americans.

“I think the Democratic Party would lack credibility if they followed a double standard,” said Representative Karen Bass of California, who is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus. Ms. Bass said that both Mr. Northam and Mr. Fairfax should step down.

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Almost all of Virginia’s Democratic leaders and lawmakers on Friday night called on Mr. Fairfax to resign and a legislator vowed to introduce articles of impeachment if Mr. Fairfax did not quit by Monday. The state Democratic Party, after a conference call of its steering committee on Saturday morning in which there was near-unanimous support for Mr. Fairfax to resign, issued a statement saying he no longer had “their confidence or support” and should quit. Mr. Fairfax has said he is innocent and will not step down.

Gov. Northam also insists he will not resign. He does not face an imminent impeachment threat, and neither does Mr. Herring, the attorney general and second in line to the governor, who has been effusively apologizing for once wearing blackface.

Just how far Virginia Democrats go to confront these three statewide officials — who swept into office in 2017 on the first wave of backlash to President Trump’s election — will send a signal about how committed they are to taking a hard line on racial and sexual transgressions, and will echo well beyond this state’s borders.


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To some Democrats, Mr. Fairfax’s alleged conduct is the most serious because he is the only one of the three accused of a crime. But that does not make the political quandary any less torturous at a moment when the party’s 2020 presidential primary is getting underway with more black and female candidates than have ever run for the White House.

his dismissive treatment of the initial assault claim made by Vanessa C. Tyson, and then compounded his difficulty by not calling any of them. Similarly, he had not called Mr. McEachin, one of two African-Americans in the delegation, before Ms. Watson spoke out.

“You don’t need to be a woman to be upset about the way Justin has handled this,” Mr. McEachin said.

the state’s not-so-distant past and its lingering prejudices. Ms. Herring said she had often thought about a particular red glow from her childhood: what she saw when a cross burned outside her Georgia home when she was 9.

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And just a few blocks north of Virginia’s elegant state capitol, several black Richmonders were downright suspicious of Mr. Northam. The Virginia crisis began a week ago Friday when Mr. Northam’s yearbook page surfaced on a conservative website, with one photo featuring a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan robes, and Mr. Northam said he was in the photo and then, a day later, said he was not. Now it is Mr. Fairfax who is under far more pressure to resign or get impeached than Mr. Northam.

Deon Wright, 42, said he did not know what to think about the various parts of the political crisis. But one thing is certain, Mr. Wright said: “You’re more able to survive as a white man in America who wore blackface than as a black man that’s facing #MeToo accusations.”


Sheryl Stolberg contributed reporting from Washington.

 

[thoughtone]

You're right; but democrats are going to have to figure out how to handle this.


What do we do?

What do Democrats do?

​

source: Vox

Polls show Virginians are divided on Ralph Northam. The jury’s still out on Justin Fairfax.
A majority of black Virginians, meanwhile, still back the governor despite his blackface scandal.

Virginia residents are at an impasse over whether they feel Gov. Ralph Northam should step down after a racist photo from his past caught up with him last week, though a majority of black voters say they have still his back, according to new polls released this week.

The overall divide is an even split: 47 percent of Virginians want to see him stay; 47 percent want to see him go, according to a Washington Post/Schar School poll released Saturday. But what’s significant about the poll results is the racial breakdown of Northam’s support: Even after the governor admitted to using shoe polish to wear blackface in the 1980s, black Virginians still support him more than whites.

Roughly 58 percent of African Americans polled said Northam should remain in office, compared to 46 percent of whites who said the same.

The poll was conducted just days after a racist photo surfaced from the pages of Northam’s 1984 medical school yearbook, showing a picture of a man in blackface standing next to another man wearing a white Ku Klux Klan hood. After admitting the picture was his, Northam backtracked a day later and denied that he was either individual in the image. He did fess up, however, to dressing up in blackface that same year for a Michael Jackson dance contest.

"

Dozens of prominent Democrats, state legislators, and progressive organizations publicly condemned Northam and called for his resignation last week. Still, the governor continues to resist his detractors’ demands. And as he’s done so, the top echelons of Virginia politics have begun to implode around him.

Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring admitted that he too wore blackface in the 1980s. And Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, who would become the next governor should Northam bend to pressure to resign, is facing allegations of sexual assault from two women.

The poll was conducted February 6 to 8, with most (if not all) respondents likely contacted before Fairfax’s second accuser came forward. But even without that second bombshell, it’s likely that the trifecta of controversies helped deflect some of the blowback to Northam’s blackface debacle. Northam insists that he will stay in office until the end of his term in 2020. But time will tell whether he — or either of Virginia’s other top two elected officials — will get dragged down by the swirl of scandals.

People keep talking about a “double standard” for Fairfax

Fairfax is now facing heated calls from Democrats in high places who want to see him step down, much like Northam before him.But the pace of the scandal is moving so quickly that it’s hard to say whether the lieutenant governor will see the same support from Virginia residents as the governor.

First, a Scripps College professor named Vanessa Tyson came forward on Wednesday, claiming Fairfax forced her to have oral sex after what started as a consensual encounter back in 2004 at the Democratic National Convention. Days later, a second accuser, Meredith Watson,went public with allegations that Fairfax raped her while the two attended Duke University in 2000. Fairfax has unequivocally denied the allegations and says both incidents were consensual.

Asked about the first allegation of sexual assault against Fairfax, 65 percent of Virginians said they didn’t have enough information to judge the lieutenant governor’s denial one way or another. And the timing of the survey is critical. The poll, a partnership between the Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, tracked voters between Wednesday and Friday of this week. Pollsters didn’t ask about the second allegation, which was corroborated by friends and former classmates of the accuser but didn’t break until late Friday afternoon.

State legislators have since threatened to draft articles of impeachment unless Fairfax agrees to resign on Monday. Both of his accusers say they are willing to testify if the process moves forward. But on Saturday night, Fairfax dug in his heels, calling on the FBI to investigate the allegations and clear his name.

In an interview with CBS host Gayle King, set to air in full Monday, Northam said he supported the investigation into the assault allegations but he’s not ruling out having to ask Fairfax to step down.

“And if these accusations are determined to be true, I don’t think he’s going to have any other option but to resign,” Northam said.

The prospect that Northam and Herring, two white men, might weather this scandal while Fairfax, a rising star Democrat and only the second black man elected to statewide office in Virginia, could take the fall has left some people unsettled.

“I think the Democratic Party would lack credibility if they followed a double standard,” Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) told the New York Times. Bass, who is the head of the Congressional Black Caucus, called for both Northam and Fairfax to step down.

President Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault by multiple women and had audio leaked of him bragging about grabbing women by their genitals, weighed in on what he saw as a “double standard” on Twitter on Sunday too.



Virginians moving forward have a thin line to walk — any move or combination of them could throw the line of succession to the commonwealth’s leadership into chaos. Then again, maybe we’ve already reached that point.

 

[thoughtone]

Republicans claim the Northam outing was about his stance on abortion. No, it is about control of the United States Congress for the next 10 years!



source: Daily Press

Up against election deadlines, judges could pick new Va. legislative map in next two months

Independent redistricting have been proposed as an alternative to legislators drawing electoral district maps. on Thursday, a three-judge panel considered several maps that could replace one that was enacted in 2011 and deemed unconstitutional. (Marie Albiges/staff / Daily Press)


Three federal judges said Thursday they could decide on new districts for Virginia’s House of Delegates in the next one to two months, replacing a current map that was found to be unconstitutional.

Lawyers representing House Republicans spent two hours Thursday questioning the methods used by the man ordered by the federal court to redraw Virginia’s legislative map after lawmakers failed to do so last year.

Representatives for the GOP and Speaker of the House Kirk Cox, R-Colonial Heights, stressed the same issue that led the court to throw out Virginia’s map in the first place: whether race was a predominant factor in the drawing.

The lawyers argued Bernard Grofman also used racial data and purposely divided “naturally occurring” areas of high black voters to ensure no district’s voters were more than 55 percent black in the several map options he turned in to the court late last year.

That same 55 percent threshold was used arbitrarily to dilute black votes in certain legislative districts, according to last year’s U.S. District Court ruling. But House Republicans say there was nothing improper in the 2011 redistricting plan’s target that the 11 districts be at least 55 percent black.

“It’s swapping one type of racial sorting over another,” said Katherine McKnight, one of the lawyers for House Republicans.

Grofman said any changes to the black voting-age population in his maps occurred by happenstance, because he didn’t use that data when drawing the maps. Black voters make up at most 54 percent of the population in the 26 districts he’s changed, with the exception of one district that’s at 55 percent.

Another lawyer representing Republican delegates, Mark Braden, noted in the 92nd District, represented by Del. Jeion Ward of Hampton, Grofman split a heavily black community between two districts.

But Grofman said there was no conscious effort to do that.

Instead, he said “It happened by the geography and demography of the state of Virginia.”

He used what he called traditional redistricting criteria such as election results, compactness, contiguity and locality boundaries.

A representative from the Virginia NAACP, Allison Riggs, told the judges Grofman’s maps didn’t do enough to remedy the racial gerrymandering.

Braden and McKnight argued their version, presented to state lawmakers during the special session convened by Gov. Ralph Northam in August, didn’t use any racial data and made the least amount of changes.

At one point, U.S. District Judge Robert Payne interrupted Kevin Hamilton, a lawyer for the Democratic voters who sued the State Board of Elections over the 2011 map, to remind him that under state law, it’s the responsibility of the legislature — which has been acting in a “stubborn fashion” — to pass a map.

“We have to do it, and we’re prepared to do it, but should we give (the General Assembly) one more chance?” Payne asked.

“No,” Hamilton replied. “There’s no reason to think the end result would be any different, especially given the short time frame.”

That answer seemed to satisfy Payne.

“We have to do it, and we’re prepared to do it, but should we give (the General Assembly) one more chance?”
— U.S. District Judge Robert Payne​

Republicans had asked to halt the remedial map drawing until the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments in the case — which won’t happen for a few months — but their request was denied by both the U.S. District Court and the Supreme Court. The GOP’s request to push primary election dates from June to September was also denied, although the three-judge panel could still order election dates to be moved.

During Thursday's hearing, the judges said whichever map they pick could be tweaked slightly, and House Republicans and the other parties will have a chance to respond.

Whatever map Virginia winds up with after the court fight ends — the old one or a new one — will be in place only for the 2019 state election. Lines will have to be redrawn again after the U.S. Census Bureau releases new demographic data in 2020, and some would like to have that task taken out of lawmakers’ hands by then.

Advocates and lawmakers — including Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, and Del. Steve Heretick, D-Portsmouth — have varying proposals in this year’s session to create independent commissions of voters who would be responsible for redrawing legislative maps every 10 years.

To create an independent commission, lawmakers would have to amend the constitution by voting on it twice — with an election in between — and holding a voter referendum. The first General Assembly vote would have to take place this year for the commission to become a reality in 2021, when new lines are drawn based on new Census data.

 

[QueEx]