Virginia's governor held a press conference to prove he's not a racist. It didn't go well.
It hasn't been a good Saturday for Virginia Governor Ralph Northam.
Northam made headlines on Friday after his personal page from a 1984 yearbook surfaced featuring a photo of two men: one wearing Ku Klux Klan robes and a hood, and the other in blackface. Hours after the offensive image surfaced, the Virginia governor released a statement.
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Northam, a Democrat who was elected to the office of governor in 2018's election, quickly faced calls to resign from within his own party. Among those calling for his exit are Virginia House Democrats, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, assorted would-be candidates for the 2020 presidential election, and a growing lineup of others.
In the face of all this pressure to resign, Northam did the opposite. Scattered reports on Saturday morning suggested that the governor had communicated with his old college pals and decided to push back against the criticism.
So despite the fact that Governor Northam issued a statement on Friday that quite literally read "I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo," he stood up in front of reporters on Saturday and claimed the opposite: it wasn't him.
He did much more than that, too. He claimed that while he's not in the photo, he did once wear blackface when he performed a Michael Jackson number in a dance contest. He also repeatedly sidestepped questions about offensiveness of such an act, and refused again and again to resign despite the numerous calls for him to do so.
The response, both in the briefing room and all across social media, was incredulous. It seems like no one believes a word Northam had to say. (Plenty of people are also wondering why Northam is getting such attention -- as he deserves, to be clear! -- while folks like Steve King and Donald Trump just get to act like this on any day ending with a "y," just because.)
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Topics Politics Racial Justice
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
