Home » Opinion » Why should Northam resign

Why should Northam resign

He didn’t even look to see if the picture was initially him before his apology came out.  This is because he knew that he had been in blackface and had an open racist history.
I’m curious to know who put that picture on his medical school yearbook page and why?   But moreover, does it really matter if this was the culture in which he was openly thriving?  Many non-mindful white folks would wrongfully give him a pass if it were “just” a Michael Jackson dance competition, and not even consider the implication of blackface as racist.  I might have given him that pass when I was in medical school for nothing more than my rural white male ignorance.
He is making a political distinction here between a public display of a universally recognized symbol of racism (i.e., a Klansman and individual in blackface) and a jovial white male privileged jest.  Even if it isn’t him in blackface, wrong is wrong, and Northam did not have any recognition or reflection of how his past actions were wrong.  What’s worse, he wasn’t even in command of what his past experiences even were!
The picture wasn’t him and at the same time he let the year-book picture slide, he swore an oath as old as Hippocrates, “Primum non nocere.”   First do no harm.  He should resign.  He can no longer call himself a physician, and he obviously cannot be trusted to represent his black and civil rights minded constituents.  If Virginia has an option, they should seek a bipartisan Recall of their Governeror.
Zach Baeseman, MD
Waupaca
Scroll to Top