Virginia in the news

I grew up in the segregated South, where it was common for elementary schools to put on a black-face minstrel show as a fund raiser. That, in retrospect, was ignorant and offensive. But that was the reality of the culture. Probably most Southerners of that time could be found to have made some racist gesture. But most of us have long since put that thinking and those attitudes aside.

The Governor of Virginia has been accused of such a racist gesture. Black-face is cruel and stupid, and the media has called the discovery of this yearbook picture a “bombshell” and a “deep controversy.” To me, this is one more example of the attention-grabber presentation of news stories. We get lots of reaction with little investigation.

In this instance, I would ask what, in the almost 40 years since this yearbook picture, the Governor’s record of words and actions say about his attitudes toward racism. Have they changed significantly? Has he matured? How has he incorporated these into his public life?

This is the proper role of the news. Look at the evidence, not the accusations alone. The news is the whole story, not just the bombshell.