Northam Pledges to Focus on Racial Equity

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) told the Washington Post that he believes there is a higher reason for the “horrific” reckoning in the past week over a racist photograph in his medical school yearbook, and that the humbling experience leaves him better positioned to remain in office, explore the issue of “white privilege” and push an agenda of racial reconciliation.

“Northam seemed chastened and subdued as he described a week of grappling with what it means to be white in America, with the reality of African American history, and with the personal failing of growing up after desegregation and the civil rights era while somehow not realizing that donning blackface is offensive.”