Outrage Over Blackface Is Enough To Unseat A Governor, But Pretendians Are OK?

Yearbook photo from Skowhegan High School in the 1970's

It's anybody's guess what day this week the governor of Virginia will resign over his college nickname "Coonman" (which the Urban Dictionary defines as a person who does not like Black people) and his photo in blackface. 

The photo from Ralph Northam's medical school yearbook page is actually even worse than just blackface, because his companion in the pic is dressed in a Ku Klux Klan hooded robe. Northam has issued a series of denials and obfuscations typical of powerful men caught in wrongdoing and impulsive enough to talk to reporters before consulting an expensive PR firm for advice. (Even Covington teen Nick Sandmann knew better than that.)

So Northam will eventually resign from being the governor of Virginia. 

University of Virginia students under attack on campus in Charlottesville August, 2017

You may recall that Virginia is the state where Charlottesville permitted a white supremacist rally in 2017 that featured violent attacks on random black people, and death by hit and run of white racial justice worker Heather Heyer.

What exactly is the difference between appearing in blackface and appearing in "redface", feathers and "war paint" as pretendians?

Skowhegan High School yearbook photo from the 1970's

Ok, one difference might be that these pretendians are in high school 50 years ago and may not have known any better at the time.

However, their yearbook advisor(s) were adults being paid to oversee their education. Where is their responsibility here? Here are some yearbook covers from Skowhegan High School that play around with the pretendian motif.

This one is a little hard to see. It depicts a pretendian who appears to be praying while seated on a horse. Because when you're appropriating other people's culture and identity you can just make stuff up, and you don't really need to learn about how they actually got around for thousands of years before European invaders came to this area. (Hint: who invented the canoe?).

Multiple Skowhegan Indian Pride supporters have testified that they honor "Indians" by using them as a mascot or team name. Actual Penobscot, Passamoqoddy, Mi'kmaq and Maliseet people have said for decades now that they do not feel honored by these cartoonish depictions. Or by teenagers dressed in "war paint" using "war whoops" and displaying imitation feathers or pipes that are considered sacred and used in ceremony.

What is the difference between blackface and dressing up as pretend Indians? Not much as far as I can see.

When you don't know any better, you do it. As my sister Hope explained in her essay "I Do Not Have White Guilt," when you learn more and realize it is wrong, you stop doing it. And you apologize to those you've offended.

And then, you don't do it anymore.

EDITED 2/4/19 5:42am  It appears from my stats on Blogger that someone is sharing my blog via a porn website. If you came here from 

the content of this blog is probably going to be disappointing.

Farthest North Support For Charlottesville: Skowhegan, Maine

My Uncle Dale from Australia and Greg Williams in Skowhegan on Sunday, August 13. This is two days
after civil violence broke out when white supremacists beat and killed people in Charlottesville, Virginia because that city
voted to remove statues honoring Confederate generals who fought to preserve slavery.

I think our protest of white nationalist attacks in Charlottesville was the farthest north of many actions in Maine and the nation over the weekend.

Sad for the occasion but happy to see Tamar, Paul, Brian R., Greg, Linda, Fang, Grace, Abby, Amanda, Mark, Dale, Jeff, Carly, Finn, Connor, Chris, Marnie, and Brian P. with an out of town friend (sorry, I forgot her name) with me on the Margaret Chase Smith Bridge.

The story in our local newspaper by Doug Harlow and David Leaming of the Waterville Morning Sentinel was headlined: "Protesters on Sunday in Skowhegan decry white nationalism."

L to R: Tamar Etingen, Greg Williams, reporter Doug Harlow and Abby Shahn

Doug accurately quoted me as saying:

“The rise of the hate groups is also an effect of right wing propaganda stirring up discontented, underemployed people whose lives will not be better than those of their parents,” she said. “It’s an old strategy. Familiar.” 

Savage said she doesn’t dehumanize those marching with tiki torches because everyone is confused at times about events in their lives.

All of the photos are ones I took yesterday. The paint was still wet on the signs when we loaded them into the van at home. It was wetter still after the downpour that happened mid-protest where many of us piled into the van to wait out the rain. Lots of weather is par for the course when protesting in Maine.

My favorite unarmed civilian Mark Roman remembering 32 year-old Heather Heyer.
She was killed by white supremacist James A. Fields, Jr. who was arrested after
driving into a crowd of antiracist protesters in Charlottesville on August 13, 2017.

Journalists seem to want these protests to be about the demagogue with bad hair. So do many of the Democratic Party organizers (of which I am not one). Yes, the rhetoric issuing from the White House was better during the Obama years. But Black Lives Matter came about on Obama and Eric Holder's watch.

Allowing police to kill black people without being prosecuted to the full extent of the law has emboldened white supremacists in the USA.


They think their time has come. They are so wrong.

Did you know that in the last U.S. census 32% more people checked more than one box under race? White supremacy is destined for the dumpster of history. 

Many politicians seemed to recognize this, but the demagogue with bad hair stuck to his corporate government talking points: decry the violence on "both sides" [sic]. Corporate media toed the line as well, consistently referring to "conflict" rather than white supremacist militias assembling in a city and attacking its black residents while police stood idly by.

Charlottesville will be seen in retrospect as a turning point. Those who remain silent in the face of white supremacist hate talk and violence are now complicit. 

You can take action today by contacting Al's Pizza in Skowhegan which has an employee's truck parked in their lot displaying a large Confederate flag for hours at a time. Call (207) 474-3100 or facebook message at https://www.facebook.com/AlsPizzaSkowhegan/. 
While you're at it, ask them why they sometimes display window signs defending the racist mascot of the local high school.

Why focus on the Confederate flag? Here's a quote from the article about James A. Fields, Jr's teachers who knew that he was a neo-Nazi and worried that they did not do more to educate him when they had the chance:

[Derek Weimar] recalled how an African-American cheerleader was very uncomfortable having to ride in a parade being carried by a pickup truck with a large Confederate flag sticker.

Stick up for the cheerleader. Stick up for Native athletes who must play under a racist logo. 

Stick up for the kind of society that you want to live in.

Send Skowhegan Written Testimony About Why It's Time To Retire The Indian Mascot #mepolitics

Tamarleigh Grenfell is a Skohegan alumna who is ready to embrace the change.

If you haven't weighed in on the Skowhegan Area High School mascot controversy, there is still time. Though the school board there barred taxpayers like me from speaking at the public hearing on the mascot on May 4, they did invite written testimony. They meet on May 7 to further consider the request for change.

Even the young man who started the petition to keep the mascot has had a change of heart: Organizer of efforts to keep Skowhegan Indians mascot changes mind.

Here is a handy copy and paste list of the email addresses of the school board and administration of the district:

bcolbry@msad54.org,
amcauliff@msad54.org,
jenniferpoirier@msad54.org,
lizanderson@msad54.org,
timdowning@msad54.org,
markbedard@msad54.org,
maryellencharles@msad54.org,
heidichartrand@msad54.org,
jeannieconley@msad54.org,
valeriecoulombe@msad54.org,
karyncurran@msad54.org,
noelladespres@msad54.org,
jeanfranklin@msad54.org,
theresahoward@msad54.org,
richardirwin@msad54.org,
peggylovejoy@msad54.org,
dixiering@msad54.org,
shanesours@msad54.org,
timothyspencer@msad54.org,
rogerstinson@msad54.org,
maryturbyne@msad54.org