Virginia’s Governor, Ralph Northam, is being urged to resign because of the blackface photo. Isn’t this ridiculous? That was 30+ years ago. I don’t think he’s the same man he was then any more that Brett Cavanaugh is, any more than all of us are. “Racist” has become one of our default epithets. Though racism is still very much with us and must be identified and called out, use of the term “racist” has come to be used mindlessly, thoughtlessly, viciously, and if things continue as they are going, the charge of racism will become meaningless. 

I firmly believe that we are all of us racists to some extent, in some way, however one may be unaware of his racism, however well he may mask it. If we could create a litmus test to detect racism, I think very few could pass.

Some Virginians want to take down the statues of Confederate heroes, as frolicking students at the University of North Carolina took down Silent Sam. I do not think that the present can be saved by naively effacing the past. However painful the past, we cannot, must not make it go away. If we were to cater to everyone’s anger and resentment and tear down all monuments that are found somehow offensive to someone, we will very soon have no monuments left.