An Open Letter To The Virginia Democratic Party
We’re at another point where a failure of political courage has become a major issue, damaging to the social cohesion of the nation, and also damaging to the Democratic Party. Virginia is again an embarrassment and laughing stock.
Really though, it was an entire series of failures of courage that lead to this, wasn’t it? We have to understand the culture we’ve created in that series of failures is what creates the moment a man who has been elected Governor of the state that established the very first laws based on race even before this was a country, can defend himself by essentially saying, “I was raised in a way that was privileged enough for me to not know how the history of racialized depictions of Black people contributed to 400 years of systematic and institutional racism. I didn’t learn about that until a Black man taught me this as an adult.”
White people need to be perfectly honest with ourselves. This has been an acceptable state of affairs. The problem here doesn’t fall solely on Ralph Northam’s shoulders. In no way does that forgive him any responsibility for his past actions or the defense of those actions that he is presenting. It is in every way to say that white privilege made this moment happen. It put a man in the Governor’s mansion who spent his educational career in institutions where having the nickname “Coonman” was acceptable, and where giving him that name was acceptable, and then going on to another institution where his yearbook was plastered with pictures of people in blackface, and having that pedigree is part of what helped him ascend to the governorship.
This isn’t some isolated incident. Every year we have fresh controversies over some pictures being revealed of white people at some repsected college or university donning blackface. Worse, the revelation is often two fold. First that it happened at all, then compounded by the fact that the pictures come from some kind of annual traditional gathering for a club, fraternity or what have you. These incidents are in no way particular to Virginia. They are endemic to the nation.
Virginia and it’s capital have a special responsibility in this history though. It was here, in the House of Burgesses, the basis for what Virginians still refer to as the oldest deliberative legislative body in the country, that the very first legal classifications of race were installed, and it was then here that the capital of an insurrection based on the tenets of white supremacy was founded. The United States has a very specific history with racism, and Virginia and Richmond are at it's center.
Virginia has a responsibility. In a specific way, Virginia Democrats have an urgent responsibility, right now. It was the preferred candidate of the Virginia Democratic electorate that just laid out the entire example of why white privilege and the racist history of our state and it’s government are so, so, so toxic. We are in a moment, nationally, where white supremacists and their co-aligned far right groups are the most dangerous prospect for mass casualty terrorist attacks. Hate crimes have skyrocketed. We have a white supremacist in the highest elected office in the country. We’ve seen example after example of what can most generously be described as white supremacist leanings in Congress and in state governments across the country. It is our history that brought Nazis and white supremacists to Virginia, using the excuse of “defending heritage” while chanting "you will not replace us" in the attack on Charlottesville, its residents and its defenders that they called Unite the Right. It’s no coincidence that they were “defending” a statue of Robert E. Lee.
Heather Heyer was murdered because she didn't want these racists to intimidate the people of Charlottesville and was doing what she thought she could to try to show she would stand with the people they wanted to terrorize. In 2015 3 Virginia men were arrested for planning to blow up black churches and synagogues in and around Richmond. Hate crimes in Virginia, as in the rest of the country, continue to rise.
That’s the context in which we currently live. A sizable minority of white America is either openly dedicated to installing a modern day reinvention of that legacy or are blithely willing to accept that as the price of retaining their favored position, even if they aren’t willing to openly advocate for it. On some level, those of us who are appalled by the existence of this sentiment have to understand the connection between its existence, and that Ralph Northam was a grown adult, educated in some of what we consider our best institutions, where acts of racist intimidation and discrimination were so normalized, was a grown adult before he still had to have a Black man explain to him why this was wrong, and terribly hurtful. These things are in no way separate. They are different expressions of this same problem.
Here we are now, 400 years after the establishment of that vaunted and storied legislative body, 400 years after the arrival of the first stolen Africans, and the terrible history of that beginning and all that has transpired from then to now is still dominating our politics and our society.
As it was Virginia that began this racial caste system, that encoded it into law, and that has fought it’s destruction at every step of the way, including attempted insurrection and a century of racial terrorism and denigration, it is Virginia's responsibility to try to demonstrate the way to dismantle this racial caste system.
It is out of necessity that this responsibility falls on Virginias Democrats, and also specifically on Richmond’s governmental leadership. Since this is now an issue that threatens the continued ability of the nation to exist as a whole. Understand, that sizable minority will not at all rule out following the example of insurrection that was set in the past, and because Richmond is still living in pride to have been the center of that insurrection, it is on the shoulders of a legislative entity to lead the way in ending the terror The House of Burgesses began as our nations first deliberative legislative body.
To put it plainly, Virginia Democrats must take up this responsibility because there isn’t another entity in government to do so. The Republican Party as a whole, has embraced the politics of racial domination. The Republican Party of Virginia just this past election cycle, ran a Neo-Confederate for one of our two Senate seats. Prior to his decision to get involved in statewide politics, that candidate was palling around with one of the organizers of Unite The Right. The VA GOP expressed it’s wish to turn back to one of the most awful periods in a long and terrible history by electing that man as their nominee. This is plain. The many arguments to the contrary are obfuscation. They are perfectly fine with advancing a racist agenda, but are loathe to be called racists for doing so. Call them racists if you want or don't. Treat them like they are either way. It’s time to stop engaging in this debate and honestly understand who we have been and what we have wrought or we continue the legacy they wish to no longer be an underlying driver of our social and political reality and make it the single most important factor that shapes our society and our politics.
It’s clear, given this history, given where we are now, that making moral pleas alone aren’t enough of a motivating factor or we wouldn’t be here, and this wouldn’t be such a long legacy. Those moral pleas have been around for over 200 years, at least. Political expediency has always won out. As disgusting and painful as it is to have to make an argument beyond the fact that the shared humanity of all Virginians requires us to attack the vestiges of this legacy, it has never been enough. The Democratic Party, as is often pointed out by conservatives, shares no small part in creating that legacy, having been the party of racial domination until about 50 years ago.There is for the Democratic Party, the issue of self preservation.
Being that Democrats are the only legislative entity left that has even acknowledged that white supremacy and racism probably shouldn't be acceptable, it falls on them to actually lead. Unfortunate as they may find this, burdening as it may seem, unprepared as they so clearly are, it’s the plain truth. Time has long past when leadership was necessary, but now, self preservation is at hand. We have just experienced the spectacle of a Democratic governor making the argument that white privilege gives him the standing to continue in his term, following his own revelation of having participated in a racist display of the dehumanization of Black people. He won that seat in an election where his opponent used overtly racist propaganda in an attempt to ignite the racial fears that are part of the racist legacy started right here in the Commonwealth.
Virginia’s white Democrats would do well to ask themselves exactly how this state of affairs presents itself to Black Virginians and other Virginians of color. Not just Democratic Party leadership in Virginia, but average voters who also happen to be white, should ask themselves this question too, because we have a part to play as well. I’m neither Black, nor a person of color, but being white and in living the daily experience of how this racist legacy either benefits me or has no negative effect on me, that I could very well go through the overwhelming majority of my life and be privileged without it’s negative effects, and never even acknowledge it, it seems I have part of the responsibility to make the case to other white people, whether or not I want or asked for it. If you want to be better than the other guys, you had better start demonstrating how much better you are than the other guys, in concrete terms that the people of Virginia, especially Black people and other people of color, can feel confident about.
Virginia Democrats are now in the position that they must lead in ending this as an acceptable situation. It must also be stated that Ralph Northam did indeed benefit from being one of the students of our elite institutions, and was still no less likely to contribute to the legacy of racism. It should be made clear that Ralph Northam is very much the candidate favored by the center of Democratic Party power because he was seen as safe. Ralph was not controversial, not radical, but a responsible steward whose background spoke of responsibility, stewardship and the acceptance of the political and social realities. Ralph is the kind of man who makes the decisions that bring about the Union Hill decision.
This points the way to how Virginia Democrats can begin to lead. It’s time to change some of the criteria that have been part of continuing the racist legacy of Virginia, and in many ways that resulted in the racist legacy of the nation. It’s time now to start requiring that anyone who might even consider running for a Democratic nomination or working to help someone else run for a Democratic nomination have to present some kind of concrete measures they have taken in undoing this horrific and deadly state of affairs. The reality must be that anti-racist actions and measures are now a prerequisite for consideration to run for nomination to any elected position in the Commonwealth. The empty promises and rhetorical euphemisms that have been part of the language of Democratic politics where they’ve feared the backlash of racist sentiment have to go. Plainly, Virginia Democrats have to stop worrying about whether racists or people with "problematic racial views" (to be clear, it's not worth delineating the difference between the two either) are going to vote for them.
This fissure is too large for anyone to stand over now. Attempting to do so will only result in being swallowed by it, and given Virginia’s history, it’s time we stop trying to stand over it and we start to acknowledge it, excavate it and build an infrastructure that no longer allows our fellow Virginians to be sacrificed in it. Let’s be clear about this, that has been what has happened now, for so long, Black Virginians and other Virginians of color have been sacrificed to it, on a near daily basis. In our schools, in our hospitals, in our streets, in our jails, our prisons, everywhere. Ignoring that fact now threatens to swallow the Democratic Party of Virginia. Since the Party has been willing to sacrifice so many, for so long, maybe now that it threatens to swallow the Party, maybe you will finally realize that there is no way to continue to sacrifice others without sacrificing yourselves. Power has been what has always driven the existence of the Democratic Party, as it does any legislative institution. Now, you are going to have to use that power responsibly, because there is on one else to do it.
That also presents the Democratic Party of Virginia with an opportunity to lead the rest of the country and to be an example of how to go about trying to put something concrete behind all of that euphemism and rhetoric. It can provide an example of genuine political courage, and right now, looking around at the political landscape, you’ll see that there are a number of individuals being recognized for doing exactly that, acting with political courage, and not going with the flow of the long accepted expedient realities.
For voters, especially white voters, who recognize the plainly racist stance of the Virginia Republican Party and are either already loyal to the Democratic Party or are pushed to it for lack of an alternative, we need to require that anyone who petitions us for our support can answer to our fellow Virginians who are Black or other people of color. If those candidates can’t answer to our fellow Virginians, we are required to with hold our support. We must also go to lengths, expend actual effort to educate ourselves about what the issues are that matter most to our fellow Virginians. Northam just demonstrated that ignorance is no excuse. The ignorance is designed to make white Virginians sympathetic to him, and to make us unable to understand when the people who are seeking our support are failing our fellow Virginians. We can’t afford to continue this ignorance. It’s going to be hard and uncomfortable, but we have to start, and we have to be diligent in continuing to try to educate ourselves and to listen. Continuing as we have means more of what we’ve just gotten. It’s not acceptable. It should never have been, but it is still and has been for too long. That must change. You must must hold our elected officials accountable. Require any candidate to show their understanding of and their efforts to ending this nightmare.
Which side are you on?