Fact Check Dr Ralph Northam Saying Babies Are Not Fully Human

When a racist picture was discovered on his yearbook page, the governor of Virginia refused to resign. Now he'south leaving office with a widely praised progressive tape on racial justice.

Gov. Ralph Northam and his wife, Pam, during a news conference after a racist photo from his medical school yearbook was revealed in 2019.
Credit... Parker Michels-Boyce for The New York Times

RICHMOND, Va. — Simply two years agone, nearly every national pol in the Democratic Political party was calling for Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia to resign. A racist picture was discovered on Mr. Northam'due south medical school yearbook page, and the doc-turned-politico said he did not know which person he was in the photograph — the white human being dressed in blackface or the i in Ku Klux Klan regalia.

A series of twists helped Mr. Northam stay in office, including simultaneous scandals that engulfed his possible successors, a cross-generational coalition of Black activists who decided to defy national politics and stick by him, and a commitment from Mr. Northam'southward administration to prioritize racial justice. And he followed through, shocking even his about ardent supporters, with a series of policy accomplishments that focused on racial equity.

Terminal week, equally the ballot was set for Virginians to choose their next governor, Mr. Northam saturday down for an extended interview to hash out his 2019 scandal and the personal and political evolution that followed. He reflected on what he has learned nigh race and his own white privilege, and how that understanding has inverse his political priorities. He dismissed recent national concerns about disquisitional race theory and and so-chosen wokeness, saying his path of discovery has made him a meliorate person.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

As a fact-checking thing, I know you said at the time you did not recall if yous were either human in the racist photograph. Is that still true?

That is right.

I wonder what your initial reaction was when it came out? Did you remember your administration was over?

I guess it took a piffling while for the gravity of the state of affairs to sink in. And and so I talked to a lot of people, lots of friends and supporters, that were very injure and upset by it. And there were some tenuous times that night, and the next day, as I was able to achieve out and listen and talk to more people.

But the more I started thinking about it, I understood what's going on. I know why these people are hurting. And I'm committed to learning, to listening and learning. And and then having the pulpit, if you lot volition, to actually make some significant changes.

At the time, you articulated, as you practice now, understanding the pain that the photograph caused. How did you lot feel comfortable proverb, "Hey, these people are hurting, and they're calling for me to resign, but I still won't."?

I know myself. I know how I was raised. I know that I got into this job because I want to assistance people. Then I knew if people stuck with me, we could bring good.

I know that you lot compiled a reading list about race, and yous did a listening bout. What were some of the things y'all read, and what did they teach you?

In that location were a number of books that were recommended. I take one by Robin DiAngelo called "White Fragility." There was "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack." 1 of the documentaries that I've watched a couple times is "13th." Very powerful — that was probably what put things in perspective for me.

But the nigh powerful thing was people that were willing to sit down down with me, and that I was willing to mind and learn from them. I was in the 6th class when they desegregated schools, and my family chose to keep me in public schools, which was a dandy determination. I experienced white privilege and Black oppression, but I really never took the next step and have people explicate to me why it was so of import. The listening has fabricated me a ameliorate person.

As a white person, we — people that expect like me — need to accept on that burden of educating the folks that nosotros are associated with regarding racism, and white supremacy, and Blackness oppression and white privilege. That burden, for far also long, has been on people of colour, rather than, 'Allow's become some help from folks that look similar me.'

I talked to people who met with you on that listening tour. And they say it was pretty explicit, that you were promising a change in priorities for your administration, that you were promising policy alter. Was that the offer y'all were making?

I never looked at it as like, Let's brand a deal here. But what I did say is that I'm here to listen and I'm here to larn. And I'chiliad in a position as governor and having a cabinet and working with legislators to actually turn a lot of what we acquire into action.

Merely some of the policy accomplishments that you lot're touting around racial justice at present would not have happened if non for the 2019 scandal? Is that accurate?

Absolutely.

So what was it virtually that moment that inverse you?

It has actually opened my eyes. It made me a ameliorate-educated and more-informed person. And then information technology's helped me to sympathize when people talk about Black oppression. And I don't know that I was able to practise that before February 2019. Not that my intentions weren't at that place, considering I've always tried to treat people every bit and off-white, but I sympathize more than now.

I want to be clear. You're saying this wasn't a horse trade of politics, but that you changed personally and that was reflected in your policy priorities?

I run across with my cabinet every Monday morning. And I made it very clear from when this happened that nosotros were going to work on disinterestedness and take what we learned and turn that into action.

Isn't that rather a painful admission? That it took that moment of racist scandal for a Democratic governor to make racial equity a top priority?

Aye, I would accept liked to accept understood all this when I was, you know, sworn into office, but it wasn't like that. I went to integrated schools from the sixth grade on, and I was actually a minority. I knew in that location were people that didn't have rides after schoolhouse when we practiced ball and we'd requite them a ride home. And my female parent and I, we used to go around and make sure people have something to eat on holidays. But the history, the 400 years of our history, I've learned a whole lot of that stuff, which I wish I would accept known, since Feb of '19.

Well, you've read a lot near race and whiteness over the last two, three years. Do you lot think a politician who wasn't white could have survived this?

Every situation is unlike. Some of it's about the timing. About what's going on in your political career, and what'due south going on in history and society and the time. I only made the decision that the all-time matter to practise for Virginia was to listen and learn.

I was reading this week almost Loudoun County in Virginia, where at that place's been a big moral panic around some of the books y'all mentioned — proverb that such teachings corporeality to an anti-white message in critical race theory. What would you say to white parents who are frankly agape of the things yous say take helped you grow?

Critical race theory is a dog whistle that the Republicans are using to frighten people. What I'chiliad interested in is equity.

And part of this listening tour has been with young people, and it'southward helped me reflect on my own education. Considering what we're teaching, and what we've been taught, is non but inadequate but inaccurate. Our textbooks are inadequate and inaccurate, as is who's teaching them.

I recollect in that location are a lot of white people that are open up-minded and desire to do meliorate. And you may be able to teach them something that they never really realized. But in that location'south some people that don't want to lose their parking spots.

Do y'all share the fears of some Democrats that what y'all're describing is leaning as well far into a then-called wokeness? And that it is bad politically?

No, I call back the more we know most our history, the better.

The more I can learn about you, and the more than you tin acquire about me, we'll effigy out that we have a lot more in common than divides us or separates us.

It is my understanding that yous apologized to Blackness Virginia leaders for your news conference moment in 2019, in what seemed similar a moment of levity, when you indicated you might moonwalk. Is that true? Do you regret that?

I don't fifty-fifty desire to become dorsum and look at it. It was a hard fourth dimension, that press briefing. I could no more than moonwalk at present than that picture behind you. Rather than getting ready to moonwalk, I was trying to think of something that was lighter to say. You don't know me, but I can't trip the light fantastic, for ane matter. I was trying to call back of something to say, and my wife told me that this wasn't the best time.

Did y'all see the racial justice policy of the final ii years as repaying a debt that you owed?

One of my proudest moments was existence at Greensville Correctional Heart and signing legislation to get rid of the death penalty. That's another example of how Black oppression still existed in a dissimilar form. Doing things like that make me feel skillful about what I've done. But is it vindication for what I did, or what I've been through? I don't actually look at information technology similar that. Merely, I think, having my eyes opened and being able to listen to so many people take helped me be able to really get involved with pieces of legislation like that.

I hear what y'all're saying. I also remember — as a Black person — isn't this besides a story of how someone can rise to be governor without ever learning that history? Isn't at that place also a story of immense privilege hither?

There's no question about that. And I remember if you await at my life, it's been a story of privilege. I have had a life of privilege, and that's why I want to level the playing field.

Fact Check Dr Ralph Northam Saying Babies Are Not Fully Human

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/us/politics/northam-interview.html

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