Virginia Sen. Tommy Norment admits he was editor of yearbook filled with racist photos

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Daily News

Virginia Sen. Tommy Norment admitted he was an editor for a military college yearbook that published a slew of slurs and racist photos, including blackface, but said Thursday that he was not in the images nor did take them.

Norment, who is the Republican majority leader of the state Senate, was the managing editor for the Virginia Military Institute yearbook in 1968, The Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday. A photo on one page shows a man wearing blackface while surrounded by three other men dressed in costumes.

The yearbook also used the n-word at least once and referred to a student who was from Thailand as a “chink” and “jap,” the outlet reported.

Read more: https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/ny-news-tommy-norment-editor-yearbook-racist-photos-20190207-story.html

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This I would say provides a window for Northam and Herring to stay in the office, on the grounds that this problem is a broader issue than just them, PROVIDED that they then have an answer as to how their going to respond to racism in the State.

[RandySF]

2. IOKIYAR

[Renew Deal]

3. If they want to be leaders they need to pull half the state leadership together

and figure out how to move past this. There were obviously some very serious issues in VA for a long time.

[underpants]

4. VMI. Well knock me over with a feather.

They were hellbent on keeping women out even bragging they’d take the school private. Then the Commonwealth said “Here’s how much it costs to run”....and suddenly women were A-okay with them.

Honestly they have an incredible networking thing. If you graduated and are semi-okay and need a job you WILL have options offered to you. Call it good old boy or white privilege but they take care of their own.

[OilemFirchen]

7. It's not just VMI. It's Lexington.

In the late 70s, my wife and I traveled from Southeastern Ohio to Virginia Beach. We stopped in Lexington to stretch our legs and found it quite charming, so we decided to spend a day there on the way back. We were shocked by the residents. I can honestly say that I've never visited a more racist, intolerant city in my life.

The combo of VMI and Lexington was a toxic shithole. Perhaps it's changed since then, but our experience was contemporaneous with these stories. Those stories don't surprise me one bit.

[underpants]

10. I've found the valley a mixed bag.

Of course this is since the early 90's when my folks moved there. Old school racist types but a lot of crunchy lib types oh and a LOT of immigrants. They work in the chicken houses placed there by church groups who have a hand in refugee placement.

Lexington is, as you probably know, where Sarah Hucka BS was told to get out of the restaurant.

[rickford66]

5. It'll take a lot of Hail Marys

[Roadside Attraction]

6. He's a VMI graduate

Virginia Military Institute. An old, traditional Virginia "military" school that dates back to 1839. There greatest accomplishment was during the Civil War when a group of VMI cadets fought as part of a Confederate force that turned back a large force of federal troops.

In 1997, VMI admitted its first female students, only after a federal court order -- which the school defied for three months.

VMI grads are examples of the Privileged Southern White Boy Syndrome who still live in the ante-bellum world.

[onenote]

8. Generally speaking generalizations are not the best discussion points

Does VMI's history leave quite a bit to be desired? Of course.

Are some VMI grads examples of the Privileged Southern White Boy Syndrome? Undoubtedly.
Are there many VMI grads that don't fit that description? Absolutely.

Here are some folks you might not realize are VMI grads:
Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark
Actor/Comedian Fred Willard
Professional Basketball player Reggie Williams
Coach Bobby Ross
George C. Marshall
Adm. Richard Byrd
and
Jonathan Myrick Daniels.

You've probably heard of everyone on that list, except possibly Daniels. But you should know something about Daniels. After he graduated VMI he became an Episcopal priest and civil rights activist. He was murdered while shielding an African-American civil rights activist.

[Freethinker65]

9. So is Norment demanding Northam and Herring resign??

Does he think promoting such behavior in the yearbook is okay?

Republicans will be in big trouble if past racist behavior becomes a negative for them.

[idahoblue]

11. Not THE yearbook.

Editor of a yearbook. I am sure there were many.

[Blue_Tires]

12. And no, Norment isn't even entertaining talk of resigning.

So that's that

[SunSeeker]

14. Did the NAACP call for Norment's resignation like they did for Northam & Herring?

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/naacp-president-calls-on-virginia-attorney-general-to-resign-1438603843573

[maxrandb]

15. No, see, it was 50 years ago...youthful indiscretion

it's not like he was instrumental in ram-rodding through the past Virginia Gerrymandering redistricting that was ruled unconstitutional for packing African American voters into districts to ensure Retrumplican control.

It's not like his work to disenfranchise voters and racially gerrymander districts resulted in Northam winning the Governorship by 9 percentage points, while also allowing Retrumplicans to maintain a majority in the statehouse.

It's not like his personally overseen gerrymandering of Virginia resulted in the court throwing the maps out as "racially biased against African Americans" and requiring new maps to be drawn.

See...he's done NOTHING that would lead the NAACP to demand his resignation

[SunSeeker]

13. K & R