Apparently, Al Jolson was elected governor of Virginia.  I voted for the other guy and not The Jazz Singer.

Gov. Ralph Northam won his seat by falsely portraying his Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie, as a racist.  Now it is being reported that Northam appeared either in blackface or KKK robes in his college yearbook.  He does admit to blackening his face to mimic Michael Jackson.  I am going to assume that this was the Michael Jackson before 1987's album Bad.  Is it possible he didn't know about this for the last 30 years?  Is it possible the media really didn't get hold of this material before Northam's election?  Are we supposed to believe that this a randomly occurring bigotry eruption? 

Meanwhile, out west, an Arizona race-obsessed "ARTivist" finds blackface where there is none in a recent article in the Arizona Central. 

Rashaad Thomas's article went viral, but not for its insights.  The nation is mostly aghast at how a) anyone could write something so ridiculous and b) any publication would be dumb enough to publish it.  But alas, we live in such times where not even Mary Poppins is safe.

In the article that gives "clickbait" a bad name, Thomas is at a party at a restaurant in Phoenix and sees a photo on the wall of white men with blackened faces.  The current Democratic governor of Virginia is not among them.  The author sees a minstrel show.  But this photo wasn't of or about anything like that.  It's a century-old photo of Welsh coal-miners at a pub, drinking a stout, probably mad someone is photographing them.  Their faces are blackened because they were just working in a mine digging up coal.  They breathed in the dust that was on their faces and probably died young from black lung. 

Thomas's reaction:

Friends said, "It's coal miners at a pub after work."  It was a photograph of coal miners with blackened faces.  I asked a Latinx and white woman for their opinion.  They said it looked like coal miners at a pub after work.  Then they stepped back, frowned and said it's men in blackface.

Thomas needs smarter friends.  Northam or his classmate was in real blackface.  This photo is of coal-miners who were not minstrels or any other kind of entertainer, such as a Democratic governor.  They worked harder every day than most of us likely ever will.

Thomas continued:

I asked the waitress to speak with a manager.  Instead, I spoke with a white restaurant owner.  I explained to him why the photograph was offensive.  Evidently, someone else had made a similar comment about the photograph before.

Yet, the photograph remained on the wall.  He said he would talk to the other owners and get back to me.  While leaving, I asked him had he spoke with the other owners.  He had not spoken with them, but mentioned Google and said it's coal miners after work.

Why?  Because it's a photo of Welsh coal-miners after work.  Period. 

Thomas pesters a busy waitress working at the party he's privileged to enjoy and in turn bothers the busy owner serving the party Thomas is privileged to enjoy and expects the latter to phone up the other owners immediately – about an old photo of coal-miners.  Are these the actions of a reasonable person?

For me, the coal miners disappeared and a film honored for its artistic merit, despite being the most racist propaganda films [sic] ever, D.W. Griffith's "Birth of a Nation" (1915) surfaces, in which white actors appeared in blackface.

That's because he's a perpetual victim seeking to be offended on a daily basis.  It's a photo of coal-miners.  But rather than discuss that, Thomas prefers to discuss an old racist movie.  By the way, President Woodrow Wilson once screened Birth of a Nation inside the White House because he was a big fan.  Wilson was a Democrat and from Virginia, just like Northam.

The white owner saw coal miners in the photograph.  Therefore, it was not offensive.

Fact: The photograph shows coal miners' faces covered in soot. The context of the photograph is not the issue.

In his article, Thomas proves you can't argue with a "woke" stooge.  Presented with facts and proper context, he stubbornly insists on taking offense at a photo of coal-miners who powered their world with their hands and back and discussed unionizing labor to make their lives better.  A progressive such as Thomas could have even seen the origins of his own collectivist politics in that photo.  But that's not what he saw.  He saw distant figures mocking him from a racial Rorschach test.  

As a member of the victim herd, he is able to hide from the responsibility of being an individual.  It allows small and large groups of people to not see coal-miners and instead nod like drones, seeing racism all around.

For Thomas, facts and context don't matter.  I mean, he actually says that in the article.

He's probably right about that.  Northam torpedoed Gillespie's career with bogus racism claims, and the media went along.  Thomas tried making a name for himself over a false accusation of blackface, and the media acquiesced. 

The "imp of the perverse" is that force inside you that has the ability to compel you toward your own doom.  Perhaps in the case of Ralph Northam, he will be moonwalking toward his. 

A.J. Rice is the CEO of Publius PR.  In his media career he has produced or promoted Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Monica Crowley, Steve Hilton, Janice Dean, Melissa Francis, George P. Bush, Dr. Herb London, Dr. Tevi Troy, Coach Howard Schnellenberger, and many others.  Find out more at publiuspr.com.