Willful Ignorance

Willful Ignorance, 2018

The admission by Democrat Virginia Governor Ralph Northam that he, along with the state's Attorney General, Mark Herring, had dressed in blackface in the 1980s, has unearthed the recent history of the practice. Many are shocked, while it doesn't surprise others.

Along with the #MeToo movement, blackface confronts us with serious and hard-to-answer questions. Should we judge past behavior by today's standards? Is any questionable behavior in one's past cause for lifetime vilification? Or is it important to see how that person has changed? Is redemption possible in the public sphere? Does it matter if one is in the limelight as a politician, actor, or movie mogul? Do we take into account the culture of the times as we might when looking at the life of, say, Thomas Jefferson? His writings are a foundation for our country, yet he was a slave owner and even had a child by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings.

The revelations of these Virginia legislators hit us hard and fast. The preponderance of blackface photos in college yearbooks and the exhuming of this shallowly buried racial past have only deepened our concerns. What do we do with these facts? How do we respond?

Three Washington Post op-eds give us possible paths. "Yes, politicians wore blackface. It used to be all-American 'fun.'" by Rhae Lynn Barnes, assistant professor of American cultural history at Princeton University, "How Ralph Northam and others can repent of America’s original sin" by Reverend William J. Barber II, cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and from former Congresswoman Donna Edwards: "I’m from the same generation as Northam and Herring. Their behavior is mind-boggling."

Talking about it, looking at it, and listening to others is the only way through this. Otherwise, our ignorance isn't just ignorance, it's willful ignorance.

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The posters in this series reflect the conflicts the American political system has been experiencing during the turbulent period between 2010-2020. They are meant to encourage an exploration and a dialogue about the cultural minefield we now find ourselves in.