Northham: I Overreacted To First Reports On Yearbook

The Washington Post reports:

Gov. Ralph Northam (D), amid continued calls for his resignation over a racist photo in his 1984 medical school yearbook, sought to defend his determination to remain in office by promising to pursue racial reconciliation.

“I overreacted,” he said, by putting out a statement taking blame for the picture. “If I had it to do over I would step back and take a deep breath.” He said that an “independent investigation” being conducted by Eastern Virginia Medical School is aimed at clearing up the facts around it.

Northam said he had been especially affected by a conversation with a black lawmaker, whom he declined to name, on the topic of blackface. He said he learned about the history of minstrel shows, where white people mocked black people “and exaggerated their characteristics and mannerisms.”