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Black Liberty University Students and Alumni Respond to Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Racist Tweet

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Angered by Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr.’s joke about wearing a COVID mask with Governor Ralph Northam’s infamous blackface photo on it, black students and alumni of Liberty are speaking out in condemnation.

On Wednesday, May 28, Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, tweeted that he would only wear a mask amidst the COVID-19 pandemic if it had a photo of a man in KKK robes and a man in blackface on it. His tweet read as follows:

Attached to his tweet was the following mock-up that Falwell Jr. devised:

Falwell Jr. then tried to explain that the photo of his proposed mask depicts the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, from 1984:

Without doubt, Northam’s photo was not and is not excusable. It is as morally reprehensible in 2020 as it was in 1984. But Falwell Jr.’s tweet about the photo demonstrates how not to condemn such reprehensibility.

If Falwell Jr.’s purpose was to remind us of the current injustice surrounding Northam’s lack of accountability for the photograph, some may argue (in the most generous terms possible) that the mask and tweet could be understood as misguided attempts to reckon with the very real presence of anti-blackness in Virginia’s contemporary political climate. However, mobilizing images of racialized violence to taunt a political opponent is not only repugnant, but it resuscitates the racial trauma that such images re-enact.

Already, one LU Online professor has delivered his letter of resignation after Falwell Jr. published his mask idea on Twitter. But in addition to an open letter from black alumni sent to Falwell Jr. and a petition calling for his removal, a number of other black Liberty students and alumni have also spoken out. The following is what they had to say.

In response to Falwell Jr.’s tweet, Tremayne Edwards, a 2013 Liberty graduate, stated: “While blackface is harmful and not okay, promoting a mask with blackface is just as wrong and hurtful.” 

Samantha Kelly, who graduated from Liberty in 2011, explained she was “not one bit surprised,” going on to say: “Everything about this is wrong. The governor was all sorts of wrong about that situation but so was Jerry for re-sharing a triggering image and making light of a racist gesture at an especially sensitive time (or any time for that matter).”

Falwell Jr.’s tweet comes in the wake of Ahmaud Arbery’s murder and only two days after the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of a group of white cops. For Falwell Jr. to post such an image at any time is utterly shocking. But the insensitivity he demonstrated in posting it this week is thoroughly shameful. 

Ku Klux Klan parade in 1922. Photo by National Photo Company Collection – Library of Congress, Public Domain, via Wikimedia

The image of a KKK hood, of course, carries with it a long history of hatred. KKK garb represented and continues to represent white supremacy and white nationalism. The Klan — infamously consisting of police officers, ministers, and government officials — has propagated domestic terrorism for well over 100 years, and is responsible for countless murders of primarily African Americans. The white hood represents racialized terror, violence, and hatred that are all too American.

Blackface, another disgraceful symbol of racism, has a long history of caricaturizing black men and women that draws upon a lengthy cache of racist stereotypes mocking blackness. 

Falwell Jr.’s statement that he would wear a mask with men in a KKK hood and blackface is further evidence of his deeply held convictions. As KKK hoods and blackface are, in their own right, masks of sorts, his statement that he would mask his face with such hateful symbols ironically unmasks his bigoted beliefs. His proclamation that he would cover his face with his proposed mask uncovers the racism that motivates him to wear such overt symbols of discrimination in the first place. Indeed, Falwell Jr.’s willingness to veil his face with images saturated in white supremacy unveils the hatred he learned from his father, Jerry Falwell Sr., the founder of the so-called Moral Majority. 

In response to the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision to desegregate schools, Falwell Sr. —who was a pastor until his death and whose long track record of racism (and sexism, homophobia, etc.) is unsurprisingly extensive — preached a sermon titled “Segregation or Integration: Which?” He not only argued in front of his congregation that “the true Negro . . . realizes his potential is far better among his own race,” but he went on to explain that integration “will destroy our race eventually.”

In the era of Civil Rights, which he referred to as “civil wrongs,” Falwell Sr. established Lynchburg Christian Academy, an institution that was created to avoid integration. In 1966, the Lynchburg News described it as “a private school for white students.” From Lynchburg Christian Academy emerged Lynchburg Baptist College, which later became Liberty University. 

Eventually, Falwell Sr. reluctantly integrated his school and his church. Laurie Jacobs-Carneiro, an LU alumnus who first started at Liberty in 1982 and graduated in 1992, explained that she taught Sunday school for Falwell Sr.’s church. However, instead of teaching at the church proper on Sunday mornings, she was segregated from the rest of the congregation and was sent to a literal island off-campus, referred to as “Treasure Island,” “where the church bussed in African American children.”

Jerry Falwell Sr. at an “I Love America” rally in 1980. Photo by Mark T. Foley, Public Domain, via Wikimedia

In 2007, Falwell Jr. took over Liberty, now the world’s largest Christian university, and has been establishing an extensive resumé of bigotry ever since. Falwell Jr. — a zealous supporter of Trump whom he invited to speak on MLK Day in 2016 — also recently hired a reporter who lost her job for a litany of racist remarks. Falwell Jr. has, moreover, a lengthy track record censoring student free speech on campus and muffling of student dissent, in addition to silencing faculty and university employees; university-wide fearmongering; lying; hypocrisy; questionable business deals; making, along with his wife, openly transphobic remarks; running a school that houses a one-on-one conversion therapy program — and a group version thereof — and is home to a rampant culture of homophobia. Most recently, Falwell put Liberty students in danger by keeping his campus open during times of COVID.

As is clear with his recent tweet, Falwell Jr. is becoming increasingly comfortable laying bare his bigoted beliefs, despite his futile claims that he was simply trying to expose racism. Planning to wear his racism not on his sleeve, Falwell instead plans to paste his bigotry on his face for all to see.

In response to Falwell’s mask idea, a rising LU junior who requested to remain anonymous poignantly asks: “If Jerry is concerned about black people and combating racism in America, why hasn’t he spoken about any of the murders that have taken place at the hands of the police this year alone? This month alone? In fact, why does he still support publicly and strongly for Donald Trump when we all know the types of people associated with him: racists. The literal KKK endorsed him when he ran for president. If Jerry is willing to stand by that kind of person, but is also going to bring up Northam’s racism, I smell hypocrisy. And that’s what it is.”

Kelly further explained her utter disappointment in Falwell Jr.: “I’m simply too tired to expect that the leader of the largest Christian university in the world would use his platform to speak out against what’s happening now… Or that at the very least he would simply mourn with those who mourn. It’s a different kind of annoyance for him to think that it would be appropriate to wear (or joke about wearing) that mask… And his clarification of what he meant only goes to show just how lost he is in his privilege… I pray that all of us who claim to be Christians would hold him accountable and call out this stuff. This is what we mean when we say not being racist isn’t enough, but we have to be anti-racist! Call it out for what it is and stop justifying… Own it, apologize, and do better.”

When I asked Kelly if she would agree for her name to be used in this article, she responded in the affirmative, saying: “I want my name to be said while I’m alive.” 

The unsettling profundity of Kelly’s courage and desire for her name to be spoken while she is alive gestures toward the countless black lives viciously stolen at the hands of cops and white supremacists. But Kelly wouldn’t have to be so courageous, nor would she desire to have her name said in this way, if it were not for the fact that black women, men, and children are constantly and systemically subject to violence, discrimination, and prejudice for simply being black. 

It is the sentiment behind tweets like Jerry Falwell Jr.’s that undergird and perpetuate the anti-black climate in which we live. His now-overtly clear racism speaks of grave insensitivity and willful disregard, which will surely “set a tone for Liberty,” as alumnus Kevin Ray Cohen explained. Cohen, who graduated with two degrees from Liberty, one in 2010 and the other in 2012, stated further that Falwell’s tweet “shows, at it’s very heart, black lives don’t matter.”

It goes without saying, but Falwell Jr. owes an apology to every black student at Liberty and to the greater African American community.

It should also go without saying that he never should have published his tweet in the first place. But what do we really expect from an unrepentant contrarian who benefits from the fundamentalist empire of hatred he inherited from his segregationist father?

Top Photo by Shealah Craighead – Public Domain, via Wikimedia

Op-Ed: The “Inconclusive” Northam Yearbook Report Is No Surprise

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This report was commissioned by Northam’s alma mater, not the state of Virginia, and we shouldn’t be surprised when it serves its client’s aims, writes Rich Meagher.

Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS), Ralph Northam’s alma mater, was not able to figure out if Governor Ralph Northam wore blackface in an old yearbook photo. That’s the conclusion of a report the school commissioned, which was released on Wednesday.

No one should be surprised about this result, for two big reasons.

First of all, that’s just how these things go. When educational institutions like EVMS go wrong, they want an “investigation” to dig into their history, but not TOO deep. They are trying to close the door on the past without getting anyone important fired. We can best see this with the recent travesties concerning sexual assault and abuse: Penn State and child rapist Jerry Sandusky; Baylor University and their football team’s history of sexual assault; and Michigan State’s gymnastics program. The goal of any of these investigations, past and present, is not so much to find out the truth as it is to preserve the reputation of the university.

If anyone wants to criticize the Northam investigators from law firm McGuire Woods, they should focus on that mandate, and not any motivations due to Democratic partisanship. Yes, I’ve seen a few people note that McGuire Woods has given Northam’s thousands in campaign cash, and even hosted a fundraiser for him as recently as December.

But the head investigator for McGuire Woods, former Virginia Attorney General Richard Cullen, supported Ed Gillespie in the last election, not Northam. The law firm’s partisan leanings are less important than the medical school’s; the current and former President are also Northam donors. And both of these men knew about the racist photo on Northam’s yearbook page. Both kept quiet, they say, to avoid any appearance of trying to “influence” Northam.

The bottom line: this report was commissioned by the medical school, not by Northam, and definitely not by Virginia citizens. So it should be no surprise that it ends up serving the needs of its clients, not the truth.

Still, we shouldn’t drag EVMS and McGuire Woods too much, because proving Northam’s guilt or innocence one way or another would always be a daunting task. And that’s the other big reason the investigation’s lack of a conclusion is not a surprise: we would need someone to show way more courage than we can reasonably expect.

If Northam is NOT in the photo, we would need someone — probably a respected and successful doctor at this point — to admit they were in the photo instead. And as much as honesty is the best policy, most doctors I know would have a hard time jeopardizing their lucrative medical practice or prestigious hospital position, not to mention public reputation, by explaining how they used to dress up in Klan robes or blackface.

If Northam IS in the photo, we would need someone, possibly a longstanding friend, to throw his pal under the bus, AND probably implicate themselves as well. “Sure, Ralph and I are in the photo together; my mom was real progressive, taught me how to sew, so I made my own hood.” Not likely.

So we get somewhat of a nothingburger of a report. This leaves Virginians exactly where they were before: every one of us has to decide who and what they believe.

If you believe Northam, he panicked when he first saw the photo and rushed to “take responsibility.” He quickly realized that it wasn’t him in the photo and backed off his earlier claims. He was never in the photo, and never really said he was.

The report actually does a nice job of explaining how this kind of response might have developed in the chaos following the photo’s reveal in February. It contains interviews with both Northam and his chief of staff, and they reveal a not-terribly sophisticated pol letting events get the better of him. There have been worse instances – President Bush reading about goats while thousands were being murdered comes to mind – so this scenario isn’t that hard to believe.

But you do NOT have to believe it. A competing story recognizes that Northam did not immediately deny he was in the photo, suggesting it was at least a possibility. Once he figured out that no one could PROVE it was him, he started lying. Maybe Northam is more sophisticated of a pol than he lets on; he’s still in office, isn’t he? And the report only contains interviews by the Governor and his chief of staff, so why wouldn’t it show us a poor, overwhelmed Ralph?

In the end, the opinions of smallfolk like you or I do not really matter; we don’t get a vote on Northam anymore.

He is term-limited by Virginia law, with no real institutional mechanism to remove him. The opinions that matter are those of Democrats across the state with the title “Delegate” or “State Senator,” or those candidates who want one of those titles. With primaries next month and the fall elections looming, what do they do? Continue to reject the Governor, or embrace him? Most are still trying to figure it out, but they are running out of time.

No matter what this investigation tells us, Governor Northam remains Governor Northam. We’d all better get used to that fact.

Note: Op-Eds are contributions from guest writers and do not reflect RVA Magazine editorial policy.

Health Commissioner Says Most Whites Are Unconsciously ‘Anti-Black’

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The commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health faces backlash after stating that most white people are unconsciously “pro-white” and “anti-black.”

Dr. Norman Oliver’s remarks came through a weekly message last week sent to VDH employees. Oliver, who is African-American, was addressing the controversy over the discovery of a racist photo on Gov. Ralph Northam’s page of his 1984 medical school yearbook. The picture showed a man in Ku Klux Klan garb beside another in blackface.

“Unfortunately, as I know from my own research prior to joining VDH, the majority of whites (and a number of African Americans) are implicitly, that is, unconsciously, pro-white and anti-black,” the letter stated. “We have a great challenge ahead of us to increase awareness of our unconscious racial biases and find ways to mitigate, reduce, or eliminate them.”

In a follow-up internal message this week, Oliver acknowledged that his “weekly message” sparked comments from some offended employees.

I didn’t say that all whites are racist,” Oliver wrote in the follow-up message aiming to clarify his remarks, “rather, I said that the majority of whites have an implicit or unconscious preference for whites over Blacks.

A state worker, who provided the internal messages on the condition of anonymity, said Oliver’s follow-up letter defending himself satisfied some employees but did little to ease concern from others who considered his remarks out of bounds.

In Oliver’s original letter, he drew a distinction between “anti-black” bias and racism, stating that the vast majority of whites are not explicitly racist.

“Racist and stereotype views of Black people were pervasive in the state and in the country,” the letter stated. “Moreover, the events of August 2017 in Charlottesville demonstrate that white supremacist views still hold sway among some Americans of European descent. Thankfully, only a small minority of whites hold such racist views.”

“Some employees mistakenly thought I was calling all whites racist,” Oliver said in an email to Capital News Service. “I wasn’t, and I made it clear that I was talking about unconscious biases.”

Oliver said unconscious bias is also shared by a “significant number of African-Americans.”

“What do we mean when we say someone is a racist?” Oliver wrote in his follow-up message to employees.

“Most of us mean that such a person consciously believes their racial category is superior to others. A racist actively and deliberately discriminates against members of the supposedly inferior racial categories. A racist may harbor such racial hatred that they seek to cause bodily harm to people in these other racial categories. Let’s call such racism intentional and personally mediated, that is, committed by that individual.

“The majority of whites in the Commonwealth, and in the country, do not hold such views or commit such actions. In fact, the majority of whites explicitly, that is consciously reject such racist notions.”

Oliver stated in his letter that those who are “explicitly anti-racist” but still hold “racial biases” can be led to “unintentionally discriminate against those whom they are biased against.” He pointed to studies that have found clinicians with unconscious pro-white biases are more likely to inadequately treat or manage pain among black patients who suffer heart attacks.

Before he was appointed commissioner of the Virginia Department of Health in 2018, Oliver was the chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

Oliver’s research focuses on improving people’s understanding of the role of racial discrimination, bias, health injustice, and racial and ethnic health disparities, among other things.

“In the wake of the events of the last few days, I pledge that the senior leadership will work with Office of Health Equity and others to bring this discussion of race, racism, and equity to our offices and local health districts,” the initial letter said. “We will heal through having a crucial conversation about our common humanity and making a mutual commitment to racial justice.”

“In the coming weeks and months,” Oliver wrote in his most recent letter to state health workers, “we will continue our discussion about racism and what we can do as an agency to help eliminate racial inequities in health.”

By Kaytlin Nickens, Capital News Service. Photo via CNS.