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Racism is a horrible, horrible stain on our history as a state (and as a country), with one key difference. You can ignore stains, after a while. You can’t ignore our dark history, try as you might, for fear of repeating it eventually. Yet, if you’ve been paying attention to Virginia politics recently, it seems people are keen on re-writing our history to make it seem like racism isn’t something that was ever socially acceptable, when the horrible truth is that it wasn’t just acceptable, it was encouraged. In a state where lynchings were commonplace, segregation was legally and economically enforced, and whites were only allowed to marry whites (a distinction that was rare even in the South), you have to recognize that racism didn’t just disappear overnight in 1964. Governor Northam and Attorney General Herring both wore tasteless costumes thirty-five years ago. They’ve done so much for black (and Hispanic) Virginians since then. Their growth mirrors the growth of the state.

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