"Blackface: How many more prestigious flagship universities gon fess up?" Fri Feb-08-19 10:23 AM by Creole
The stuff going on in VA got folks shook. Now, they're gonna be fessing up left and right. Is it to procve they care about righting wrongs or will it be to improve perceptions? Maryland is the South. Ain't no escaping it at all.
Blackface photos found in old University of Maryland yearbooks
Sarah Meehan Contact Reporter The Baltimore Sun
A number of photos featuring people wearing blackface have surfaced in old University of Maryland, College Park yearbooks.
A Twitter user discovered the images in University of Maryland yearbook archives days after a photo of two unidentified people — one in blackface and the other in a Ku Klux Klan robe — was unearthed on Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's 1984 medical school yearbook page. Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has also admitted he once wore blackface.
University of Maryland President Wallace Loh responded to the tweet, calling the images “profoundly hurtful and distressing.”
“The images of blackface found in past UMD yearbooks are profoundly hurtful and distressing,” he replied on Twitter. “Traditions like this reflect a history of racial prejudice and do not convey what we seek to embody today.”
The university’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion echoed Loh’s sentiment and also provided information about the history of blackface on its Twitter feed.
“The images of Blackface discovered in past UMD yearbooks can be shocking for some and traumatizing for others,” the office tweeted. “Traditions like this reflect a history of racial prejudice and do not convey what we seek to embody.”