USA TODAY uncovers 200 examples of racism after review of over 900 yearbooks

[benjipwns]

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2019/02/20/blackface-racist-photos-yearbooks-colleges-kkk-lynching-mockery-fraternities-black-70-s-80-s/2858921002/

In one of the most extensive searches of college yearbooks ever, we found blackface and Ku Klux Klan photos like Ralph Northam's far beyond Virginia.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, a stunning number of colleges and university yearbooks published images of blatant racism on campus, the USA TODAY Network found in a review of 900 publications at 120 schools across the country.

...

Reporters collected more than 200 examples of offensive or racist material at colleges in 25 states, from large public universities in the South, to Ivy League schools in the Northeast, liberal arts boutiques and  Division I powerhouses.

No politicians were identified by USA TODAY Network’s review, which focused on the same time period as Northam’s yearbook, in the era after sweeping civil rights reform. Few images had captions to provide names or context and people’s faces were often hidden behind hoods or blackface.

In one yearbook, from Arizona State University, reporters discovered that USA TODAY Editor Nicole Carroll had designed a page that included a photo of two people, at a fraternity’s Halloween party, in black makeup as actress Robin Givens and boxer Mike Tyson. Carroll, who was editor of the yearbook in 1989 when the photo ran, expressed regret after learning of the photo.

“I was shocked when a colleague told me of my role in publishing a racist and hurtful photo in my college yearbook,” Carroll said in a statement. “I am truly sorry for the harm my ignorance caused then, and the hurt it will cause now, 30 years later.”

Since the Northam news broke, Steve LaCarter, 64, said he has been waiting for a phone call about the party he and his fraternity friends threw at the University of South Carolina in the 1976 school year. They put shoe polish on their faces, wore matching pink suits and lip synced soul music on stage. Someone took a picture, which he said he keeps in a bible at home along with other old photographs.

“I don’t feel like I harmed anybody,” he said. “There were no black people in the room watching that.”

But he didn’t know the yearbook had published it, which seemed to recalibrate his position.

“I can see that, for black people, even in the '70s, seeing that in the University of South Carolina yearbook, that’s not right,” he said. “But I didn’t think about that. I didn’t think about it.”

With contributions from: Elisha Anderson, David Andreatta, Rachel Axon, Clairissa Baker, Dave Bangert, Megan Banta, John Barry, Natasha Blakely, Bonnie Bolden, Giacomo Bologna, Anthony Borrelli, Katie Sullivan Borrelli, Matt Brannon, Mary Chao, Trish Choate, Ellen Ciurczak, Mark Curnutte, Nicole DeSmet, Michael Diamond, Will DiGravio, Byron Dobson, Bob Dohr, Alana Edgin, Allison Ehrlich, Rilyn Eischens, Kirsten Fiscus, Maggie Gilroy, Jason Gonzales, Emily Havens, Holly Hays, Samantha Hernandez, Brinley Hineman, Brandon Holveck, Tyler Horka, Stephanie Ingersoll, Kyle Jones, Sara Karnes, Monica Kast, Corinne Kennedy, Cameron Knight, Rachel Leingang, Dann Miller, Trevor Mitchell, Justin Murphy, Amanda Oglesby, Tovah Olson, Darrin Peschka, Dan Radel, Gege Reed, Mike Reicher, Gus Garcia-Roberts, Peggy Santoro, Jeff Schwaner, Caryn Shaffer, Devi Shastri, Svetlana Shkolnikova, Georgie Silvarole, Mollie Simon, Seth Slabaugh, Nichelle Smith, Zachary Smith, Matt Steecker, Joe Szydlowski, Sarah Taddeo, Jason Truitt, Natasha Vaughn, Rose Velazquez, Katie Wadington, Tom Whitehurst Jr. and Candy Woodall

white people finally on notice

[Himu]

Good Lord.

I am only glad that things have gotten better over time. I hope that we can eventually end the sickness that is racism. Stab the bitch dead.

[shosta]

This is either the best or worst black history month ever

[Great Rumbler]

Just think how bad it would be if they looked through yearbooks from the 50s and 60s...

[Cerveza mas fina]

Just imagine if they looked through 2007 the bore

[bork]

Since the Northam news broke, Steve LaCarter, 64, said he has been waiting for a phone call about the party he and his fraternity friends threw at the University of South Carolina in the 1976 school year. They put shoe polish on their faces, wore matching pink suits and lip synced soul music on stage. Someone took a picture, which he said he keeps in a bible at home along with other old photographs.

 

[Joe Molotov]

Just imagine if they looked through 2007 the bore

Or 2019 Bore's digital blackface.