This clip shows white slavers escorting African slaves in chains to the coast. Such a thing never happened. West Africa was called the “white man’s graveyard” for a reason — whites died in droves. Moldering in forts on the coast, typically suffering from dysentery, malaria and yellow fever, Europeans procured slaves from African chieftains and kings, exchanging guns and goods for them. The history of West Africa during the period of the Atlantic slave trade is the story of the rise of these potentates and their depredations on the weaker societies around them.

While Northam “educates” himself on racial issues by reading fables and polemics, he has asked his Cabinet secretaries to come up with specific proposals to begin addressing issues of inequality, reports the Washington Post. Topics might include expanding access to health care, housing and transportation.

Northam proposes to atone for his personal sins not only by requiring his staff to undergo sensitivity training — how many people are rolling their eyeballs over that one? — but by enacting new spending programs to be paid for by…. others. As Hans Bader argues in a recent blog post, “you can’t make amends with other peoples’ money.”

All Virginians share the goal of creating a society in which African-Americans are full and equal participants. The question is how to achieve that goal. Should Virginia embrace the Left’s agenda of creating new government programs to supplement the old programs that have fallen so woefully short? Or should government focus on dismantling barriers, such as reforming zoning policies that restrict the supply of housing, and delivering core services, such as disruption-free schools where teachers can actually teach?

Northam shows every indication of wanting to placate the Left, a troubling sign of what kind of policies he will pursue.