William J. Barber II
It is fascinating to see how the demand that “Governor Ralph Northam must resign” mantra is morphing into “Northam must pay penance by adopting Leftist causes.” Specifically, he needs to shut down the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s proposed compressor station in Buckingham County.
Civil rights activist Rev. William J. Barber II, who is accompanying former Vice President Al Gore to the Union Hill community in Buckingham today, said Monday that Northam’s challenge is more about overcoming the blackface/Ku Klux Klan photo he displayed on his medical school yearbook page 35 years ago and more about changing public policy, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
“The governor has turned his back on this community,” said Barber, former president of the North Carolina NAACP. “If he wants to do a reconciliation tour, he should first go to Union Hill.”
Al Gore
Added Gore: “It’s such a great opportunity for the governor to really show what he means what he says and is re-examining the racial impacts of Virginia’s policies.”
The predominantly white environmentalists who oppose the ACP, along with the Mountain Valley Pipeline (which has no connection to Union Hill whatsoever), and any other natural gas infrastructure anywhere in the country, have framed the Union Hill compressor station as a racial justice issue. They have succeeded, thanks to media events like the one taking place today, in generating massive media attention. Meanwhile, African-American leaders who support the pipeline have no visibility at all.
When the blackface controversy broke, I wrote Feb. 1: ” Let’s sit back and watch how long the PC statute of limitation is for Democrats compared to that for Republicans. … We’ll have to wait and see how sustained the outrage is.”
Clearly, the environmental lobby thinks it can leverage Northam’s desperation into concrete action on their behalf. Expect others to exploit Northam’s craving for forgiveness — er, reconciliation — to extract political concessions they could not get any other way. As Northam bends to their will, we can expect the outrage to fade away.
