Blackface scandal addressed by the NAACP’s Bowling Green chapter

BOWLING GREEN, ky.- Images of Virginia elected officials in blackface have sparked national debate. The scandal is causing some people to look at recent issues of blackface, and other racially charged incidents in Bowling Green.

Just last week racial slurs and other offensive remarks were seen marked in graffiti at Burton Baptist Church in Bowling Green. In January of last year, dog feces and a racist note were left on the outside wall of an apartment where two black Western Kentucky University Students were living. There have also been episodes of blackface.

The Bowling Green chapter of the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People is weighing in on the blackface controversy.

“Now is a good time as any to have that conversation, because with it being in the news so heavily there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to ask questions,” said Ryan Dearbone, Director of NAACP in Bowling Green.

Two Virginia elected officials, Gov. Ralph Northam and Attorney General Mark Herring, have been accused of wearing blackface. In one photo Northam stood next to a man in a hooded Ku Klux Klan type costume.

“People are going to say well there are several other people doing it, why is it that big of a deal. Here are two reasons why the Virginia issue is a big deal: one he was in blackface, that’s wrong first and foremost, secondly he was standing next to somebody wearing a white robe that basically looked like a KKK member,” said Dearbone.

Dearbone recalls incidents of students wearing blackface at WKU.

“It was an incident of a few students who did dress up in blackface at a party, and there was flack caught for it. I believe they were punished for it,” said Dearbone.

While wearing blackface may be a fun costume to some people, the history behind wearing it is upsetting to many people.

“They were white actors dressed in black face, and they would exaggerate and make fun of blacks,” said Dearbone.

Dearbone says while blackface and other racially charged incidents have taken place at WKU in the past, the campus is moving forward in a positive direction