THE PBS MINSTREL MAN

Gov. Ralph Northam's favorite night at the theater.

Remember when the New York Times  was keeping a running tab about prominent men caught up in the MeToo movement? They should start another for others running around in blackface.

Ralph Northam, Mark Herring, Tommy Norment -- there hasn't been this much talk about blackface since Lew Dockstader played the Alvin Theater in 1903. You can't watch the news without hearing someone say "blackface". CNN promos might as well call itself "The Most Trusted Name in Blackface News". MSNBC is going to have to alter its slogan from "This Is Who We Are" to "This Is Who We Are: Blackface". And "Fair and Blackface" is Fox News' idea of integration.

Now another network has gotten into the (minstrel) act. Jim Hummel, the host of A Lively Experiment on PBS's Rhode Island affiliate, WSBE, was recently embarrassed when a 1986 photo of him in blackface appeared on Facebook. 

PBS in a blackface scandal! Listen carefully and you'll hear the sound of its cis-gendered, white-privileged employees lashing themselves in shame with whips covered in ethically-sourced, conflict-free spikes (on sale during their next fundraising telethon). 

As the interlocuter used to say at minstrel shows,
"Gentlemen, be seated!"

But hold on. Hummel had a perfectly good explanation for his racially-motivated behavior. He and a friend were attending a Halloween party as Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas, the stars of Miami Vice.

Makes sense. Remember when you went to a Halloween party in blackface in 1986? 

Unlike Gov. Ralph Northam, Hummel couldn't put this down to the actions of a crazy school kid. Not only was he older, Hummel was a reporter at the Providence Journal at the time. 

If you're wondering why a reporter for a newspaper would risk his reputation (that is, whatever kind of reputation a reporter for a Rhode Island newspaper even has) over a stunt like this, Hummel blames it on his childhood. "I grew up in the Northeast, in a community where there were very few African-Americans," he said, adding, "I mean, call me naïve. Maybe I was not clued in on blackface then."

There were more black people at the '64 Jazz
Festival than Hummel's hometown.

Call you naïve? Maybe call you stupid. I grew up in the Northeast, too. Rhode Island, just like you, Jimmy! In Newport, which had a pretty small black population. And even when I was but a child, I was aware, somehow, that blackface wasn't an acceptable form of entertainment anymore -- and we're talking 1964, not 1980-fucking-6. Maybe it helped I had a few black friends in school. Or maybe because I wasn't ignorant.

Nor was I the only one. Never did I ever see kids in blackface. Come Halloween, if any of them wanted to impersonate their favorite TV stars, they wore a Superman costume or talked on a makeshift Maxwell Smart shoe phone. 

It never would have occurred to any of us to black up as Amos & Andy. Again, this is when we were in third grade, not four years after college graduation. 

You know Jim Hummel is disingenuous when he trots out the hoary "context" excuse. While admitting it "looks horrible," he quickly adds,  "If you look at [Northam's] photo, that's a Klan member standing in a hood." 

Excellent observation! And you are a guy in equally-grotesque blackface holding a gun in a photo taken two years later. Why is it so hard for these guys to say, "It was a stupid thing to do because I was stupid then." Take it from someone who did stupid things in his 20s -- no one could dispute this.

If you haven't guessed by now, Jim Hummel is ready to apologize to anyone who's offended. But apparently this being Rhode Island, nobody is. Especially at the Providence Journal, which Hummel still writes for, and currently has an all-white staff. Maybe he still hasn't met any black people. 

                                         ******
NOTE: It has been brought to my attention that minstrel shows were performed at the high school in Newport as late as 1965. Strictly for fundraising purposes, you understand. Context is everything!