Saturday, July 4, 2026

In Virginia, Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax Speaks Out About Governor’s Blackface Scandal: “I cannot condone the actions from his past”

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The Lieutentant Governor of Virginia, Justin Fairfax, has spoken out about Gov. Ralph Northam’s blackface scandal. He says despite the fact that Northam has been a friend and treated him well, Fairfax “cannot condone” what happened in the governor’s past. You can read it below.

Fairfax is right. Most everyone agrees Northam must resign. He can’t remember if he’s the man in the yearbook photo wearing blackface? That is a line from Donald Trump’s playbook. I’m two years older than Northam. If I’d seen him like that, or with a darkened face to be in a Michael Jackson costume, I’d remember. It was unacceptable in 1984 and unforgivable in 2019.

Isn’t it amazing, by the way, the irony: he darkened his face to be Michael Jackson. A few years later, Michael whitened his face. If Northam had just waited a decade, he wouldn’t have needed to be in blackface. But that’s another story.

Lucky for Virginia, Fairfax has a great history and will be an excellent governor. He’s also an actual Democrat. Northam, who voted for George W. Bush twice, was not so solid.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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