Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey Comes Under Fire for Wearing Blackface 52 Years Ago in College Skit
Ivey: “I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can – going forward – to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s.”
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey (R) is facing calls for her resignation following the unearthing of a college skit from 52 years ago. Back in 1967, Ivey performed in a skit called “cigar butts” in which she wore blackface.
This will be the first test of “Democrat privilege” whereby Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and AG Mark Herring weathered photos of blackface surfacing from the 1980s. Is it only Democrats who are “privileged” enough to survived decades-old indiscretions? Or did Democrats lose a valuable piece of political weaponry in letting Northam slide?
A contemporaneous audio interview came to light in which Ivey and her then-fiancé discuss the college skit, and the twenty-first-century leftie outrage brigade sprang into action.
The skit was called “cigar butts,” and a couple of the university students who starred in it thought the performance was hilarious.
Then an Auburn University senior, Ben LaRavia, recounted the act on a campus radio show. It was 1967, at a Baptist Student Union party, and he was there with his fiancee at the time: now his ex-wife and Alabama’s Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.
“Cigar butts,” LaRavia said, involved “crawling around on the floor looking for cigar butts and things like this, which certainly got a big reaction out of the audience.”
It also involved blackface.
LaRavia, chortling as he described Ivey’s outfit, said she wore blue coveralls, “and she had put some black paint all over her face.”
“That was just my role for the evening,” Ivey says later in the interview.
Fifty-two years later, Ivey is one of the state’s most powerful politicians, and on Thursday she apologized for participating in the racist skit while dodging calls for her resignation.
Ivey has apologized in a video to the citizens of Alabama in which she states, in part:
“While some may attempt to excuse this as acceptable behavior for a college student during the mid-1960s, that is not who I am today, and it is not what my administration represents all these years later. I offer my heartfelt apologies for the pain and embarrassment this causes, and I will do all I can – going forward – to help show the nation that the Alabama of today is a far cry from the Alabama of the 1960s.”
Watch the whole thing:
Unsurprisingly, some circles have not accepted Ivey’s apology, including the Alabama chapter of the NAACP, and there have been numerous calls for her resignation.
“It is not acceptable any time or place,” Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, said. “Do us a favor and step down.”
. . . . Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said Ivey should have apologized in person.
“I don’t care if it was 52 years ago or yesterday,” Givan said. “She is the governor of the state of Alabama, which is still considered one of the most racist states in the U.S. This is who she was then. It is who she is now. I have nothing for her. I don’t accept her apology. She should have stood before the people of Alabama herself.”
“She should resign. I don’t think she should have been elected, and I think she is a racist.”
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin called on Ivey to do more than apologize.
“Blackface is a horrible stigmatization of the black experience, a practice with roots that are planted firmly in our nation’s racist past,” Woodfin said in a statement. “Gov. Ivey, an apology is the right place to start, but that’s not enough. Not when you serve in the seventh most black state in America.
“Admitting wrongdoing is the first step toward growth. But it cannot end there. Gov. Ivey, I urge you to continue that healing process by reaching out to the black communities you serve, hearing their needs and making transformational investments in opportunities for black residents who have been disproportionately and systematically disenfranchised.”
And state rep. Terri Sewell chimed in on Twitter.
Racism – in any of its forms – is never acceptable, not in the 1960s and not now. Governor Ivey’s actions were reprehensible and are deeply offensive. Her words of apology ring hollow if not met with real action to bridge the racial divide. https://t.co/6uxqEyQq6X
— Rep. Terri A. Sewell (@RepTerriSewell) August 29, 2019
However, there are Alabama lawmakers, including Democrats, who do not think Ivey should resign.
Other prominent Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton, of Greensboro, and U.S. Rep. Terry Sewell, District 7, reacted to the news, but did not call for Ivey to step down.
Singleton said he spoke with the governor by phone and “I felt that her apology was sincere.”
Sewell added that “only real efforts, not words, can end the racial disparities that exist in Alabama in health care, education, wealth and housing, to name a few,” and followed that by saying “Governor, there’s a lot of work to do!”
Republicans, including the state party and political leaders like Senate President Pro Tempore Del Marsh, have accepted the governor’s apologies with calls for the state to put the issue behind them.
“Governor Ivey has expressed her deepest apologies for this incident,” Marsh said. “I hope we as a state can put this behind us.”
If anyone can withstand this onslaught of outrage from the perpetually outraged left, it’s Ivey. She has come under repeated fire for her stance on protecting Alabama’s Confederate statues, for banning “free speech zones” on public college campuses in her state, and for signing into law Alabama’s “Human Life Protection Act.” And she hasn’t blinked an eye.
It remains to be seen how this plays out. If the left thinks it’s found in Ivey a shrinking violet they can bully, they are in for a surprise when they discover that she’s a steel magnolia.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Oh a Republican. I guess it matters now. Not so much for Democrats.
…and it only took the legion of Democrat Trolls 8 months going through decades old records to find one. Yet the Virginia governor was worst considering it was it was with a white hooded KKK body…..
Once. Just once, I want to see a politician or public figure say “yes. I was in blackface. Deal with it. Next question?” and then refuse to address the subject any further.
My thought exactly. I feel less for these people when they do this,and it does not buy then a thing.
I know what you mean, but far prefer to see those on the political right do that every time, not just once. It won’t take many times before this Socialist-Democrat “shtick” is consigned to the trash bag of failed political tricks.
Gov. Ivy went from blackface to saving black babies. That is something to celebrate, not condemn.
One event. One entry in a yearbook. One misheard remark. That’s all it takes.
That’s how the left wanted it, but then, oops, more of their people got caught in their #MeToo and “you’re a big fat RAAACIST” webs. They started seeing they were suffering more losses than the right, so they started fudging the rules. Northam can wear blackface in the ’80’s, we learn. Well, well, well. Isn’t that interesting? Now we have a great test case in Kay Ivey who wore blackface in the ’60’s. If she survives, that whole thing is done.
Add in the fact that the leftstream media is under notice that its own employees will be treated to the same scrutiny they so happily apply to public and, most importantly, NON-public figures . . . we may be seeing the cancel culture lose steam.
Of course, I am incurably optimistic and have been wrong before (many times). BUT this feels different. Instead of the shock and horror and typical outrage, the leftstream media seemed . . . “reserved” in their treatment of the subject of Ivey’s half a century old “scandal.”
We’re still in the “wait and see” phase, but I don’t think Ivey’s stepping down, and I think the cancel culture will take yet another huge hit from this failure.
I have to disagree. A year ago (before Northam) Ivey would have been toast. After Northam leaves office in 2021 it will be open season on Republicans again who are accused of wearing blackface. Say what you will about the MSM/DNC axis: they have enough political savvy to recognize that they cannot plausible defend Democrat Northam while simultaneously calling for Republican Ivey to be lynched.
Al Franken was a victim of bad timing, not a sudden mysterious concern by Democrats for the plight of sexually harassed women. At that time Democrats were busy trying to Kavanaugh the GOP Senate candidate Moore by trying to stampede Alabama Republicans into dumping him just days before the election. Had the charges against Franken come out even one second after the polls closed in the Alabama special election the media would have ignored it and Franken would still be in the Senate.
Fuck off, Democrats.
She’ll resign the day after Northam does. 52 years ago it was LEGITIMATELY fine to be wearing blackface, especially for silly skits.
Democrat governors and comedians have worn it FAR more recently and had nothing happen to them.
Not counting the rapist AG of Virginia (I believe her), Governor Coonman from Virginia, the fake Indian now senator, the fake socialist three home owning senator and the list goes on and on and on.
If I was her I’d tell them once all those democrat hypocrites resign and give back all their wealth then I’ll resign. And I’d have a card with the exact words written down and I’d pull it out each and every time someone brought up wanting me to resign and read it word for word until they finally give up.
Hark! – the black Wayans Brothers wore ‘whiteface’ for the movie “White Chicks”!
Ban them now!
Wayans Brothers Wear ‘Whiteface’ For ‘White Chicks’
https://isitfunnyoroffensive.com/wayans-brothers-wear-whiteface-for-white-chicks/
If the Alabama GOPe pressures her to step down, then they will deserve the pummeling they will get in the polls next year.
Of course, the Alabama GOPe thought the ethically-challenged Luther Strange should have been US Senator and deliberately threw the election to Democrat Doug Jones, so maybe they want to be the Democrats’ punching bag.
But Robert Byrd recruited 150 of his friends and associates to create a new chapter of the Ku Klux Klan in Sophia, West Virginia… and HE managed to reform himself… didn’t he?
I mean he was a Democratic Senator for 51+years
The standards of the left seem to require the permanent banning of the Democrat Party for the KKK, Jim Crow, gun control laws, slavery, etc.
She should resign AFTER every democrat resigns and their party is disbanded. Until then, they should be told to pack sand.
The Demoncrats and their sycophant fake news outlets need to be constantly humiliated for not screaming about the antifa fascist wearing “black face”.
Unfortunately for the people calling on Gov. Ivey to resign, she can’t because VA Gov. Northam is still standing in the way blocking the blackface in your past political resignation line.
Seriously, this is no different than what happened during the Clinton administration. Standards of behavior that were ‘enforced’ previously were abandoned. So we no longer are supposed to care about marital infidelity by our politicians.
The ‘elites’ keep forgetting that the citizens of this nation do know how to read and are capable of remembering exactly how, when, why and on who’s behalf the standards changed. If they truly wanted to keep the previous standards then they should have been willing to apply the standards to their own side. They choose poorly.
The rest of us seem to have moved on from unilaterally applying outdated standards only to our politicians. Minus a few folks at National Review of course. They built the bed, they don’t get to complain that the laying is hard.
Well most of the citizens know how to read. And a majority of those who know how to read actually are capable of comprehending what they read. Then there are Socialist-Democrat voters.
She should simply indicate she will resign when Virginia’s governor does.
She looks great in red.
These are the antics of totalitarian jackboots — combing through decades-old personal histories, in order to dig up “dirt” that can be used to vilify and discredit political opposition, in the present.
Dhimmi-crats’ infantile posture of contrived, perpetual grievance, is exceedingly tiresome and utterly corrosive to American society.
I mean, who in their right mind would empower these people, their odious socioeconomic ethos, aside? A bunch of petty jackboots who go around, perpetually pointing fingers at people, and, castigating them for their allegedly irredeemable sins? Who wants to live under this totalitarian regime of ceaseless and politically-motivated flagellation?
And, I forgot to add that the Dhimmis’ outrage is as selective and hypocritical, as it is contrived. Because, when a Dhimmi-crat apparatchik comes under scrutiny for less-than-laudable behavior, all is forgiven. See Bill Clinton, Robert Byrd and Ted Kennedy, to name only a few prominent examples. And, of course, lower down on the totem pole of Dhimmi-crat standard-bearers, Ralph Northam.
Oh, FFS! This is just more proof that leftist are not serious or mature people. If you have never looked back on something you did and cringe about it the you are either too young, immature, or a sociopath.
Ivey’s only mistake was apologizing. When leftists can force an apology, they smell red meat and keep attacking. She should have just said, “That was 52 years ago. Get over it.”
Does anyone know what her party affiliation was in 1967? Being a solid Southern state, I’d guess she was Democrat. If so, her response should simply be, “Well I was a Democrat then, but I grew up.”
Think you’re right.
While the Socialist-Democrats have been busy over on Wiki putting in overtime to add this incident to her Wiki entry, they forgot to remove the information that in 1982 she ran for State Auditor on the Socialist-Democrat Party ticket. Because there is no other mention of her political affiliation prior to 1982, we can then presume that prior to that election she was not registered as a Republican or Libertarian upon attaining the age of majority (then 21) until at least 1982.
Her father was a bureaucrat in the Farmer’s Home Administration and it is highly unlikely that he was a closet Republican in Democrat Alabama.
It’s time to do blackface skits again.
Repeat it until they acknowledge that comedy exists.
The disagreement on the right ought to be about what the rules are, not about whether the left is required to follow those rules no matter how bogus.
She needs to step forward and “heal the black community”, eh?
It doesn’t WANT to be healed. If said community “healed”, what would they have left to cudgel the rest of humanity with? There is money and fame in victimhood, just ask Jesse and Al.
Wasn’t she with the Virginia Guv in that picture? So he was the Klansman!
I still don’t understand what’s supposed to be racist about dressing up as someone who looks different from you.
But whatever is supposed to be wrong with it now, it was definitely not wrong 50 years ago. It was a completely normal thing to do and nobody would have thought of objecting. Including black people.