WILL HE RECOVER?

Northam Plans to Refocus Agenda on ‘Race’: Report

The embattled governor is reportedly reading Alex Haley’s “Roots” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ essay, “The Case for Reparations,” as “homework.”

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who faces widespread calls for his resignation after a racist photograph was found on his medical school yearbook page, reportedly plans to recalibrate his agenda to focus on “race and equality.” Northam’s communications director, Ofirah Yheskel, told NPR the governor told his staff he has no plans to resign from his position—despite the revelation that a picture of a man in blackface and another in a KKK costume appeared on his medical school yearbook page. Sources told BuzzFeed the governor has tasked his staff with creating proposals that would make clear to Virginians that he’s “aware of inequity and the lack of justice faced by black Virginians” historically. Advisers are also reportedly attempting to set Northam up with a “nationally televised interview” to “humanize” him. Aides have also reportedly tasked Northam with reading Alex Haley’s Roots and Ta-Nehisi Coates’s essay, The Case for Reparations, as “homework.”