Virginia.
It's a state that used to be known for things like slavery,
plantations and being the capital of the Confederacy,
but now, that proud history is being tainted
by accusations of racism.
Over the past week,
a series of blackface scandals have plagued senior officials
in Virginia, and in the face of calls for him to step down,
Governor Northam sat this weekend
with an actual black person to make his case.
Did you ever think about resigning
when the drumbeat became so loud?
And by the way, they're still beating for you to step down.
Yes, I have thought about resigning,
but-but I've also thought about what Virginia needs right now.
-Mm-hmm. -And I-I really think
that I'm in a position where-where I can take Virginia
to the next level, and it-it will be very positive.
What a baller way to keep your job.
I mean, that's like... that's how you stay in office,
but there's really no other job
where you can pull that move, right?
Can you imagine working at Wendy's,
they're trying to fire you, and you're like,
"Yes, I was taking money from the cash register,
"but I think what Wendy's needs right now
"is for me to stay on the job and help us all heal
from this epidemic of workplace theft."
Be like, "But nobody else is stealing."
"You see? It's working already.
We're all healing. That's why I got to stay."
(laughter)
But, okay, fine.
Northam says he should keep his job
because he's learned his lesson.
The question is, what exactly has he learned?
Governor Ralph Northam now says
his blackface scandal serves a higher purpose.
He says he's learned from it,
and that he wants to spend the rest of his time
in office focused on racial issues.
WOMAN: Advisors have assigned him to read Roots,
and "The Case for Reparations,"
uh, The Atlantic article by Ta-Nehisi Coates,
and that he's doing this whole sort of reinvention of himself.
I was born in white privilege, and that has implications to it,
and it is much different the way a white person
such as myself is-is treated in this country.
Whoa!
Someone's been studying hard at woke night school!
(laughter)
He's reading Roots, he's talking about white privilege.
I feel like, a week from now, Ralph Northam is gonna show up
in a dashiki, just being like,
"The blood of the white devil must run through the streets.
I now have the strength of the black panther!"
(laughter)
Now, look, you shouldn't have to read Roots
to know that blackface is wrong, right?
You can just watch the miniseries. It's way easier.
But still, credit to Northam for trying to learn and improve.
Although now, ironically,
he's learned so much about black history
that it's getting him into even more trouble.
If you look at Virginia's history,
we're now at the 400 year anniversary.
Uh, just 90 miles from here,
uh, in 1619,
the first indentured servants from Africa
landed on our shores
in Old Point Comfort, what we call now "Fort Monroe,"
-and while... -Also known as "slavery."
-Yes. -Yeah. Yeah.
Aah! (sucks in sharply through teeth)
Ooh!
Oh, poor Northam, man.
Seems like no matter what he says, he just makes it worse,
because almost almost everyone who saw that clip
had the same reaction as Gayle.
They're like, "Uh, indentured servants?
"It's a nice way to say 'slavery.'
"Like, what do you call blackface?
"'Extreme tanning,' huh?
"What do you call AIDS-- 'permanent flu'? Huh?
"What do you call a tsunami-- Aquaman in 3-D?
What is it?"
But now, to be fair to Northam, some historians do say
the first Africans to arrive in Virginia
were actually indentured servants, not slaves.
In fact, America had black and white indentured servants
before slavery became an all-black thing.
Yeah, it was basically like the NBA.
It used to be mixed, and then, they were like,
"Actually, black people are way better at this.
"Uh, we don't need the white people anymore.
Go play racquetball or something."
(laughter)
I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna lie.
One of the things that makes Northam so entertaining is
that he's like the Michael Scott of politics, right?
(laughter)
Every time... every time he tries to get out of a hole,
he just keeps digging himself deeper.
WOMAN: At a press conference nine days ago,
he raised more questions,
admitting to wearing shoe polish to darken his face,
impersonating Michael Jackson for a dance composition.
-That's right. -MAN: Are you still able to moonwalk?
Uh...
WOMAN: Inappropriate circumstances.
My wife says, "Inappropriate circumstances."
For many of us watching, it looked like
you were about to actually demonstrate the moonwalk.
Were you thinking about showing off your moonwalking skills?
-No. -No?
Because I don't have those, uh, at age 59.
No! What are you doing?!
What do you mean? The correct answer is,
"No, I was not going to moonwalk,
because I was in the middle of a blackface apology."
Not, "No, because I'm out of practice."
(laughter)
That's the wrong "no"!
It's like if your spouse asked you,
"Are you trying to poison me for the insurance money?"
You're like "What?! No!
"Poison would look too much like suicide,
and they don't pay for that!"
It's the wrong no!
So, look, the apology tour isn't going perfectly,
but I will say this.
At least it's an apology tour.
The question is now,
how do people in his state feel about him?
'Cause that's all that really matters.
And you'll be surprised to find out
that the numbers are not as black and white as you'd think.
A new poll by The Washington Post
and George Mason University in Virginia found
that Virginians are split
on whether Governor Northam should step down,
but 58% of African-American Virginians surveyed
said he should not resign.
I think they need to get up off him and let him do his job.
That's right.
In Virginia, a lot more black people than white people
believe Governor Northam should keep his job.
Huh? Which seems crazy...
but it actually makes sense.
It makes total sense.
Because think about it, to black people,
especially in Virginia, every white guy serving in office
has probably done some racist shit in their past.
So you might as well have a white guy
who has already been caught and feels bad about it. Yeah.
Because you know that guy's never messing up again.
And now he has a racism debt that he has to pay off.
And let me tell you, white guilt can be very useful, my friends.
Black people in Virginia can ask Governor Northam
for anything now-- better schools,
criminal justice reform, a holiday for Beyoncé's birthday.
A black person in Virginia could ask Northam
to pick him up from the airport, and he'd be like,
"I'll be there in 15 minutes."
(laughter)
-(applause) -So I don't think this is crazy.
If I were... if I were a black person in Virginia,
I would also want to keep Northam around,
because until his term is over, he's gonna be working every day
to pay black people back for what he's done.
And I know what you're thinking, you're like,
"What are you saying, Trevor? He's their slave?"
No, no, no. Not slave.
Indentured servant.