The Yearbook is Forever

A few offensive reminders that yearbooks are forever have been in the news recently.

UNC officials condemned old photos from UNC-Chapel Hill’s 1979 yearbook that shows some students wearing blackface, white hoods and robes, and pretending to lynch another student. The school states that those pictures do not reflect on what the school is today.

One set of offensive yearbook pictures appeared on a page for the Chi Phi fraternity. The Daily Tar Heel editorial writer said the Chi Phi was throwing an “Old South” party, which was not uncommon among the Greek organizations in the seventies.

Another offensive photo that came to light recently involved the Governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam., He was discovered wearing a racist costume in his medical school yearbook from the 1980's.

The picture appears in a 1984 yearbook for Western Virginia Medical School. The picture had one person wearing “blackface” and another in the KKK’s signature white hood. Northam didn't say whether he was in “blackface” or the KKK’s signature white hood.