USA Today’s rigorous search for blackface in old yearbooks exposed the shameful past of one of its own editors
In recent months, politicians on both sides of the aisle have been swept up in scandals over their youthful dabbling in blackface — the practice of white people darkening their skin to portray racist stereotypes of African-Americans.
USA TODAY wanted to know just how widespread this offensive practice has been, so they went through 900 yearbooks from the 1970s and 80s, and found a disturbing amount of students posing in blackface, KKK robes, and even staging mock “lynchings” — and the practice was by no means limited to schools in the South.
Perhaps the most astonishing moment, however, came when they stumbled across an image in one yearbook at Arizona State University, depicting a couple dressed in blackface as Mike Tyson and Robin Givens. The editor of that yearbook was none other than USA TODAY editor-in-chief Nicole Carroll.
Carroll, who swears she has no recollection of including the image, penned a mortified apology in her paper.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/usa-todays-rigorous-search-for-blackface-in-old-yearbooks-exposed-the-shameful-past-of-one-of-its-own-editors/