Gov. Ralph Northam (D., Va.) covered his face with a dark mask on Monday in an attempt to educate the public on measures aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus."I would advise everyone to wear a face-covering when they are out," Northam said at a press conference in Richmond.
Northam, who is best known for refusing to resign after revelations that he appeared in blackface in a photo in his medical school yearbook, evidently did not consider the optics of using a dark mask in his demonstration. The racist image came to light in 2019, but because Northam is a Democrat, the media outrage died down and he kept his job.
Virginia law prohibits citizens from concealing their faces. It's a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. The law is the result of 1950s legislation targeting the white-hooded Ku Klux Klan, the racist organization also featured on Northam's medical school yearbook page. Northam assured citizens that the law would not be enforced against people wearing surgical masks in light of the global pandemic.