Talk:2019 Virginia political crisis

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 15 January 2020 and 22 April 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Laurenoneil82. Peer reviewers: Morganromero3, Lcordover.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 16:38, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

Timeline section

I think it would be helpful to add a timeline section to this article, but befoer I populate it, I think I want to brainstorm an outline. Feel free to edit the text in blockquote below.

• January 29 As Virginia approaches "Crossover week" (midpoint of legislative session),[1] a clip of exchange between Virginia Delegate Todd Gilbert and Virginia Delegate Kathy Tran regarding proposed Virginia abortion legislation patterned after New York's sweeping new abortion law [2] goes viral on conservative websites and draws concerns about implications of infanticide for third-trimester and "post birth" abortions. [3]
• January 30 comments by Northam about "post birth" abortions stoke additional controversy. The next day, Northam tells The Washington Post "I don't have any regrets"
• February 1, 2019 Big League Politics publishes Northam Blackface picture on Friday. Northam says he was one of the two people in the racist picture.
• February 2: Amid calls to resign by Fairfax and others, Northam says he won't resign, and that he was not in that picture, but he had donned blackface for a party where he dressed as Michael Jackson and appeared in a moonwalking contest. [4] [5] After this news conference on Saturday, Mark Warner, Bobby Scott, and Tim Kaine, and L. Douglas Wilder all call for Northam's resignation. [6]
• Virginia Democrats and Congressional Black Caucus call for Northam to resign [7]
• February 4: Big League Politics releases initial assault allegations about Justin Fairfax [8] and Fairfax denounces them as "a smear" [9]
• February 5 -- During the 2019 State of the Union Address, Donald Trump calls out governor Northam for late-term abortion comments but does not mention other scandals. [10]
• Feb 6
  • Mark Herring Blackface picture comes out.
  • Fairfax responds to first allegation. with a written statement [11]
• February 8 -- second allegation comes out against Fairfax
• Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at Virginia Union University and calls for Northam and Herring to resign. [12]
• February 9
  • Democratic Party of Virginia also for Fairfax’s resignation [13]
  • Del. Pope to initiate impeachment proceedings on Fairfax while neither Northam nor Herring intend to resign. [14]
• February 11 -- Many of Faifax's staff quit. [15]

Obviously needs to be cleaned up... Do y'all think this would be a helpful addition to the article? It is not as if all the scandals dropped at once, and it might be helpful for readers to understand the timing of it. Peace, MPS (talk) 15:49, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

I agree a timeline would be helpful to the reader. I also agree that the abortion legislation and associated controversies should be mentioned, but four bullet points seems excessive, it could probably be done in one that mentions Repeal Act (Virginia). Something like lighting up the Freedom Tower in New York City seems extremely irrelevant. There should be more resignation calls on the timeline, including the many Democratic presidential candidates. See also the USA Today timeline.--Pharos (talk) 16:31, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

thanks for the tip on Repeal Act (Virginia)... I updated my timeline to reduce the number of lines of infanticide controversy from four to two. Please feel free to add other calls for resignations... I just didn't have any lists or links to substantiate for this first draft. Peace, MPS (talk)

Personally, I'd like to see all of this information presented as prose in the actual article, but I have nothing against having a timeline as well. --Jpcase (talk) 17:43, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Reactions -> Background

i think the 'Reactions' section would be better as a 'Background' section and should include the extremely close 2017 Virginia House of Delegates election and also the Me Too movement.--Pharos (talk) 16:46, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Not opposed to a background section... but I think a reactions section is still relevant... Why not have both? A reactions section would refer to the national media attention that Virginia got... I think having a reactions section would include all the different people and organizations calling for resignations. Another way to do it would be table or something listing all the different calls for resignation for each candidate by date. Peace, MPS (talk) 17:21, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

We could indeed have both, but it looks to me like the current content of the 'Reactions' section looks like it would better belong in a 'Background' section.--Pharos (talk) 17:25, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Use of terms like "racism" and "racist"

Per WP:RACIST, it doesn't seem like we should be using terms like "racism scandal" in this article, unless we can attribute such a term to a specific source. I've removed this term from the article twice, and I don't want to be guilty of edit warring, so if it gets re-added, or if similar terms are added to the article, then I won't get involved (at least not today). I hope others can see my reasoning on this though. --Jpcase (talk) 18:59, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Agree that the specific edits you made are appropriate. We can still refer to race and racism in this article though, as that is part of the crisis and we have ample refs referring to how this crisis is at least partially associated with to race-based accusations and tensions in Virginia... e.g., Virginia's history of slavery... and the racial optics of removing a black man from office while two white men with history of wearing blackface are allowed to remain in office. Peace, MPS (talk) 21:55, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Agreed - race plays a big part of this, and it's certainly appropriate to say in the article that Northam's actions from 35 years ago have been widely condemned as racist. But potentially contentious terms like "racism scandal" should probably only be used if it's part of a direct quote. --Jpcase (talk) 22:38, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Orphaned references in 2019 Virginia political crisis

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of 2019 Virginia political crisis's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "abortion feud":

• From Repeal Act (Virginia): Alan Suderman (January 30, 2019). "Virginia abortion feud erupts; governor blasted for comments". Associated Press. Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
• From Ralph Northam: Alan Suderman (January 30, 2019). "Virginia abortion feud erupts; governor blasted for comments". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved January 31, 2019.

Reference named "GOP outrage":

• From Repeal Act (Virginia): Gregory S. Schneider; Laura Vozzella (January 30, 2019). "Abortion bill draws GOP outrage against Va. Gov. Northam, Democratic legislators". Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2019.
• From Ralph Northam: Gregory S. Schneider; Laura Vozzella (January 30, 2019). "Abortion bill draws GOP outrage against Va. Gov. Northam, Democratic legislators". Washington Post. Retrieved January 31, 2019.

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 06:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

•  Fixed wumbolo ^^^ 18:52, 17 February 2019 (UTC)

There could be more information on the perspective's of the three men involved in the 2019 Virginia political crisis. I think it would be interesting to note the consequences of the men besides being forced to resign. Lcordover (talk) 18:27, 4 March 2020 (UTC)