Liberty University Adjunct Professor Resigns Over Jerry Falwell’s Blackface & KKK Mask

In normal times, this story would rock the evangelical world. As things stand, it barely registered. However, examining the situation, it is incredible that Jerry Falwell is still president at Liberty University.

On May 27, Falwell tweeted:

In response, one of Liberty’s online professors, Christopher House, resigned. Dr. House, an African-American pastor and scholar rejected Falwell’s justification for the tweet. His full explanation is at his Facebook page.

Yes, the picture on the mask was taken from Gov. Northam’s medical school yearbook. It is also true that Gov. Northam is many years removed from medical school and apologized for his participation in the photo. He also faced widespread condemnation from his own party with numerous calls for his resignation. He disavowed it and is obviously ashamed of it.

Thus, Falwell’s use of the pic is opportunistic. He knows Northam doesn’t stand by the photo, and he knows numerous Democratic leaders called for Northam’s resignation. His use of that photo is now on him. He has to own it because he chose to use it. About the mask, he said he “designed my own.” He chose to use a photo of blackface and a KKK hood to make his silly political point.

So here we are. A Christian college president used some of the most painful imagery for African-American people that can be used to make his point. Apparently, it doesn’t matter who he hurts, offends, or angers, Jerry Falwell, Jr., large and in charge, must express his opposition to the inconvenience of a little mask on his face.

Falwell might protest that he is attacking the racist Northam. This is bogus. Northam disavowed it and is attempting to atone for his sins. Falwell appears to be oblivious to the pain this causes. He sins to make a point that could be made in so many other ways. In fact, his actions have now obscured the point he wanted to make.

Clearly, Dr. House experienced pain from Falwell’s choice:

There is very little that one can teach in an Intercultural class that can be taken seriously by students who seek to engage in a meaningful cross cultural, bridge building and improving race relations in the world when the President of the very same institution draws upon images of racial terror for political expedience, and without regard for people who look like me who will have to deal with the very real, social, economic and physical implications of those negative stereotypes long after his post is removed (or not as such is the case).

Symbols of racism are just that: symbols of racism. They aren’t analogies for perceived slights by white people. A mask using painful images of racism isn’t — will never be — an appropriate advertisement for your political grievances.

Good for Dr. House. I wish him well.

17 thoughts on “Liberty University Adjunct Professor Resigns Over Jerry Falwell’s Blackface & KKK Mask”

  1. What we’re seeing here, with Falwell and Metaxas’s blackface tweets, is the result of three years of the Trump presidency. I have no doubt his continuous use of his bully pulpit to punch down with coarse and vitriolic attacks and his ever increasing grievances and sense of victimhood have enabled and emboldened people like Falwell and Metaxas to say things in public they would never have dared to say before.

    White nationalists and racists were saying exactly this after the Charlottesville protests. They might not believe Donald Trump is one of them when it comes to their white nationalist goals, but they are very aware of how much his rhetoric is helping normalize their white nationalist opinions. To quote the Crying Nazi himself, Trump is allowing them to tell young people, “It’s okay to be a racist.”

    Perhaps Trump has done us a service in helping expose the inner workings of the minds of these people, but if nothing changes for the better, I’m not so sure that’s the case.

  2. Falwell is a disgrace and Liberty University should be ashamed! They are a cruel, sad joke of a “Christian” institution!

  3. Not surprising if you think about the mentality of those who don’t want to wear masks. Esp. when they argue “masks don’t do any good.” This is true in the sense that masks don’t do much to help the wearer of the mask. Their primary benefit is in preventing the wearer from spreading the disease to others.

    So of course Falwell didn’t bother to consider the effect his mask may have had on others, as long as he got to make HIS point.

    1. Not surprising if you think about the mentality of those who don’t want to wear masks.

      As local morning drive-time put it:
      “NO GUBMINT CAN TELL ME WHAT TO DO! FREEDOM!”

      So of course Falwell didn’t bother to consider the effect his mask may have had on others, as long as he got to make HIS point.

      “THERE IS NO YOU,
      THERE IS ONLY ME!
      THERE IS NO YOU,
      THERE IS ONLY ME!
      THERE IS NO F’IN YOU,
      THERE IS ONLY ME!
      THERE IS NO F’IN YOU,
      THERE IS ONLY MEEE!”
      — Nine Inch Nails

          1. Meaning he wants to try to shift the story from the bad behaviour of Trump supporters to someone else.

          2. Meaning what exactly?

            Librul Media Fake News,
            Chinese COMMUNIST Virus Hoax,
            Librul Media Fake News,
            Chinese COMMUNIST Virus Hoax,
            Librul Media Fake News,
            Chinese COMMUNIST Virus Hoax,
            “HAIL TRUMP!!!!!”

          3. I suppose we will hear more and more of this kind of thing as the Trumpreich falls apart …

            Thank God for the strong regionalism in the politics of the United States: it is probably the best hope in the fight against the far right.

  4. Many people are saying that Jerry Junior’s pool boy is making the masks as a business venture….someone said to me, “Sir, did you know that Jerry Junior’s pool boy is producing those masks?” And then I heard lots of people talking about it……..

  5. I’m quite sure Republican Jesus smiled on juney when he came up with this one.

    1. The Jesus who is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GOP, itself a wholly-owned subsidiary of Trump, Inc?

  6. I’ll give Jerry Falwell, Jr. this much: by using a racist photograph that Gov. Northam has long since disavowed, and for which he has apologized, Mr. Falwell has left no doubt that he should be included on the roster of current racists in Virginia. He has sabotaged himself. Somehow, I am not surprised.

  7. Reminds me of the GOP conventioneers who sold and wore band-aids to mock John Kerry’s Purple Heart.

    Typical and disgusting.

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