Peniel Joseph, professor of public affairs, Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD), spoke with NPR's Lynn Neary about the controversy surrounding both the blackface photo in the medical school yearbook of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and the story told by actor Liam Neeson admitting that he went looking to kill an innocent black man after a friend was raped 40 years ago. Both men denied they were racist, creating the latest incident of the strange phenomenon of racism without racists.
"We live in a world of anti-black racism but really no individuals who want to say, yes, proudly, I am a racist, or I have these terrible feelings towards black people," Joseph said.