Peniel Joseph is the Barbara Jordan Chair in Ethics and Political Values and the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is also a professor of history. He is the author of several books, most recently "Stokely: A Life." The views expressed here are his. View more opinion articles on CNN.

(CNN) The revelation that Virginia's Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam appeared either in blackface or dressed in the hooded robe and uniform of a Ku Klux Klansman in his 1984 medical school yearbook, coming at the start of Black History Month, has produced national controversy and calls for the governor's resignation by Democrats and Republicans.

Peniel Joseph

Northam is the latest high-profile figure to run into trouble over blackface -- the racist mimicking of African-Americans that dates back to the 19th century. Megyn Kelly and NBC News parted ways last year after she defended the right of whites to dress in blackface as having nothing to do with racism.

Minstrel shows caricaturized black life in antebellum America, with whites popularizing the myth of happy slaves. The afterlife of minstrelsy and blackface continued long after slavery, popularized by hundreds of "coon" songs which were based on racist stereotypes and were enjoyed by white audiences.

Gov. Northam's actions as a young man are both reprehensible and understandable given the nation's long-standing and powerful refusal to come to grips with the history of racial slavery and the subsequent 100-year epic of Jim Crow racial segregation.

Calls by Republican officials for his resignation are ironic considering the modern GOP's reluctance to admit to the existence of contemporary racism and their efforts to smear Northam's support for a bill loosening restrictions on late-term abortions in Virginia.

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