Blackface photo discovered in ASU yearbook edited by USA Today editor
USA Today editor Nicole Carroll has revealed that she, too, has a blackface scandal in her past when she was a yearbook editor at Arizona State University.
“It was recently brought to my attention that I was involved in publishing such a [blackface] photo when I was in college,” she wrote in her own paper Wednesday.
“The 1988-89 yearbook I edited at Arizona State University included a photo of two people at a Halloween party dressed as Mike Tyson and Robin Givens….It is horrible, and of course the photo should not have been published,” she wrote.
“Clearly the 21-year-old me who oversaw the book and that page didn’t understand how offensive the photo was. I wish I had,” Carroll, who was just named editor-in-chief of the newspaper in 2018, continued.
“Today’s 51-year-old me of course understands and is crushed by this mistake…I want to apologize publicly. As journalists, we must hold ourselves accountable as we do others, and it is important to call myself out for this poor judgment.”
The editor’s admission follows a string of scandals in Virginia that has generated discussion across America about race.
The yearbook photos were discovered by her own newspaper in a new examination/investigation of 900 yearbooks.
Read Carroll’s full apology via a USA Today OP-ED here.