Rick Perry's campaign is doing overtime damage control after a Washington Post article reported that the candidate's family owned a hunting camp with the word "Niggerhead" painted on a rock. Perry claims that his father replaced the word in 1983 or 1984, once the family began to lease the property. He is also claiming that he never owned the property himself.
"A number of claims made in the story are incorrect, inconsistent and anonymous, including the implication that Rick Perry brought groups to the lease when the word on the rock was still visible," he said. "The one consistent fact in the story is that the word on a rock was painted over and obscured many years ago."
There are others who disagree with Perry's account of recent events. Eye witnesses claim that the words were still visible as recently as this summer. Herman Cain has jumped out to challenge Perry on the issue, stating that he is "insensitive" for the way he has handled the controversy.
"There isn't a more vile, negative word than the 'n word,' and for him to leave it there as long as they did is just plain insensitive to a lot of black people in this country," Cain said on "Fox News Sunday."
Some believe that this could be a serious problem for the Republicans and also for the Perry campaign. Right now, Perry is close to Herman Cain as the GOP front runner, and this might be the issue that pushes Perry back a notch. With many wondering if Herman Cain can actually defeat President Obama, it could hurt the Republican Party overall.
"The issue is, how are the people who are still concerned about Rick Perry's ability to prevail against President Obama, concerned about his electability, going to take this?" political correspondent Jake Tapper said on ABC's "This Week." "There are Republicans in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, who don't want him on the top of the ticket because even if he beats Obama, he will hurt them with congressional candidates, and this feeds into their concern."
9 comments:
My only concern with this is that there are a bunch of rivers, streams, bluffs and sections of lands in Texas that have the N-word in their name. Most of these names date back to reconstruction. nothing has been done to change any of the names. So if you going to complain about this one, lets get all of them changed.
Brothers and sisters need to know that Republican merely means 'racist' and Democrat merely means 'subtle racist.' the bottom line is even though these two parties have different names they both still have the same 'culture.' A person's 'culture' over rules political affiliation, we need to know this! The US's political system was built on 'racism,' the only difference today is that other's have been allowed to 'participate' in a few ways but whites have the final word when it comes down to 'policies,' which is why we're still not where we should be. The foregoing has been proven on every 'bill' the first Black POTUS has signed off on.
Clearly this particular word and others like it over time became not uncommon when naming landmarks and cutting trails across America as it was settled. And yes, it is today offensive to most modern Americans to see those words which still exist. Chinese, Native American and Japanese immigrants still see reminders of past prejudice, too. Maps are being amended, names are being officially changed. That's all good, and long overdue.
But the big difference about this case is the word 'NIGGERHEAD", painted in big bold letters at the entrance to Perry's lease, in plain sight of all who entered. Anyone visiting would have to stop at that spot to open the cattle gate That is why the timing of when the offensive sign was painted over is crucial to judging his actions on this matter. If it was painted over 20 years ago as Perry's camp claims it is not too big an issue to me. However, if it was not painted over until recently, as several locals claimed in the WashPost piece, it is a VERY big deal to me because it proves three things: Perry is one of those two-faced conservatives who on the inside are just old-school racists like their daddies, Perry was proud to flaunt his racism to his every guest when he brought them to visit, and Perry is a profound liar.
Mr. Cain is clearly aware of the Party to which he has Pledged His Alligence. To Pretend that this is a surprise from a party that has completely and continue to say Racist comments about not only our President, his wife and his children, nooses, sambo pancakes, blatant racist names, then the apologies,
Rremember Mark Halperin Time Magazine, however, TIME Magagine never once repremanded, they said it wasn't necessary, no surprises here, and MSNBC continues, Morning Joe to have his Great Friend On frequently
Cain Sat By while his party Booed a Gay Soldier from Afganistan
Cain Sat By while his party Booed a Dying 30 year old man while the Crowd Screamed "Let Him Die"
Cain Sat By through all the mocking, pictures, degrading, comments of his own people
Yet he wants us to believe that he is really surprised about Rick Perry Horribly Named Hunting Camp?
Mr. Cain, sorry Black America or other Americans are simply not Brain Washed
You Are if you expect us to believe you are really Surprised!
Mr. Cain you are well aware of who you are running with!
Is anyone here actually aware of what a "niggerhead" is? Its actually an old riverboat colloquialism, it was used in the 19th and early 20th century by riverboat sailors from the Ohio river to the Hudson. From the Delaware to the Mississippi..... what is a "niggerhead"? After storms or the spring thaw, flood waters wash trees, limbs and logs into the Rivers. Now, most logs float horizontally making them easier for boat pilots to spot, but a very few become heavier on one side, causing them to float vertically, (hence the name) sometimes bobbing at or just below the surface. They are a tremendous navigational hazard and have speared many wooden hulled vessels.
How do i know all this? I was a trained boat pilot, and when i was being trained, the old ships master told me as i took the helm, "Keep a sharp eye for the Niggerheads son." without a single blink....
Why is it ok for a black man to call another black man the n- word, but if it involves a white man it becomes a racist remark? Can anyone explain this?
Do not be offended by a mere word, it is this offense that keeps prejudice alive. Slavery has been abolished for quite some time now in this country, it is time to get over it and move forward. I will not hold this rock against Perry, there is plenty enough other reasons not to give him the power to command a nation.
Although this name is unfortunate and I am sorry it offends, I am still elated about this. Why you ask? Well if it serves as an albatross around this right wing idiots neck it just makes me happy. I sincerely hope we don not wind up with a GOP candidate for POTUS in 2012. I am thrilled to see this shining example of what the GOP "really" stands for exposed to the public; hope it hurts them in the election. Lastly, I may not always agree with Obama, but I am certainly glad he is prez. To me his election was another nail in the coffin for racism. And fwiw this comment is being written by a white man.
For those of you he ll bent on insisting on the "innocence" of the word n--g-rhead, here are some visuals of how it used to be represented back in the day.
If you don't see the racism in them, it's because you don't want to. It's undeniable:
You must copy/paste the links into your web browser if you are unable to click them:
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRswEdg-AnvROeyUUVx-vQbt085uMd6lUJCSZqxs5CY-92gu1VS
(notice the BLACK man on the label?)
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSHw09BZ_eN21gAKuTOWsWMnD8nlnwTlmApSCnI9KlF1BX4Q6SMaA
(Notice the BLACK caricature? Do you see the racism yet?)
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQCLF5pd8HqEHdL44kUQjcdvtdsogZBO4_XeNNpmfcVvRXjlqE
(See the golf ball sitting on the BLACK character's head...being represented as a tee?)
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQAz3FFrOAvk8dJXV5db5yewu778dQR81j9fmU4e8n76MECVQZKuQ
(Do I REALLY have to say anything about that one?)
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSbl63wE0hZB2znkWAZduaww1GwujD1H9q5y7VNZ0jAtgBwipAT5Q
(Notice the label?)
If you don't see the racism in it, regardless of what WRITTEN definitions say, it's because you'd rather continue to deny the longstanding effects of racism in this country.
So many people trying to make it seem pretty and innocent...when all you see is a word definition, maybe. But once you get the visual representation OF some of those definitions, there's no denying they are ROOTED in racism.
Pass it around. And see if folk still wonder why a black constituency (or black folk period) would have a problem with a presidential candidate not taking such an issue with it as to REMOVE the rock from the property altogether.
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