[Vision2020] [Spam 6.50] Re: Rick Perry's Newest Problem

[lfalen]

There is a squaw creek in Owyhee County. So far as I know the name hasn't changed.
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: Dave tiedye at turbonet.com
Date: Sun, 02 Oct 2011 19:05:58 -0700
To: Rosemary Huskey donaldrose at cpcinternet.com, vision2020 vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: [Spam 6.50] Re: [Vision2020] Rick Perry's Newest Problem

> I thought that all the creeks, bays, etc. have been renamed (at least in 
> Idaho). Due mostly to the work of a young lady from up north.  There was 
> an excellent story on it on Yin Radio on KRFP.
> 
> Dave
> 
> 
> On 10/02/2011 01:45 PM, Rosemary Huskey wrote:
> >
> > This must read article is a reminder not just of Rick Perry and his 
> > ilk, or our local defender of Southern Slavery As It Was, but also our 
> > "I am not a racist"  knuckleheaded neighbors who still find the term 
> > sq**w an appropriate name for a mountain or a creek right here in our 
> > very own private Idaho.
> >
> > Rose Huskey
> >
> > Posted by Chauncey DeVega 
> > <http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/chaunceydevega/> at 11:49 am
> > October 2, 2011
> >
> > http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/
> >
> >
> >   Rick Perry's Newest Problem: His Fond Memories of "Niggerhead" and
> >   Growing Up in a Sundown Town
> >
> > Posted by Chauncey DeVega 
> > <http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/chaunceydevega/> on @ 11:49 am
> >
> > Article printed from speakeasy: http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy
> >
> > URL to article: 
> > http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/
> >
> > It was a mostly white world. In 1950, the census counted about 900 
> > black residents out of a population of about 13,000 in Haskell County, 
> > numbers that have declined steadily. Most blacks worked as maids or 
> > field hands and lived in an across-the-tracks neighborhood in the city 
> > of Haskell, the county seat, about 20 minutes from Paint Creek.
> >
> > Throckmorton County, where the hunting camp is located, was for years 
> > considered a virtual no-go zone for blacks because of old stories 
> > about the lynching of a black man there, locals said. The 1950 Census 
> > listed one black resident in Throckmorton County out of a population 
> > of about 3,600. In 1960, there were four; in 1970, two; in 1980, none. 
> > The 2010 Census shows 11 black residents.
> >
> > Mae Lou Yeldell, who is black and has lived in Haskell County for 70 
> > years, recalled a gas station refusing to sell her father fuel when he 
> > drove the family through Throckmorton in the 1950s. She said it was 
> > not uncommon in the 1950s and '60s for whites to greet blacks with, 
> > "Morning, nigger!"
> >
> > "I heard that so much it's like a broken record," said Yeldell, who 
> > had never heard of the hunting spot by the river.
> >
> > And you wonder why black folks had to use /The Green Book/ 
> > <http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/01/15/news/a1-yugreenbook.txt> as 
> > a guide for safety while touring this country?
> >
> > Rick Perry's family retreat was/is named "Niggerhead." 
> > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/rick-perry-familys-hunting-camp-still-known-to-many-by-old-racially-charged-name/2011/10/01/gIQAOhY5DL_story.html> 
> > /The Washington Post's/ cover story is a distraction of course from 
> > more important issues such as a failing economy, Perry's questionable 
> > record on jobs and the environment in Texas, and a far-Right leaning 
> > Republican presidential field that would combine Ayn Rand with the 
> > Christian Taliban. But a distraction can still be instructive and 
> > productive.
> >
> > For the Left and other critics, Rick Perry's Niggerhead hunting camp 
> > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/the-power-and-pain-of-the-n-word/2011/10/02/gIQAjOeVFL_blog.html> 
> > is more proof that he is a racist and a bigot. For the Right, this 
> > story will be greeted as "gotcha politics" 
> > <http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/perrys-perpetually-playing-defense/2011/03/29/gIQAik0bFL_blog.html> 
> > and more bias from the "mainstream media." Lockstep, the Right-wing 
> > media will revert to form and argue that "all of this race stuff" is 
> > playing the "race card" against white people. Who cares anyway since 
> > Perry's dad was a Democrat and he originally owned Niggerhead anyway? 
> > Predictably, there will be more spin from Conservatives and a 
> > recurring blindness to political history, i.e. Southern Democrats aka 
> > "Dixiecrats" are now the base of the Tea Party GOP.
> >
> > And of course, black Republicans such as Herman Cain will be trotted 
> > out to dance on the stage while they answer questions about Rick Perry 
> > and racism.
> >
> > All in all, theatrics that are par for the course of what counts as 
> > reasonable discourse in the 24 hour opinion driven news cycle.
> >
> > I would suggest that Rick Perry's Niggerhead family retreat is 
> > important in so far as formative childhood and adult experiences 
> > impact political attitudes and beliefs. Rick Perry is from the Jim and 
> > Jane Crow South and has advocated for secession. He also panders to 
> > the Tea Party with all of their "take my America" pleadings and is 
> > part of a cultural movement that possesses an almost deranged hatred 
> > for the country's first black President. Racism and Conservatism 
> > overlap in America; the Conservative political imagination yearns for 
> > a return to the "good old days" and is blinded by a myopic White 
> > nostalgia for the past.
> >
> > In all, why should anyone be surprised that there is a Niggerhead 
> > skeleton in Rick Perry's closet? Moreover, I would bet that there are 
> > many Niggerhead skeletons in many white folks' closets in this country.
> >
> > We must also be cautious and not paint with too broad a brush, or 
> > suggest that Rick Perry is somehow unique in this regard. He is not 
> > alone in a willful denial of white supremacy and the Slaveocracy/Jim 
> > and Jane Crow/Confederacy's hold on American popular imagination even 
> > into the 21st century.
> >
> > The white racist Southern Redemptionist fantasy 
> > <http://www.amazon.com/Making-Whiteness-Culture-Segregation-1890-1940/dp/0679776206> 
> > and lie that is /Gone with the Wind/ 
> > <http://books.google.com/books?id=sh4gWmGfBm0C&pg=PA271&lpg=PA271&dq=southern+redemption+racism&source=bl&ots=WgY1yhHMGP&sig=FeqYbDSCby4vlEye_Lf-K1099qw&hl=en&ei=LaaITq-sDsmFsgL98aiMDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false> 
> > is still beloved by millions of people (all those happy black folks 
> > <http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/41.4/briley.html>; 
> > white people in big houses and fancy clothes; what good fun!). Lady 
> > Antebellum is an acclaimed musical group (where are the Auschwitz 
> > singers? Or the Trail of Tears emo band?). A significant percentage 
> > <http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/civil-war-still-divides-americans/> 
> > of Americans do not believe that the Civil War was fought over slavery 
> > <http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150569/what_shocking_new_polls_on_republican_attitudes_toward_slavery,_interracial_marriage_say_about_the_modern_gop/> 
> > and the rights of White people to hold Black people in perpetual 
> > bondage. The Whiteness of history is glaring. Rick Perry, as 
> > demonstrated by his love for Niggerhead, is just one of many Americans 
> > who are transfixed by it.
> >
> > Nevertheless, Rick Perry's Niggerhead moment is teachable history. For 
> > that reason it is important.
> >
> > Rick Perry grew up in a sundown town. As James Loewen exhaustively and 
> > masterfully documents 
> > <http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntowns.php>, there were 
> > thousands of these communities across the country where blacks (and in 
> > some cases Jews, Mexicans and other non-whites) were not allowed to 
> > live, journey through, or be present in after dark. These towns were 
> > often created by racial violence and the wholesale ethnic cleansing of 
> > non-whites through murder, forced exile, rape, banishment 
> > <http://www.banishedthefilm.com/>, theft, and violence.
> >
> > When we wonder why some neighborhoods look the way that they do, why 
> > there are no black folks or other people of color living there, or 
> > stand vexed by the intergenerational wealth gap in the United States, 
> > part of the answer lies in American Apartheid. Sundown towns were a 
> > key part of the Racial State's apparatus and how it structured the day 
> > to day lives of all people.
> >
> > Racial terrorism was a tool of economic exploitation. Because many in 
> > White America are loathe to acknowledge the power of structures and 
> > institutions as they cling to the lie that is the myth of meritocracy, 
> > Niggerhead is a reminder of lived history in the present. Yesterday 
> > wasn't even yesterday; it created the present terms of political, 
> > cultural, economic, and social engagement.
> >
> > While some Americans have a limited knowledge of the relationship 
> > between housing segregation and the maintenance of the colorline, 
> > fewer know about sundown towns and America's history of ethnic 
> > cleansing. This history hides in plain sight. It lives on in debates 
> > over the racialized names of rivers, towns, mountains, and other 
> > public places. It is present when real estate agents refuse to show 
> > people of color homes in certain communities. It is the ether and 
> > lifeblood of whitopia 
> > <http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_279181&v=WFWS5fk6MD8&src_vid=voFMec-M8VY&feature=iv>.
> >
> > Ignorance of race and racism's historic role in structuring life 
> > chances, and basic geographies such as where one lived, married, 
> > worked, and traveled, is especially common among the post-Civil Rights 
> > generation. This dynamic is especially true for Millennials who would 
> > be aghast at the reality of white supremacy as the norm for American 
> > history where their imagined multicultural moment is indeed an 
> > aberration--a very recent development--and one that works through 
> > conservative colorblindness as opposed to a deep and radical 
> > engagement with human difference, identity, justice.
> >
> > Rick Perry's Niggerhead moment will be a short-lived blip on the news 
> > radar. Niggerhead will confirm what his detractors already believe 
> > about Rick Perry. Niggerhead will encourage his supporters to circle 
> > the wagons and double down their support because their "culture" is 
> > under assault. Unfortunately, Niggerhead will be a missed opportunity. 
> > This could be a teachable moment where White Americans could choose to 
> > look in the mirror and see the collective ugliness looking back at 
> > them. Whiteness, for most people in America, and indeed the world, was 
> > the face of terror. It was ugly and not beautiful.
> >
> > Folks of all colors should know their shared history; instead it is 
> > easier to look away, make up fun fictions, and tell yourself easy lies 
> > and platitudes about "post-racial" America.
> >
> > Remember folks, there is a little Niggerhead in all of us...for some 
> > like Rick Perry, a good deal more than others.
> >
> > Editor and founder of the blog We Are Respectable Negroes which has 
> > been featured by the NY Times, the Utne Reader, and The Atlantic 
> > Monthly. Writing under a pseudonym, Chauncey DeVega's essays on race, 
> > popular culture, and politics have appeared in various books, as well 
> > as on such sites as the Washington Post's The Root and Popmatters.
> >
> >
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