[Vision2020] Rick Perry's Newest Problem

Mon Oct 3 11:44:10 PDT 2011

Ok... while we're cleansing our vocabulary, let's get rid of
"Spic-N-Span", Saltine Crackers, any references to rice or the color
yellow, towels, any pictures or references to Aunt Jemima, the logo of
"Land-o-Lakes Butter", and "Gringo Killer" (at our local Sangria
restaurant).

The smug guy on the front of "Quaker Oats" canisters also causes me to
cringe.

This was just off the top of my head.

I'm only luke-warm to Rick Perry... I do my typical quiet eye-roll when
politicians get too preachy... but the article Rosemary Husky put forth,
if taken at face value for the facts, basically doesn't to a lot to
crucify Rick Perry as a racist or bigot... even though the article(s)
and LINKS make it sound like Rick Perry is leading a charge against the
black community with the KKK protecting his flank... 

If you follow each of the links in the article (even the most seemingly
damning one of 'Rick Perry's family retreat was/is named "Niggerhead"'),
the most you really get is a story about how Rick Perry's *father* (note
use of liberally sensitive asterisks instead of capital letters) coming
into some land...  and as soon as he was legally able (in 1983 or so),
had the offensive word "Niggerhead" painted over on the rock on which it
was planted.  Beyond that, it seems that when hints of the title were
reappearing through the paint, Rick Perry (or someone in his family) had
the rock simply turned over.

The rest of the story, as well as the linked stories that (shamefully)
allude to some sort of racist smoking gun, are nothing but people
speaking on terms of anonymity, or stories from folks where Rick Perry
grew up, talking about how life used to be, or people recalling how they
themselves referenced the landmark, and how recently.

Seems like a pretty small bandwagon to support that much weight.

On an unrelated note... I also think it's interesting that in the past
few emails, I've seen the word "fuck" and "shit" dropped without anyone
saying a word (and I welcome the frankness, don't get me wrong).

But in that same light, we also have folks dancing around with 'uses two
'g's to spell the words African descent', and 's*****' because they are
so afraid of actually even saying the word "nigger" or "squaw".

Jay

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Donovan Arnold
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2011 10:13 AM
To: Paul Rumelhart; Tom Hansen; Kenneth Marcy
Cc: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Rick Perry's Newest Problem

Paul,

So what you are saying is that there is nothing wrong with the name of a
mountain that uses two gs to spell the words African descent, there is
just something wrong with people that are offended by it?

I disagree. I think the whole point of literacy, including cultural
literacy, is not to continue to repeat the same mistakes as our
predecessors. It is not about who has the thickest skin, it is about not
following the ideas and ways of those with the thickest skulls. 

Donovan Arnold

From: Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com>
To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>; Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com>
Cc: "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Monday, October 3, 2011 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Rick Perry's Newest Problem

My sometimes roundabout way of making a point isn't endearing me to some
of the readership out there in Viz-land, so I'll just come out and make
my point.  Which is that almost everything is offensive to someone on
some level, and those things that are not currently offensive may become
offensive in the future because language and culture changes.  We have
two choices as I see it - either we whitewash everything to the point
that we might as well not have mascots or place names more descriptive
than "Idaho Creek 1347", or we grow a thicker skin and not get so worked
up about these kinds of things.  

Paul

From: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>
To: Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com>
Cc: "vision2020 at moscow.com" <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Monday, October 3, 2011 9:08 AM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Rick Perry's Newest Problem

Mr. Rumelhart -

If victims of bear/cougar attacks or descendants of fourth- or
fifth-century Roman ancestry feel disrespected by the University of
California (Berkeley) mascot . . . or the Washington State University
mascot . . . or the University of Idaho mascot . . . like us, they are
free to exercise their first amendment right and loudly (and proudly)
express their discomfort with those mascots.

Tom "not holding his breath" Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

On Oct 3, 2011, at 8:49, Kenneth Marcy <kmmos1 at frontier.com> wrote:

> On Monday, October 03, 2011 07:26:10 AM Paul Rumelhart wrote:
>> It makes you wonder if someday descendants of the people murdered by
an
>> ancient East Germanic tribe when they sacked Rome and Carthage might
>> someday look in horror upon a small college town in Idaho that had
the
>> gall to name their sports team after their killers.
> 
> The biggest problem with the Vandals sacking Rome is that they didn't
do it 
> often enough. It's too bad they didn't get to Nicaea and
Constantinople in the 
> century and a quarter prior to the Roman sack, as that may have
prevented a 
> lot of grief all around.
> 
>> Same thing with people that have been mauled by cougars or bears.
> 
> The descendants have less about which to complain in face of the
realities of 
> their ancient enemies being hunted and heated to extinction.
> 
> 
> Ken
> 
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