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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.<br>
<br>
Dave<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/02/2011 01:45 PM, Rosemary Huskey wrote:
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;">Rose Huskey<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;">Posted by <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/chaunceydevega/"
title="Posts by Chauncey DeVega">Chauncey DeVega</a> at
11:49 am<br>
October 2, 2011<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/">http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<h1 style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">Rick
Perry’s Newest Problem: His Fond Memories of “Niggerhead” and
Growing Up in a Sundown Town<o:p></o:p></h1>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><span style="display: none;">Posted by <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/author/chaunceydevega/"
title="Posts by Chauncey DeVega">Chauncey DeVega</a> on @
11:49 am<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><span style="display: none;">Article printed from
speakeasy: <span class="url"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy">http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"><span style="display: none;">URL to article: <span
class="url"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/">http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2011/10/02/rick-perrys-newest-problem-his-fond-memories-of-niggerhead-and-growing-up-in-a-sundown-town/</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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!”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">“I heard
that so much it’s like a broken record,” said Yeldell, who had
never heard of the hunting spot by the river.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">And you
wonder why black folks had to use <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2010/01/15/news/a1-yugreenbook.txt"><em><span
style="color: blue;">The Green Book</span></em></a> as a
guide for safety while touring this country?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;"><a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="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">Rick
Perry’s family retreat was/is named “Niggerhead.”</a> <em>The
Washington Post’s</em> 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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">For the
Left and other critics, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/therootdc/post/the-power-and-pain-of-the-n-word/2011/10/02/gIQAjOeVFL_blog.html">Rick
Perry’s Niggerhead hunting camp</a> is more proof that he is
a racist and a bigot. For the Right, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/post/perrys-perpetually-playing-defense/2011/03/29/gIQAik0bFL_blog.html">this
story will be greeted as “gotcha politics”</a> 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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">All in
all, theatrics that are par for the course of what counts as
reasonable discourse in the 24 hour opinion driven news cycle.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">The <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.amazon.com/Making-Whiteness-Culture-Segregation-1890-1940/dp/0679776206">white
racist Southern Redemptionist fantasy</a> and lie that is <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="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"><em><span
style="color: blue;">Gone with the Wind</span></em></a>
is still beloved by millions of people (all those <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/41.4/briley.html">happy
black folks</a>; 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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/04/12/civil-war-still-divides-americans/">significant
percentage</a> of Americans do not believe that the <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/150569/what_shocking_new_polls_on_republican_attitudes_toward_slavery,_interracial_marriage_say_about_the_modern_gop/">Civil
War was fought over slavery</a> 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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">Nevertheless,
Rick Perry’s Niggerhead moment is teachable history. For that
reason it is important.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">Rick
Perry grew up in a sundown town. As <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntowns.php">James
Loewen exhaustively and masterfully documents</a>, 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, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.banishedthefilm.com/">banishment</a>,
theft, and violence.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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
<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_279181&v=WFWS5fk6MD8&src_vid=voFMec-M8VY&feature=iv">whitopia</a>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0% white;">Remember
folks, there is a little Niggerhead in all of us…for some like
Rick Perry, a good deal more than others.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;">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.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: none repeat scroll 0% 0%
white;"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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