Over the last 72 hours, Texas Governor and Republican Presidential hopeful Rick Perry has been under a microscope after it was revealed that the Governor hosted friends at his family’s West Texas hunting camp, named “Niggerhead.”
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Now everyone from The View to Rush Limbaugh have been talking about Perry’s latest controversy, but the fact of the matter is, there have been over 100 places in American called “Niggerhead” so it’s not Perry’s fault that he hunted there.
But what we should question is why would Perry continue to use the camp site? Instead, he painted over a few signs, but does he think doing that made it better?
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The term “Niggerhead” is convoluted in itself, often used as slang by rescue swimmers and underwater divers, they define it as:
A slang for an isolated coral head, or any knob-like solitary protrusion, often semi-submerged, that’s a hazard to navigation. Also, naval slang for a small winch or capstan. Also, old reference in the British Navy for a mooring post made from a cannon, buried muzzle upright, that’s capped with a slightly oversized ball. Also, a large decorative knot, used to finish a special line or lanyard (such as suspended from the clapper of a ship’s bell); sometimes called “Turk’s Head.”
And according to the Washington Post, who original broke the Perry story, they define it as:
“The name ‘Niggerhead’ has a long and wide history. It was once applied to products such as soap and chewing tobacco, but most often to geographic features such as hills and rocks.”
Then there’s “Niggerhead” being used as a landmarks, for lakes, creeks and ponds. As in the case of the remote meadows and forests of upstate New York where state environmental scientists found a “Nigger Lake,” “Nigger Road” and “Nigger River.”
So here we have a word with three different connotations used at different times during the course of history.
So when Perry was a young man growing up in 1950s Texas, the word “Niggerhead” was probably used nonchalantly, which probably explains why Perry didn’t think anything of it, hunting there for so many years. This then, calls into question his judgment.
Perry will most likely bounce back from Niggerhead-gate, even President Obama has come back from being called an anti-American Muslim terrorist, right?
