The word “racist” has come to have the same death appeal as “counterrevolutionary” did in revolutionary France, or its ideological child, the Soviet Union.
When you say “racist”, you have cast–or attempted to cast–that person from civilized society, without trial. To be accused in a conformitarian society of non-conformity is to be guilty. The accusation alone is sufficient.
When everyone orients on everyone, like a mutable pack of fish, everyone must turn at the same time, or their order–based upon perfect obeisance to the “General Will”, which is to say to whatever everyone else is doing–will evaporate, and it will become clear that no actual principle guides the thing at all.
I used to be a big fan of the French literary critic and theorist Rene Girard. He talks often about the mimetic–imitative–nature of much human behavior. If you look at old, traditional societies, everyone has their role, and if they don’t play their role, they are ostracized.
Where Western Civilization differs, and the reason it is dominant across the planet, is that we developed the social capacity to build behavior on PRINCIPLE, which can and should be deployed differently in different circumstances. We redeployed the nexus of perception and control from the habits of our ancestors, as passed on to us by our parents and grandparents, to our own interpretation of the principles they passed on to us, which could and did lead to many innovations in behavior and technology.
When the sharp knives come out at the mere mention of someone DIFFERENT–or, to the point, ACCUSED of being different–then this is atavistic. This is a return to the ethos of the literal lynch mob where, as an example, a black man had only to be ACCUSED of something to get the presumption of guilt.
So many supposedly educated people play these games. Rather than seek first to determine the facts of a matter, they go with their gut instinct–the herd instinct, the imitative reciprocity with people likewise doing no actual thinking–which is absolutely contrary to the best elements in our heritage.
Bigotry and prejudice are easy enough. They are shown daily be the Left. What is hard is transcending them in a principled way. This can only be done through the honest application of reason.
Since the broader context should be obvious enough, let me speculate with what is likely something close to the truth how Perry approached this hunting ground.
It is likely true that he had the rock painted over immediately. He presumably had early on political ambitions, and that is just bad politics. Since this thing is in the middle of nowhere, they just put one coat on and forgot about it.
As he drove new people in, they would pass the rock, and someone would say: “It looks like there’s something printed on that rock.” Perry would reply: “Yes, some dumbass named this area “Niggerhead”. I don’t know what the hell was going through his head. We painted it over, because it will sure as hell piss somebody off some day. I hope we get some rabbits today. . .”
Perry is, as I understand, in his third term as Texas Governor. No charges of racism have EVER been levied at him, to the extent of my knowledge. The case for the anti-Semitism and anti-white racism of Barack Obama is much, much stronger than any case for Perry. Obama sat weekly in a church for years and years where white people were specifically and viciously assaulted constantly. Wright is friends with Louis Farrakhan, who is also one of the nastiest racists out there.
Americans: do you deserve freedom? Do you? If you believe so, then learn to think.