{"id":9981,"date":"2011-12-21T16:18:04","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T16:18:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenix.wordpress.com\/?p=9981"},"modified":"2011-12-21T16:18:04","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T16:18:04","slug":"rick-perry-and-race-haley-barbours-example","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2011\/12\/rick-perry-and-race-haley-barbours-example\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Perry and race: Haley Barbour\u2019s example"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By Jonathan Capehart<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) has a Barbour problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

As with Perry, there was a time when folks were clamoring for Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) to get into the race for the GOP presidential nomination. He\u2019s a powerhouse fundraiser who thrilled both the conservative and establishment wings of the Republican Party. But Barbour had a problem.<\/span> A race problem<\/a>. So much so that The Post\u2019s Karen Tumulty reported<\/span><\/a> last March that \u201cBarbour .\u2009.\u2009. is considering giving a major speech on the subject. The likely venue: a 50th anniversary reunion of the Freedom Riders, set for late May in Jackson.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbour scrubbed the presidential run. And one of the reasons could be that he couldn\u2019t find a persuasive way to discuss race, the civil rights era and his place in it. Before he pulled the plug on his Oval Office ambitions, GQ<\/span><\/a> asked a longtime friend of the governor\u2019s if Barbour could pull off such a do-or-die high-wire act. \u201cI wish I knew, I wish I knew,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know. He\u2019s smart enough to know, and if there\u2019s a way to figure it out he will..\u2009.\u2009. But if he hasn\u2019t figured out how you overcome it, or pretty well minimize it, in my opinion he won\u2019t run.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Perry now confronts the same problem Barbour did. If he can\u2019t come to terms with it, Perry should do what Barbour did: Abandon his White House bid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perry talked about the \u201cNiggerhead\u201d controversy for the first time in an<\/span> interview<\/a> with Fox News correspondent Juliet Huddy that aired last night.<\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/video.foxnews.com\/v\/1202819427001\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com<\/a>PERRY:<\/strong> All of us agree that the word that was on that rock is a very offensive rock and a very offensive word. At the moment we had to move to paint over that rock, we did.<\/span><\/p>\n

HUDDY:<\/strong> Why are people coming out and saying \u2014 the ones who are saying, \u201cWell, wait a second, we’ve seen it \u2014 we’ve seen that word. We saw that word there over the last several years\u201d?<\/span><\/p>\n

PERRY:<\/strong> I think there were some very much and strong inconsistencies and just infactual [sic] information that was in that story. I know for a fact in 1984 that rock was painted over. It was painted over very soon.<\/span><\/p>\n

HUDDY:<\/strong> And your family did that?<\/span><\/p>\n

PERRY:<\/strong> My family did that. We painted over that rock, and it stayed that way. I have no idea where or why people would say that they had seen that rock, because that’s just not the fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still not good enough.<\/span><\/p>\n

As The Post reported Monday, Perry has a<\/span> complicated record on matters of race<\/a>. He appointed the first African American to the state Supreme Court. And then made him chief justice. Perry\u2019s pick for the Texas A&M Board of Regents became his alma mater\u2019s first black chairman. But the<\/span> \u201cNiggerhead\u201d controversy<\/a> is one in a series of troubling revelations about the long-serving Lone Star governor.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was the<\/span> racially tinged campaign<\/a> for state agriculture commissioner in 1990. There was the 1991<\/span> he-said-he-said<\/a> involving the N-word, a Perry deputy and two businessmen seeking a loan from the agriculture department. And then there\u2019s Perry\u2019<\/span>s embrace of the Confederacy<\/a>. He has supported allowing the Confederate flag to fly on state buildings. He opposed efforts to remove Confederate monuments, plaques and memorials from public property. Salon\u2019s Justin Elliot detailed<\/span> \u201cPerry\u2019s confederate past\u201d<\/a> in a July report that included this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cA 1998 voting guide published by a leading neo-Confederate group and obtained by Salon not only endorses Perry for lieutenant governor but also describes him as \u2018a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.\u2019 Perry\u2019s office did not respond to a request for comment about the governor\u2019s possible membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans.\u201d<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the folks over at American Bridge 21st Century, a progressive research group that focuses on the words and deeds of Republicans, brought to my attention a 2007<\/span> Associated Press story<\/a> about a celebration of Perry\u2019s second full term as governor that featured musician Ted Nugent \u201cwearing a cutoff T-shirt emblazoned with the Confederate flag and shouting offensive remarks about non-English speakers..\u2009.\u2009.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Barbour was dogged by similar race problems when he was considering a run for the Republican nomination. \u201cTo me, it\u2019s a sort of feeling that it\u2019s a nit that it is not significant, that is not, uh, that is trying to make a big deal out of something that doesn\u2019t amount to diddly,\u201d Barbour said when asked about the controversy surrounding Virginia\u2019s Confederacy history month proclamation that made no reference to slavery. \u201cI just don\u2019t remember it as being that bad,\u201d Barbour told the Weekly Standard when discussing the civil rights movement as experienced in Yazoo City, Miss. \u201cYou heard of the Citizens Councils? Up north they think it was like the KKK. Where I come from it was an organization of town leaders,\u201d he continued in the same interview. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a problem with the Klan in Yazoo City.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But at the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides in May, Barbour not only spoke to the veterans of that seminal moment in civil rights history. He<\/span> apologized<\/a> to them on behalf of the state of Mississippi.<\/span><\/p>\n

On behalf of the state and the people of Mississippi it is .\u2009.\u2009. my honor to welcome you to the 50th anniversary celebration of the Freedom Rides. To the Freedom Riders, yourselves, our state does celebrate and thank you for your courage, your commitment, your sufferings and your sacrifices of 50 years ago. We apologize to you for your mistreatment in 1961, and we appreciate this chance for atonement and reconciliation.<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Perry ought to find a way to talk honestly and persuasively about race from his perspective that seeks to explain and heal. That\u2019s what President Obama did to great effect when his 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination was almost derailed by the incendiary sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. If Perry can\u2019t or won\u2019t address these serious and legitimate concerns he should get out of the race, as Barbour did.<\/span><\/p>\n

Race and racism must not be ducked by anyone who aspires to be president of the United States. Perhaps Perry will be more expansive at The Post-Bloomberg debate on Tuesday in New Hampshire than he was in that Fox News interview. His relative silence now speaks volumes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jonathan Capehart Gov. Rick Perry (R-Tex.) has a Barbour problem. As with Perry, there was a time when folks were clamoring for Gov. Haley..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[149,190,166,18,43,84,97],"tags":[197,357,227,350,355],"class_list":["post-9981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-discrimination","category-elections","category-government","category-history","category-media-culture","category-statements","category-us-news","tag-imperialism","tag-racism","tag-racist-oppression","tag-united-states-history","tag-videos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/t1larg.sept22.perry_9981_bb28e.jpg?fit=640%2C360&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}