By now we are all probably aware of the media flash-mob that has erupted over presidential candidate Rick Perry’s badly named hunting ranch leased plot near Haskell, Texas. There’s quite a story in the New York Times about it here.
Seeing the word used today, it reminded me of an odd experience in west Texas earlier this year where I heard the term used before. I had forgotten all about it until today. I hadn’t intended to write a story on this at all, but curiosity about that event led me down an interesting set of rabbit holes, so I thought I’d share what I learned about this ugly and offensive term and how surprising the wide and varied use of it is.
In the spring, I was at a conference/tradeshow in Oklahoma and Dallas where I showed some of our weather equipment. Reader may recall I blogged about the Japan earthquake and Tsunami while in a hotel room in Oklahoma City. The next week I was in Dallas. Shortly after the conference closed, I had the misfortune of driving along a stretch of lonely highway 82 between Dallas and Lubbock. I had to go through Lubbock because I needed to go to Muleshoe, TX, where there was an unsurveyed USHCN station I wanted to add to the surfacestations.org station database, and Muleshoe (only to discover later that Juan Slayton had added it already) was so that had to be my route so I could connect to Highway 388 which goes NW from Lubbock to Muleshoe, and then on to Fort Sumner NM where I wanted to verify a Google street view on an MMTS. My GPS, as GPS’s sometimes do had me going on some backroads, including Munday, TX which I thought had an odd name and I got turned around for a bit and found myself headed south on 277 to Haskell. Got that solved and headed west on 222 to connect to 82.
I found myself in a pickle when I reached Guthrie, TX because I was getting low on gas, and I hadn’t seen any gas stations. From the 82 bypass around Guthrie I spotted what looked to be a gas station, so I double back, took the exit and went into town. It was a gas station alright, long since closed and there was nothing else in town. I was afraid I’d find myself stranded in Guthrie. I was struck by the fact that I was in the middle of one of the biggest oil producing states, and there was not a drop of gasoline to be found. There was no cell service that would support web browsing on my phone either, so I couldn’t search for one.
So I drove around just a bit in Guthrie, until I spotted somebody I could ask. It was like a ghost town, but I finally found someone (actually they found me because parked and waited and he rode by on a bike) and I flagged the guy down and asked where I might find some gas. He thought a moment and said “There’s no gas here, nearest is either Ralls or Crosbyton”. I asked where those towns were and he said: “on 82 (pointing west) out past the niggerheads, and then past Dickens”. I said “What? Niggerhead? Is that a town? and he looked at me like I was from another planet (I didn’t tell him I was from California) and he said “no that’s the hills, you’ll see em, and then ya go through Dickens, and Crosbyton, and then Ralls. One of ‘em should have gas.”
I did find gas in Crosbyton, after driving west on 82 through the hills the man described which you can see here in Google maps.
The term “niggerheads” was puzzling and odd, but I figured it was just some local colloquialism, and I didn’t give it another thought…until today.
So after being bombarded with all the news stories about how offensive this term is, and noting that some of the same people doing reporting lambasting Perry over the name of a ranch called “niggerhead” have absolutely no trouble at all calling people like me and the readers of WUWT “deniers” (Think Progress, Rachel Maddow on MSNBC, among others) which is also an ugly and offensive term due to the connection to “holocaust deniers”.
So, I thought I’d see what I could find on it. I figured if it was some sort of local colloquial term when I heard it in Texas last spring, I’d find it in older books and maps.
So in my first Google search, amongst all the news stories about Perry, I found my first clue as to why I heard the term, in Wikipedia:
The term was once widely used for all sorts of things, including products such as soap and chewing tobacco, but most often for geographic features such as hills and rocks.[citation needed] In the U.S., more than hundred “Niggerheads” and other place names now considered racially offensive were changed in 1962 by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, but many local names remained unchanged.[1]
So that explained why the fellow I asked directions from used the term for the hills I’d drive through. The NYT article I cited above also mentions this.
I can understand how it is offensive, and I can certainly see removing it. But I think removing it is going to be a much bigger job than the bloodhounds in the mainstream media thinks. Just look at all the references to the word in science and engineering and geography:
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Nigger Head, an island in North Queensland, Australia
United States. Bureau of Fisheries – 1921 – Free Google eBook – Read
NIGGERHEAD GROUP. The shells of the niggerhead group distinguish themselves from all others of the Quadrula class by combining a … In buying mussels for button manufacture the price is often based upon the percentage of niggerheads.
Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen – 1911 – Free Google eBook – Read
One chamber casting (acting as a nigger head), is bolted centrally to the dry pipe in such a manner as to have the fingers … As the throttle is opened, steam is admitted through the dry pipe to the header which acts as a nigger head.
The vegetation of New Zealand – Page 157
books.google.com Leonard Cockayne – 1921 – 456 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
3- Niggerhead (Carex secta)-association. Here shock-headed masses of C. secta are dominant raised above the water on … Niggerhead -swamp contains many of the ordinary swamp-plants and many transitions occur between it and Phormium-
License my roving hands: poems and stories – Page 19
books.google.comJuanita Tobin – 2000 – 57 pages – Preview
NIGGERHEAD ROAD The squeaky, old doors have closed forever on a school, a drug store and train station with a telegraph office where matrimonial ads and baseball games were transmitted as well as business on the stock exchange and a …
International Association of Bridge, Structural, and Ornamental Iron Workers – 1905 – Free Google eBook – Read
THE MAN ON THE NIGGER HEAD. His legs are poor, he can’t go aloft, In the “bull” gang he is dead; But should the boss throw a line across He is first to the ” nigger head.” He keeps the line coiled neat and trim, But I have often heard it…
In the Alaskan wilderness – Google Books Result
books.google.com/books?id=BHUtAAAAYAAJ…George Byron Gordon – 1917 – Alaska – 247 pages
This is what is called nigger- head and muskeg in the language of the North. … on any map of Alaska), and prepared to do all the portaging ourselves. …
Highway to Alaska
books.google.com Herbert Charles Lanks – 1944 – 200 pages – Snippet view
16 Niggerhead and Horse Camp Lakes The next day I decided to explore ahead on foot, for there was no one in camp who seemed to know the condition of the road. They said that the last vehicle had got through way back in April, …
The Pennsylvania barn: its origin, evolution, and distribution in … – Page 263
books.google.com Robert F. Ensminger – 2003 – 348 pages – Preview
The development of the nigger head in central Pennsylvania was examined under ” Tying Joints and Bent Raisings” (see … The emergence of the nigger head may also result from a simplification of the double tie beam, which is commonly …
Journal of conchology: Volume 11 – Page 214
books.google.com Conchological Society of Great Britain and Ireland – 1906 – Free Google eBook – Read
Moreover the growth of the shells is very slow, the time required for a “nigger- head” to reach a size of three … The standard is the “niggerhead.” In 1897 the market value of this species in Muscatine ranged from 40 to 62 cents per …
The mineral resources of New South Wales – Page 402
books.google.com Geological Survey of New South Wales, Edward Fisher Pittman – 1901 – 487 pages – Free Google eBook – Read
There is another peculiar form common on the field, known as a nigger head. These nigger heads are usually oval or spherical masses of more or less opal- impregnated, fine grained silica ; they are of all sizes from 1 lb. to 1 cwt.,
California Place Names: The Origin and Etymology of Current … – Page 258
books.google.com Erwin G. Gudde, William Bright – 2004 – 460 pages – Preview
and Niggerhead Mountain [Los Angeles Co. ] (which probably reflect the now obsolete term “niggerhead” in the sense of … Note that the term “Niggerhead” in place names may refer not to the head of a Negro, but rather to a flanged drum …
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So clearly, the offensive term is well established in literature and placenames. It will take time and effort to remove it.
Remember the photo at the top of this story? Guess what the name of it was up until about a year ago.
Even politically correct California suffered (until recently) from a place called “Niggerhead Mountain” of which you can get an interactive map of right here at this link: http://californiamaps.org/place.php?county=Los+Angeles&feature=Niggerhead+Mountain
And while it still shows up in map databases, it too has recently been renamed:
History professor works to rename mountain in Los Angeles
Thanks to the work of a Moorpark College history professor, a Southern California mountain will be renamed to honor the man who first settled in the area and erase the original racial slur.
Good for him, it is the right thing to do. But it just goes to demonstrate that the current inhabitants of a place often get stuck with unfortunate names of the past, and that doesn’t necessarily make somebody who lives by that mountain in Los Angeles county a racist.
It also doesn’t make the people of Queensland, Australia, who have an island named “niggerhead”, racist. Wikipedia says:
Nigger Head is a small island in the Northern part of Shelburne Bay in far north Queensland, Australia about 30km North of Cape Grenville, Cape York Peninsula in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Queensland, Australia.[1] It is so named because it is an isolated coral outcrop; such outcrops were previously known as Niggerheads by British sailors.
And here it is, currently in the Australian Government Geoscience page:
I wonder if any Australian political candidates ever go fishing or diving near that island? Wow, wouldn’t that be a bombshell?
So clearly, with all the citations of “niggerhead” I found in books, maps, placenames, and professional journals, there’s a lot of work to do to erase the ugly and insensitive term. There’s also a lot of places where the term is used and there’s no outrage (yet).
In light of this, I think we all should cut Rick Perry some slack, because the one presidential candidate who would be the most offended by the term, Herman Cain, isn’t. From CBS News:
Cain said he is “done with that issue,” making the following comment in response to reporters’ questions: “Was I satisfied with Governor Perry’s explanation about the name of the ranch where he went hunting? And I said, ‘Yes I am. Next question.”
I suspect Perry told him some of the same things I learned about placenames and geography.
Now if we can just get those same reporters in the MSM to stop labeling skeptics with another ugly and offensive term “deniers” like Andy Revkin’s recent NYT story where he even goes so far as to promote a map, “A Map of Organized Climate Change Denial“, I and many others will feel far less offended.
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Note to commenters and moderators – I will NOT tolerate anything offensive related to this story in comments. All such responses will be deleted. – Anthony
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In Oklahoma, a common low-growing thistle with big round burrs was called niggerheads.
My father told a story about how his parents kept him in the yard by clever mowing. The middle part of the yard was kept clear, and the niggerheads (which wanted to grow everywhere) were left around the edge. Since he was always barefoot when outside, he quickly learned to stay in the yard. No discipline needed!
My last reply vanished, likely because I used the H-word. ( A German leader who caused great misery 1939-1945)
I remember from my youth in the 50s that the term was also used to refer to a variety of yam.
Where I come from , in England, there is still widespread prejudice against those ..(well the word has an ‘n’ an ‘i’ a ‘g’ another ‘g’ an ‘e’ an ‘r’ and an ‘s’)
we just dont like gingers around here…. except that bloke from Harry Potter
Peter Jackson is currently remaking the film The Dambusters in which Guy Gibson’s dog Nigger is knocked down and killed prior to the raid. His pets name was also the codeword for the succesful breaching of one of the dams.
Now I agree that such words should not be used and I’m fairly sure that the RAF would not allow it today but in Jackson’s film the word is replaced by “Digger”. PC yes but in other ways I feel that by changing history in this way we are denying the fact that such history existed and as such future generations cannot learn from it.
Gibson was a man of his times a world where calling a black lab “Nigger” was perfectly acceptable to the large majority of the population, denying this does a dis-service to those it really offends because we are saying, “it didn’t happen”.
As a retired English teacher, I find it offensive to read the widespread nonsense about the fine old word “niggardly.” The word has nothing to do with race, but means “stingy, parsimonious, ungenerous, tight, selfish (with possessions or money)” and the like. It is in many cases the best word for the concept; some of the synonyms are too informal (stingy), pretentious (parsimonious), or inexact. Those who do not know how to use a word are in no position to criticize others who do know.
There’s a mountain in Alberta, just near Banff, that I grew up knowing as Chinaman’s Peak. Apparently it was honoring someone from all the way back in 1896.
That was deemed an offensive name and it’s now Ha Ling Peak.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha_Ling_Peak
I always thought it was a ridiculous piece of PC gone wild. At the time the mountain was named in his honor, it was a completely neutral term. Might as well have been Englishman’s Peak… does that offend anyone?
I’ve been reading through the James Bond novels, and the term niggerhead is used frequently in several of them refering to a piece of reef that is just awash at the surface. I wonder if it’s been changed in modern reprints…
Neat story, Anthony. I’ve driven, and ridden, through there countless times, never knew that even had a name there, much less what it is. I live west of Lubbock, in the geographically interesting town called Levelland (full HA at that one!). Next time you’re in the area, would love to buy you a beer, for all that you’ve done.
(This is a test, to see if my reply gets through if I remove the H-word.)
RE: “Like the word denier, these words carry an enormous power to hurt and offend…”
The power only exists if you give it to the offender.
All my life I have been called a “Yankee.” I have been told “Yankee go home,” in many lands, including “Dixie.” Being told to “go home” hurts, but the word “Yankee” never bothered me.
I went to an all-boy school in Scotland for a year, and the teasing was ruthless. It was referred to as “baiting,” and was part of a toughening-up process invented by boys for boys. (In a world where parents basically get rid of you, it does no good to be overly sensitive and to miss mother.)
I was given a number of offensive nicknames, including “Wankee Yankee,” but annoyed everyone by remaining serene and untroubled. Then, in the showers after a rugby match, it was noticed that my butt was light yellow while everyone else’s was white as suet. I explained this might be because I was one sixteenth Indian. My nickname immediately became the N-word.
After being baited for a week it finally got to me. During “prep,” ( a period when you are suppose to quietly do homework,) I turned beet red, broke into a sweat, trembled, and grabbed my tormenter and plunged him butt-first so deeply into a big waste paper basket that his knees were by his ears and he couldn’t get out.
That made the other fellows more cautious about using that nickname, and it also taught me that I am not so tough, and can be hurt. However I did not think I should remain so sensitive, and have a fit every time I was baited. (Even if you bully to a degree where no boy dares use a nickname to your face, boys are very crafty about using notes, graffiti and scrawled comics to get you riled up.)
Eventually I looked deep within myself and saw things about myself. Without boring you with the details of my introspection, I got to a place where I simply wasn’t so sensitive about getting called the N-word.
Now I think it is a bit pathetic when people are so indignant about being called names. So what if I am called, “Denier?” Churchill was called “War Monger” for saying (H-word) was dangerous. He was called that from 1932 straight through to 1939. It did not make him suck his thumb and run home to Mommy.
Words can’t hurt you unless you have a vulnerability. It pays to look hard at what that vulnerability is, and to think hard about whether you actually are ashamed about anything. Then get over it.
I’ll bet it doesn’t bother Hansen at all to be nicknamed, “Handcuffs.” He likely takes pride, and even swaggers a little. Mann, on the other hand, completely loses it and wants to sue everyone in sight at the drop of a hat, likely because deep down he has a huge vulnerability.
John Masefield, poet laureate, wrote in his poem Spanish Waters:
We anchored in Loss Muertos when the dipping sun was red,
We left her half a mile to sea, to west of Nigger Head…….
Also that niggerhead coral these days is referred to as brain coral.
Masefield, Conrad and co would be sad about the change but certainly respect it.
Originally the word nigger meant black.
Any word can be offensive if the reason for saying it was to give offence.
Interesting. When I removed the H-word my comment appeared as “awaiting moderation.” Perhaps the H-word is as bad as the N-word.
People are people. You cannot legislate spirituality. If people are fed up and want to offend you, they will find a way.
If PC talk gets power, and we all wind up bullied by the hate-crime police, people will just talk in code. Someone will walk up to you and say, “You Q-word, Z-word, F-word, P-word!” Then you will burst into tears.
In the eastern US it was common for coal miners to refer to chunks of Pyrite that had to be separated from the crushed coal as ‘niggerheads’.
I’m sure there are many more examples of this term.
It’s a white wash of history.
In the Netherlands the left want a decoration with black (slaves) serving the white masters painted on the Queen’s Golden Carriage removed.
We should be reminded about our past and where we come from.
Most of the time when history is changed, it is only done to make place for a new ideology.
So, you’re warned.
Here’s an intercut Pryor/Carlin clip that probably has part of it:
It seems, pace Carlin, that the upshot is that us honky types aren’t allowed to say “nigger”. (The reverse appears not to apply, however.)
Just to get all abstract and biological about the shape and surface characteristics of “niggerheads”, it seems that round hair is straight, with minimal surface area and maximal heat retention, while oval hair curls, and nearly strip-like hair is tightly kinked/curled (with maximum surface area, hence maximum dispersal of sweat for cooling, and protection from sun and other heat sources). It’s all just functional adaptation.
What will we do if “politically correct” becomes an offensive term?
It wasn’t the Perry’s hunting ranch. It was a bit of land that they rented hunting rights on. That just means that they pay the rancher a set amount of money each year, and in exchange they don’t get arrested for trespassing when they go hunting on that land.
IF … IF the word ‘nigger’ originally meant ONLY the color black in the origin of these terms then why should any of them be changed when they are not and never were a derogatory reference to black people in any way all? I think efforts to erase the term are a troubling sign of collective weakness.
It’s far more troubling to me to hear school age children speaking just about every vulgarity in the book than reading terminology from a by-gone era through today’s PC eye glasses.
This article was an unexpected one to say the least.
It is interesting how the overlap of politics and the global warming debate influence articles. Since it seems to be the same people that are pushing this foolish story about Perry, it only makes sense to once again point out just how foolish the story actually is.
Big round of applause for putting yourself out there on this one. I certainly did a double take as I was scanning the headlines.
RE: R. de Haan says:
October 4, 2011 at 4:36 am
Are you sure it is OK to use the expression, “White wash?”
Try Google Translate English → Spanish for ‘black’. I wonder how La Raza will take the news they’ve got to stop using it!
The Italian is interesting, too. The most disreputable of all Roman rulers was actually Emperor Black! History is way non-PC.
Yeah, if I was a black person I’d probably be fighting against this PC crap for that very reason. It all seems just a little too similar to how neo-nazis attempt to ‘erase’ the Holocaust.
If the word IS removed/changed in every book and map then it never existed and who stands to benefit from that? Certainly not black people…
What then, are we to do with the Caucasus Mountains….?
As someone who travels frequently between Europe and around the USA I find the ‘politically correct’ statements to be very regional. So for in example in the USA it is fine to use a ‘Blackboard’ – indeed there is software of that name. In the UK those schools that still have them call them ‘Chalk Boards’ for fear of offending people by using the word ‘black’; similarly calling someone a real cracker in UK is a compliment but is insulting in the southern US. This demonstrates that the language itself is neutral it is the people that are taking offence – sometimes unnecessarily or more often to perpetuate their world view or their job in the professional ‘take offence’ industry.
I read a book sometime ago talking of the death of words as one that is considered rude or insulting is replaced by a euphemism that then itself becomes so widely used that it is considered rude and a new euphemism is invented to replace it.