The Story of “Niggerhead”

In Lebanon, we had a cream-based sweet with a thin chocolate coat called ‘Niggerhead’, and I believe the name was recently changed to ‘Fez’ because of the obvious racism the old name conveyed. “Niggerhead” has now figured in the U.S. presidential elections, and Texas Governor Rick Perry paid the price. For it has emerged that Perry hunted, and took his friends hunting, at a camp in West Texas called "Niggerhead", with the name carved on a rock at its entrance. Perry was ahead of other contenders for the Republican nomination. However, when I came to the United States and followed his performance and that of the other contenders in the television debate on 22/9, I found him to have provoked the audience in the studio as they started heckling him and whistling in protest. After that, the "Niggerhead" story emerged, and it was not sweet. A few days ago, I read that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney regained his lead over Perry, with a 25 percent of likely voters on his side, compared to 16 percent for Perry and the African-American businessman Herman Cain. Perry and Cain are followed by Ron Paul, the Texas Representative, with 11 percent, and the former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachman, a Representative for Minnesota, with seven percent each. The former Senator Rick Santorum is behind them with 2 percent, followed by the former governor of Utah John Huntsman with one percent. I think we can fairly strike out the last four names from the real competition. Gingrich, in particular, has a long record of scandals, and is an extremist fool. Recently, he published his electoral program entitled “21st Century Contract with America” containing 26 pages of exaggerations, in which he promised he would make America the world’s largest producer of oil, eradicate half of unemployment, and control the country’s southern border to stop illegal immigration. His promises remind me of the Lebanese popular poet Omar Zaani, about the promises of a Lebanese candidate for the Parliament: My name is so and so/I hail from the best family in Lebanon/All I want is the people’s love/and I am a candidate for parliament/First of all I shall/Make the sky rain flour/The ground flow with gasoline/with no fees or taxes/ so just elect me for Parliament. The problem with the Republican contenders for the presidency is that they all have one particular thing in common, namely, ignorance. No sooner than their televised debates are aired that one of them falls. While Perry was the last of such contenders to do so, Michele Bachman had preceded him, after having been ahead in the race thanks to the Tea Party. And before her, the same happened with Newt Gingrich. As for Santorum and Huntsman, I don't ever recall that they were ahead or close to being so to begin with. The senior leaders of the Republican Party and the voters know how weak the possible candidates are compared to Barack Obama, and they are still searching for candidates. Hence, the proposal of Chris Christie, the Governor of New Jersey, as a possible candidate in recent days, was just a big soap bubble. His name rose and fell quickly, before he announced that “now is not his time”. He claimed that in two years since he was elected governor in 2009, he put an end to the 12 billion dollar deficit in the state budget, and found a solution to the healthcare problem and pension for private sector employees. He even claims he speaks to Americans while reaching across the partisan divide. But his opponents said that he is a vindictive and mentally unstable bully, describing him as angry and unable to have a civil dialogue. The leader of the Democratic majority in the State Senate Barbara Buono also denied that Christie has put an end to the budget deficit, and said that he manipulated the numbers and carried them over from one item to another. The bottom line of what she had to say about him is that he is a scaremonger who appeals to people’s darkest instincts. It seems that Christie decided that he cannot fool all the voters next year, if his real record is exposed, and so he announced that he will not enter the competition. Now, I hear that the Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who is of Syrian origin, may return as a candidate for the Vice President, after he announced that he will not seek the office of the President to protect his family. He, along with Ron Paul, is among the most competent. However, I believe that the Republicans in the end will choose a candidate that reflects the party's political extremism, and its bias for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the poor, and fool the voters like it did with Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. khazen@alhayat.com