ON MAY 29, 1989, a white man, David Wyant, occupied a campsite next to Jerry White, an African-American. White complained to the park authorities that Wyant was playing his music too loudly during “quiet hours.” White and his companion later heard three comments directed at them from tile Wyants’ campsite: 1) “We didn’t have this problem until those niggers moved in next to us”; 2) “The black motherfucker over there; I will take this gun and kill him”; 3) “In fact, I will go over and beat his black ass now.”