You posed a hypothetical -- what would I do if I was a racist, like Lott? And, it's not even unprincipled. A principled, unreconstructed Southern racist knows that, in this day and age, when racism is so unfashionable, the principled thing to do is hide your light under a bushel and deny everything if you're caught off-guard speaking too freely among like-minded friends. Otherwise, how can the racist agenda be furthered? It's somewhat analagous to the Islamic concept of al-Taqiya. Does that help?