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Politicians Denounce Bundy’s Racist Remarks

Posted at 8:43 PM, Apr 24, 2014
and last updated 2014-04-24 22:31:06-04
Bundy Ranch

File photo courtesy: KVVU

(CNN, April 24, 2014) — What started out as a standoff over land rights may be turning into a controversy over race.

Racist comments from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy – who earlier this month appeared to win a highly publicized standoff against federal authorities over his two-decade long illegal grazing of cattle on public land – are giving Democrats a new weapon to attack some top Republicans who earlier came to Bundy’s defense.

And the controversial comments also call into question moves by Fox News and some other conservative media that highlighted the story and painted Bundy as a hero in his battle against federal authorities.

Bundy, 67, won his standoff against federal rangers after armed militiamen came to his side. Even with the incident over, Bundy continued to talk to a dwindling crowd of media from his ranch, about 100 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The comments that sparked the latest controversy came this weekend when Bundy recalled to supporters about a time he drove by a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, according to a report from The New York Times.

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” Bundy said, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids – and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch – they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” Bundy continued. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

What Cliven Bundy’s comments on race reveal

In a press conference Thursday, Bundy defended and repeated his comments but emphasized he was merely “wondering” whether African-Americans were better off as slaves.

“And that’s a question I put before the world: Are they better, or were they better then? I’m not saying I thought they should be slaves, or I wasn’t even saying they was (sic) better off; I’m wondering if they’re better off,” he said.

Bundy said he questions whether those living under government subsidies are living as slaves to the state, but denied he held racist views.

“I might not have a very big word base or vocabulary, I guess, but let me tell you something: When I say slavery, I mean slavery…Slavery is about when you take away choices from people, and where you have forced labor,” he said. “You think that’s what I’m about, America? If it is, you’re sure wrong, because I don’t believe in any type of that stuff.”

And Bundy didn’t back down in an interview Thursday night with CNN’s Bill Weir. He questioned whether blacks are better off now when “they don’t have nothing to do with their children, their family unit is ruined (and) I don’t think they have the life that they should have.”

“I don’t think I’m wrong,” he told CNN, insisting that he’d spoken “from my heart.” “I think I’m right.”

Asked whether he was any more or less a “welfare queen” as those who get entitlement checks – since his cattle have been feeding off the government, literally, by eating grass on public land – Bundy said, “I might be a welfare queen, but I’ll tell you I’m producing something for America and using a resource that nobody else would use or could use.”

He said, “I’m putting red meat on your table. Maybe I’m not doing enough, but I’m trying.”

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