I
know many of the people who had been calling Cliven Bundy a hero tried to back
down from that certain comments. I had thought I was going to write about those
eventually, because when I was writing about Donald Sterling and Mark Cuban, it
all seemed to relate. After all, Sterling has had racist business
practices for a long time, but it was saying something overt that got him in
trouble, because then it couldn't be ignored.
I
imagine that Cliven Bundy has probably been a racist for quite a while, and
that a lot of the people who had to back away from him kind of believe the same
things, but they don't really say it, or think in those exact terms. They use
code words like "urban" or "culture of work", and because
those words don't specify race they think they are okay.
There
is a lot to be said about how we fool ourselves or why we are happy to ignore
things that happen as long as no one accurately states it, but I'm not going
there yet. It does all connect though, which is worth keeping in mind.
Here
is what Bundy said.
"They
didn't have nothing to do ... they were basically on government subsidy, so now
what do they do? 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."
His
statements were based on seeing African American in a public housing project,
and it was specifically seeing old people and children hanging out on a porch.
He then talked about how hard-working Mexicans were and what good families they
have, so you could know that he is not racist.
I
think when someone says something that is stupid and ugly the tendency is to
dismiss it out of hand. Some people knew Bundy was scum all along, and some
people were embarrassed by the association and fled.
That
leaves unacknowledged racism intact. It leaves logical fallacies intact. It
keeps it okay to have ugly thoughts okay, as long as you don't speak them. That
is how the systemic problems stay in place.
One
thing I appreciate about knowing the context of that quote is that he was
looking at older people and children and complaining about them not working. I
don't know the specific ages, but are we then talking about seeing the retired
and the young hanging out while the other adults are off at work? Because
that's not a racial thing; that's normal.
Of
course, under slavery it wouldn't be normal, because then there is no
retirement age, and since there isn't schooling childhood play time is
abbreviated, but the objection in this case would not be to them not working,
it would be to them not having to work all the time. Surely Bundy is not saying
that black people have to work more than other people, right?
Well,
maybe he is. After all, without slavery they are getting abortions, going to
jail, and not having a family life. Of course, with all those abortions there
shouldn't be all of those children hanging around not working, or even any
young men to go to jail after a while, and is it possible that the old people
and the young people that he saw were related? Like maybe those are
grandparents and grandchildren, and then after work the parents will be there
and they will all eat dinner together? I'm no anthropologist, but if you see
children, that sounds like there could be families.
I
am going to go ahead and leave more freedom under slavery, and not having
anything to do without learning how to pick cotton alone, because I think those
statements are stupid in a pretty self-explanatory manner, and I think there's
something more important here in Bundy's defense of Mexicans.
It
does seem in this case to be specifically people from Mexico, in this case, and
specifically undocumented workers because they "come over here against our
Constitution and cross our borders, but they're here, and they're
people...Don't tell me they don't work, and don't tell me they don't pay taxes.
And don't tell me they don't have better family structures than most of us
white people."
There
is this still this false belief that people who get assistance are not working
and paying taxes. Many SNAP recipients are employed. Many of them are employed
at Wal-Mart, and many of those employees are getting housing subsidies too.
There are homeless people who have jobs.
You
can't rule out any of these people paying taxes. They may not be paying a huge
amount, but assuming a lower income, whatever they do pay they are feeling.
However, a nice family that is taking deductions for mortgage interest and
property tax, children along with childcare or education deductions, and maybe
some charitable donations (like tithing) pays a lot less in taxes than you
might think.
Then
of course, there is the grazing rights issue. I feel like the cattle and timber
companies that use BLM land are getting away with a lot, compared to the usage
fees, but Bundy didn't want to pay that. He didn't want to stop using it
either, where someone else could pay the fees and get the benefits.
So
honestly, my very first thought when he made his racist comments is that of
course he would be pro-slavery. He does not believe in paying to use land; why
would he believe in paying for labor?
There
was more to it of course, and Rachel Maddow did a brilliant exposition on that,
which you can watch:
There
is a lot that is interesting there, but someone who wants to be cheap with his
operating expenses for his own profit being supportive of illegal immigrants is
really not surprising at all. Sure, he says they are people, and good people
because they work hard and have families, but I suspect what he really loves is
their lack of power.
Illegal
immigrants will work long, hard hours in horrible conditions. You do have to
pay them, but not very much. If they start causing trouble, it is easy to get
them arrested or deported. They are easy to abuse. I think that's the way Bundy
wants his black people.
We
are still seeing that it is far too easy to abuse African-Americans, and we are
seeing great efforts to keep that in place, that people are ignoring with
double-speak and code words and urging the protesters to avoid violence when it
is the cops who are bringing it. We need to look at these things clearly, not
just jump away from the ugly and uncomfortable only when it is in the open.
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