(ThyBlackMan.com) The saga of Cliven Bundy is a story that captures a moment in modern American political, social and racial attitudes. It is a story that has gotten much attention in the press recently and as most stories do in our modern age, it has divided people along political and philosophical lines. At least that is how the story started, but with Bundy’s recent comments about African Americans, the story became one of embedded racist attitudes and complete hypocrisy. This story has been eclipsed in the news recently by the saga of another unheralded racist: Las Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Cliven Bundy is a rancher in Nevada. Local, state and Federal authorities are very familiar with Bundy, who has been allowing his cattle to graze on Federal lands for decades without paying the Federal grazing fees that are required and that he agreed to pay when he first started moving cattle onto federal land to graze. Some estimates point to Bundy owing the Federal government and American taxpayers upwards of $1 million.
Bundy and his supporters conveniently ignore that he has broken Federal law and that he owes the treasury for the privilege of grazing on Federal land and they instead argue that the Federal government has no right to 
the land, owns too much land and/or intimidates and oppresses ranchers and others who dare challenge them. To the educated and informed, Bundy is using the rouse of standing up to the government in order to skirt his debts and responsibilities. To many others though, he is a folk hero who is standing up to a government that is too big and out of control.
At first the story of Cliven Bundy and his family served as a way for those who advocate limited government and lower taxes to rally. The Federal government didn’t make things any better by sending in armed agents from the Bureau of Land Management who clashed daily with Bundy’s family and supporters, always in view of a camera. To the Bundy supporters, Cliven was standing up for his rights as an individual and a property owner. They viewed the Federal argument that cattle disrupted the habitat of an endangered turtle as a false argument since Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, also of Nevada brokered a deal to use the same land for a solar power farm.
Politicians from both political parties took sides and after much scrutiny, the ride seemed to be turning against the Federal Government. As if often the case though, things were not as they seemed and a few words re-wrote the story entirely and stripped away the curtain from the Cliven Bundy Fantasy.
At a recent town hall meeting, Bundy pontificated on the plight of African Americans. In his view, it was African Americans who were the true victims of out of control government and he encouraged these Americans to rally to his cause. He did so by saying loudly and confidently that African Americans were better off under slavery than under the modern welfare system. In a subsequent interview he attempted to walk the comments back, yet, made matters worse by asserting: “Negro people” were “better off” as slaves, and blamed the perception that he’s racist on Martin Luther King Jr. for not finishing “his job.” The racism in that statement alone was breathtaking.
Not only was he looking back on the moral evil of slavery as something that could actually be compared against another circumstance and be shown to be better than, but he was making the racist assumption that most African Americans are on welfare, abort their offspring and “put” their children in jail. Soon, those rallying to Bundy’s side such as Sean Hanity, Rush Limbaugh, Louie Gommert and Michelle Bachman and other GOP conservatives scattered like rats, understanding that they had climbed out on a limb that Bundy himself had just cut off.
What was even more jarring and infuriating about Bundy’s comments was that he has cast aspersions on the welfare system, claiming it is worse than slavery, when he himself is on a welfare of sorts since he takes advantage of Federal land that is maintained by the US taxpayer, yet, he refuses to pay his fees which he agreed to pay and which are his duty to pay. In essence, Cliven Bundy is the worst kind of taker, living off Federal land and doing nothing to contribute to a greater society.
The saga of Cliven Bundy is almost played out but sits in a state of suspended animation because, yet another bold and brash racist popped up to take the spotlight away. When LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was recorded making racist comments to a jilted lover, all attention turned to him.The LA chapter of the NAACP, which previously honored Sterling with a lifetime achievement award, canceled plans to give him another. “The remarks attributed to Mr. Sterling are outrageous and remind us that racism is alive and well at every socioeconomic level,” said NAACP interim president and CEO Lorraine C. Miller. Like Bundy, Sterling demonstrated an outdated attitude and rank hypocrisy having attacked Blacks as unworthy to be in his presence, although it is his African American players who have made him rich.
This writer is in total agreement with former NBA All-Star and current Sacramento, Calif. Mayor Kevin Johnson: “I hope that every bigot in this country sees what happened to Mr. Sterling and recognizes that if he can fall, so can you.”There is a silver lining though. Bundy and Sterling epitomize a dying breed of ostentatious racist and the swift reaction of outrage and condemnations to both men from a broad spectrum of society demonstrates that. Both have been called out, ostracized and punished for their views and remarks. Most important of all, both have been revealed as the true hypocrites they are.
Staff Writer; Stanley G. Buford
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