Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's remarks about
whether "the Negro" fared better under slavery represents the latest in
a series of incendiary racial comments from a new crop of folk heroes
embraced in some conservative circles.
"They abort their young
children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned
how to pick cotton," Bundy said to reporters, according to The New York Times.
"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," he was quoted as
saying.
Bundy, 67, a rancher
whose much-publicized land dispute with the federal government endeared
him to conservatives, defended his comments as idle thoughts.
"In my mind I'm
wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better
off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the
subsidies? I'm wondering. That's what. And the statement was right. I am
wondering," he said Thursday on "The Peter Schiff Show."
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