Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's fight for his land rights against the US government had taken an unfortunate detour when a newspaper who interviewed the 67 year-old grandfather quoted him saying a rather discriminatory remark about African Americans, The Los Angeles Times said.
Bundy has been in a standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over the right to have his hundreds of cattle heads to graze on public lands without shelling out any fees. The local rancher's fight for his right earned the support of the citizen militias, who converged on his ranch located in rural Bunkerville following attempts of armed federal officials to move in and remove the rancher's cattle. Bundy and his support groups reportedly succeeded in stopping the seizure, but the BLM had said that the matter has yet to be over.
In an effort to shed light to his cause, the newspaper quote about him suggesting that blacks were "better off as slaves" as being in slavery teaches you work skills and enhance family life had caused uproar, especially from lawmakers in Washington.
Using the discriminatory term for African Americans in comments quoted by the New York Times, he said, "I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro. 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? 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."
The office of Republican Senator Dean Heller said about Bundy's remarks, "(Heller) completely disagrees with Bundy's appalling and racist statements and condemns them in the most strenuous way."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a statement, "By contrast, Cliven Bundy has spent decades profiting off government land while refusing to pay the same fair use fees as his fellow ranchers. Today, Bundy revealed himself to be a hateful racist. But by denigrating people who work hard and play by the rules while he mooches off public land he also revealed himself to be a hypocrite."
On the other hand, Bundy's supporters said that the rancher was merely commenting about the federal government's spoonfeeding approach to public welfare, the LA Times said. Oregon-based concrete mixer Brandon Rapolla, who claimed to have known the Bundys, insisted that the comments does not mean that the rancher was racist.
"It's not racism. People are trying to divide us on this issue. This is about the federal government, not anything else," he said.
