When Patriotism Follows Skin Color

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/244978/when-patriotism-follows-skin-color/



How is it that a heavily armed man who threatened federal agents and promoted the people’s revolt has been branded a 'patriot,' while the unarmed protestors in Ferguson who questioned public authority have not?

When Patriotism Follows Skin Color
Le Devoir, Canada
By Francis Langlois
Translated By Stuart Taylor
20 August 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

The suppression led by the police in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, since the death of Michael Brown contrasts with the treatment that rancher Cliven Bundy received last April when he and his supporters, armed with assault rifles, resisted the seizure of his livestock by federal agents. This seizure was justified by over $1 million in unpaid taxes by Bundy, while he enjoyed land that the federal government offered at a more than modest price to certain stockbreeders.

Given the threat, the federal agents backed off. The county sheriff eventually defused the situation after a dozen days of confrontation. Like his acolytes, Bundy got off scot-free. Despite the violence and their guilt, the conservative media, headed by Fox, supported Bundy’s cause, and seized upon his anti-governmental and libertarian rhetoric that they were resisting an illegitimate and oppressive government. At the height of his popularity, certain Republican politicians followed the media’s suit by branding Bundy a “patriot.” However, the rancher, direct and defiant, lost all of his sympathy, at least officially, when he demonstrated his racism a week later, stating that he wondered if young African-Americans were better off living under the regime of 19th century slavery than on the subsidies of the current government.

How is it that a heavily armed man who threatened federal agents and promoted the people’s revolt has been branded a “patriot,” while the unarmed protestors in Ferguson who questioned public authority have not?

In the United States, skin color influences not only the behavior of the police, but also the discourse used by actors, the media and politicians at public debates. Although nobody classes the people of Ferguson as “patriots,” it should be noted that the protestors do not claim to be such, as they do not match up with the current idea of an American patriot.

[Enthusiast]

1. Kicked and recommended!

I guess we should ask Bundy to weigh-in since he is an expert on "the negro".

[IronLionZion]

2. Many RWers drew the wrong conclusion from this

they believe law enforcement left them alone because they had guns. therefore they want more people to have more guns "to resist tyranny". Many of them had spoken in interviews about how the unarmed occupy wall street protesters got abused so that's why they need to be heavily armed with dangerous looking assault weapons.

One of the main reasons RWers like the mostly cosmetic features of assault weapons is that its hard for cops to tell the difference between a legal assault weapon and an illegal machine gun by looking from a distance. So they would have to assume its a machine gun for the cops' safety, but can't do a raid and inspect the weapons based on looks alone. One can only tell once its fired, and then its too late. It's a diabolical plan.