Those of the ilk of rancher Cliven Bundy and billionaire Donald
Sterling believe there’s a place for African-Americans. And, Sterling
said in a taped conversation, that place certainly is not in photographs with his girlfriend posted on Instagram.
Bundy, who stiffed the federal government for $1 million in grazing fees, suggested the best place for African-Americans is in cotton picking trade schools, where they’d be taught a skill that would enable them to secure positions as slaves.
For Sterling, Bundy and their amoral company, the good old days were
pre-emancipation, when white men like them were men, and federal law
said black men were, well, only three-fifths human.
Sterling, owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, told his girlfriend she
should not bring black people to his team’s basketball games. Bundy told
a reporter he thought black people were “better off” as slaves. Crucial
to this bigot-think is reduction of some people to subhuman status.
That’s how Republicans see poor people: subhuman, three-fifths people.
And that is the primary reason that the GOP last week blocked a measure
to raise the minimum wage.