The Difference Between Cliven Bundy And Phil Robertson Is That Bundy Didn’t Invoke Religion

The outrage at Cliven Bundy’s comments about “the Negro” is bipartisan in way that the outrage at Duck Dynasty‘s Phil Robertson was not. The two, you may recall, said broadly similar things about black people, but Robertson never used the word “Negro,” and Bundy never disparaged gay people in the name of his religious beliefs.

We’ll start with what each said. Here’s Bundy, from The New York Times:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. … “[B]ecause they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “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.”

And here, from GQ is what Robertson said last December.

“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

Emphasis added in each. Bundy’s language is a little rougher; he uses the archaic and cringe-y word “Negro” and doesn’t talk about working alongside black people. And, of course, he points to slavery specifically. But the core of each argument is the same: Black people were better off, happier, even when toiling under harsh, white masters than when the government offered them support.

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The Difference Between Cliven Bundy and Phil Robertson Is That Bundy Didn’t Invoke Religion