White Privilege and the Bundy Brigand Militia "Standoff" in Oregon

[Photographer]

The human products of public moocher and rogue Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy's seed are causing a ruckus in Oregon. Bundy's sons, Ammon and Ryan, are leading a group of approximately 150 insurrectionist terrorists who have taken over a federal wildlife preserve near the remote town of Burns, Oregon.

As I suggested in a piece at Salon, if these people were Muslim or black they would be dead. The State would have called down merciless violence to immolate the "terrorists" or "radicals". The corporate news media would have supported this narrative. Fox News would be insane with rage and fear about "black thugs and militants" as well as "Muslim terrorists" who are Americans that were somehow "radicalized" by "extremists".

[The mainstream corporate news media is continuing to coddle and "whitewash" the cosplay cowboy terrorists in Oregon with headlines such as: "Armed anti-government protesters"; "Armed Occupiers"; and "Oregon Group". The race of Bundy's insurrectionists has not been mentioned because they are "white", i.e. "real Americans". Whiteness and white privilege enable racial erasure for white people. In contrast, they mark people of color as less than, the Other, and non-white.]

White privilege is a universal tool, a Swiss Army knife of sorts in American life. The behavior of Bundy's Brigands--and the State's deescalation and non-response--is just one more sign of what most reasonable and intelligent people already know.

more: http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/1/4/1466094/-White-Privilege-and-the-Bundy-Brigand-Militia-Standoff-in-Oregon