Whenever there’s a lull in gossip these days, I always feel my stomach drop because I know there’s probably a huge political story that is overshadowing everything else. So it is this week, in the post-Oscars gossip lull. Emperor Baby Fists spent the weekend going crazy on Twitter and on his staff. He spent Monday introducing a new Muslim Ban and threatening Planned Parenthood. But those weren’t the biggest political stories. I mean, they were big, don’t get me wrong, and I’m not minimizing those stories at all. But “Ben Carson” was trending on Twitter for much of Monday and for very good reason. Note: Ben Carson is our new Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. He is the only African-American in Trump’s cabinet, and of course Trump gave Carson the department with “Urban” in the title, because Obvious Racist is Obvious. Anyway, Ol’ Ben thought he would share his thoughts on slavery and immigration. And it’s BAD.
Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves as “immigrants” while speaking Monday to department employees.
“That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity,” Carson said. “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
You can see the video here. He really did say that. My favorite response was from Samuel L. Jackson who called him a “d–kheaded Tom.” In reference to Uncle Tom. Here are some other tweets:
White House staff:
"How can we get Trump's latest embarrassing comments out of the news?"
"Ben Carson press conference?"
"Schedule it!"— Donald J Orwell (@DonaldJOrwell) March 6, 2017
Immigrants??? https://t.co/f0RH7iXBrn
— NAACP (@NAACP) March 6, 2017
Ben Carson said obamacare and abortion were both slavery, yet he just said that slavery wasn't slavery, just immigration.
I need answers
— Deku (@DekuSean) March 6, 2017
Let Ben Carson tell it Harriet Tubman ran a very succesful travel agency.🤔 #bencarson #alternativehistory
— Candi (@justlikecandi_1) March 6, 2017
This can't be real. Slaves were not & are not immigrants. 2017. https://t.co/8CuUvnR2Mf
— Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) March 6, 2017
Everyone at Ben Carson right now. pic.twitter.com/dmGQT516zb
— Indigo Commentaries (@Indi_Comments) March 6, 2017
Photos courtesy of Getty.
In my next life I want to become a Republican politician, because I am obviously smart enough…
There are no words for this cynicism. And there is a special place in karma hell for people who sell out their own kind.
To become a Republican politician you would also have to agree to have all soul and compassion removed from your body.
They are so f*cking out-of-touch it’s mind-boggling. Liberals are the “elite”? PLEASE. Even the “token black man” in this administration appears to live in a bubble of privilege, likely by his own design but still…
@Kitten
Are you even African-American to call this man a token. Go educate yourself
about Ben Carson. Say that nonsense at a black church and get thrown out.
@kitten he doesn’t live in any bubble of his own making. It is quite obvious who made it but he knows this too. It is a tale as old as time and black folk like myself have seen it plenty of times. It is the masters tools and divide and conquer. He is cooning and doing the dance for the white man. He thinks it will make him different from the rest of us and the white folk will like him better. They don’t like him or respect him and they laugh at him.
I could be angry at his comments as my ancestors were slaves but I won’t be. I do however look forward to the moment he realizes all that dancing did nothing. I won’t be standing up for his behind.
@talktalkie- “Token black man” was in quotes for a reason. I meant that Carson is seen as a mere “token PoC” to an administration that is 95% old white men as in “Look we’re diverse! We hired a black person for urban housing development”. I did NOT mean that I view him as merely a token PoC. My deepest apologies if I offended as that was not my intention.
@Lauren-Thank you for that. You said what I was thinking FAR better than I ever could (as evidenced by talktalkie’s response to me lol).
@talkietalkie: I’m black and Carson is the quintessential Uncle Tom. Between him and Clarence Thomas, I don’t know who’s worse.
If you are not Native American, then you are an
immigrant to the US. The slave trade was
forced migration. Forced migration is still
happening today, through engineered
wars. Blacks have been treated as if we spurned
from under a rock and have been
deliberately separated from our great history.
We are of the great African Diaspora.
Fact!!!
@Talkietalkie
Its not the same thing at all.
Ditto, Leah. Slavery is not forced migration. It is and always will be a heinous crime. Period.
Or maybe a democratic one. Let’s not be partisan hypocrites. Obama likened slaves to immigrants himself in a 2015 speech during a naturalization ceremony at the National Archives. Obama did not specifically say “slaves” during his speech, but instead mentioned “those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily” who “in their own way were immigrants themselves.”
The full quote:
“And perhaps, like some of you, these new arrivals might have had some moments of doubt, wondering if they had made a mistake in leaving everything and everyone they ever knew behind. So life in America was not always easy. It wasn’t always easy for new immigrants. Certainly it wasn’t easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily, and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves. There was discrimination and hardship and poverty. But, like you, they no doubt found inspiration in all those who had come before them. And they were able to muster faith that, here in America, they might build a better life and give their children something more.”
So why didn’t obama get the same reaction from the internet as Carson?
Your comment actually explains something I have always wondered about whenever I see people say “Obama did it too”. What is always missing for them is context. This is why there’s such a huge cognitive divide. You don’t lift the words someone said in a particular situation and compare the use of those exact words by someone else in an entirely different situation to create parity. The actual relevant words used by Obama in the excerpt you quoted are “Who had not come here voluntarily and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves”. Carson’s words as quoted in the article make no such distinction. He completely ignored the fact of slavery being a criminal act where people were kidnapped against their will. And The greatest insult is that he talks about their dreams which could only have been dreams of freedom not whatever nonsense he is suggesting.
Because Obama acknowledged the evil of slavery as involuntary cultural displacement while Carson is sanitizing the atrocity by making it equivalent to our traditional idea of immigration. Not the same thing at all.
Here’s a thought; after blacks were free from slavery there was a question to consider them as Americans and if they’re protected by the same state and national laws. One of them being the consistution that states all men are equal. The southern states question this because slaves were brought here for forced labor. Even those free black slaves generations born, raised and slaved on American soil. They were still question as being actual americans compare to their white counter parts. who are the byproduct of immigrants to the United states prior of being recognize as an independent sovereign nation from England. The generations of white immigrants were being seen as american citizens. While the generation of black slaves were seen as not and there for, not protected by u.s laws.
In other words, deeming blacks as immigrats limited their ability to have equality in the United states. This expand into judicial rights, such as voting, education and economical prosperity. The issue with Ben Carson statements suggest that blacks were immigrants from the beginning who had to work harder for their place in American and be recognized as citizens. When in reality black slaves were just as much as American as any white american generations born after the first colonization of the land. The issue is the lack of respect and american’s attempt to prevent any black born in American, even after generations having the same equal opportunities and rights as their white counterparts. Ben Carson statements are completely out of touch with the current immigration issues.
The decades follow will be a constant battle of Civil liberties that expand beyond black solidarity but other ethnic communities, after generations born or original the founders, i.e Native Americans, fighting for the their rights to be on American soil and protected by the same constitutional laws. Ben Carson wasn’t elegant in his speech. Just came off cynical and completely lacking any real knowledge about the subject matter.
I’m speechless at this point.
Me too!
My theory is that Bannon is handing out a daily cash prize to whomever can utter the most outrageous statement to deflect from their s**tshow administration.
I’m at the point where literally NOTHING surprises me. I expected the absolute worst with this administration and I have not yet been disappointed.
same as all of the above. i want to come up with something cogent and sensible to say, but i am at a loss. totally.
@Kitten – I agree. Everyday there’s another (or many) jaw-dropping outrageous statement(s) from this Bunker of Fascists. Seeing the montage of pics of Michelle Obama here above literally made me cry.
Nothing, in Brazil too. We have our own Trump by the way.
Also speechless. He tried to “backtalk” the “immigrant” remark saying later that slavery and immigration were two different things, but too late. Can’t stand Carson, never could, never will.
I, who have never been without words, have none.
Is he on drugs? Did they slip something into his coffee? Is he being payed exorbitantly to be straight up f*cking ignorant and stupid? That’s the only way I can even start to wrap my mind around a man of color saying these horrendously idiotic things about the history and heritage that he’s a part of.
I assume he sniffed way too much ether when he was a surgeon. I can’t think of what else explains his truly ignorant, offensive, and hateful rhetoric. He needs to march his ass over to the National Museum of African American History and Culture and get a god damn lesson on slavery.
He’s already visited the museum….obviously it had no effect on him. He probably only paid attention to his own exhibit.
He has his own exhibit there. I think that it may need a giant asterisk next to his name a la Barry Bonds.
The fact that he has made it as high up as he has in the Republican party tells you a lot about Ben Carson and his beliefs and where he stands. Seems like he sold his soul for a political career.
“Seems like he sold his soul for a political career.”
Seems like the theme of the Republican Party.
Yeah, he is an “acceptable” African American man who “knows his place” and is willing to mouth the white establishment rubbish. He’s the guy republicans can point to and say “Look! We didn’t hate Obama because he was black, because we like this other black guy!” (Hint: They really don’t)
He is a heavy user of the opium for the masses.
I think Ben Carson suffered a neurological event some time ago and has never been the same since. He started making surgical mistakes and had several malpractice suits. Before, he was indeed a brilliant neurosurgeon (specialiing in pediatric surgery, which is especially difficult) and head of a department. Now, he recently spun some odd story about memory and the brain that is so wrong in so many ways. That brilliant brain has been damaged.
I do think the Trump people are using him as their “token” black man because now he is so easy to manipulate. They have no real respect for him. They fired his close aide without even consulting Carson, because the young man had criticized Trump during the campaign. Carson seemed quite upset about it. I wonder if the real reason they got rid of the aide was because he would have made it much more difficult to manipulate Carson.
That man is not ok.
Those tweets are pretty funny though.
My favorite is the one with Harriet Tubman running a successful travel agency.
Read this article on Huffington Post yesterday and did not see the Harriet Tubman tweet – my favorite also.
There are some really funny memes floating around. A lot of Get Out related ones. Ben Carson is a weird dude.
He’s off his rocker, seriously. Every since the primaries, I cannot, cannot, believe what comes out of his mouth. I thought he initially turned down a spot in Easy D’s cabinet. I guess the chance for “glory” was too alluring.
I’m glad other people enjoyed those tweets! I feel total shame for LOLing at the Tubman Travel Agency. If I didn’t laugh, I’d cry.
On behalf of our ancestors: F*ck you, you no-spine having, uncle-Tom, shuck & jive, garbage eating javelina, sad excuse for a so-called Black “man”
This! All of this! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
What does “javelina” mean? I’ve heard the rest of these (and agree!)
Had to look it up and it is the equivalent to peccary – wild boar or pig.
This is all “house negro” talk coming out of his bullsh*t mouth.
What is sad is that some people actually believe it, and the heads nodding are the ones nodding at arresting ‘bad ombres’, banning ‘bad guys’ (who happen to be brown and Islamic) and agreeing that all lives matter > black lives matter.
Darkladi, agreed.
This black immigrant is joining black twitter and pulling up on his ‘Uncle Tom’ a$$.
Think I love you. Girl crush. 🙂
Thank you for snatching this Old Sleepy Craven F*ckboy’s wig like it needed to be done before I had to call Animal control on a Rabid Racoon Dancing jigs for the the White House like the glorified court Jester he is
Thank you for this^^^ all the way.
PREACH
I listen to speech and tried to think up ways that his thoughts could have been garbled such that there was a point that came out wrong ie a brain fart, but nope, nope, nope.
How did this man become a brain surgeon? His stupid, stupid comments in public point to a lack of brains, but downright stupid, ignorant (oxford and urban dictionary definitions), closeminded people think slavery and immigration are the same thing.
This goes beyond ‘uncle Tom’ tomfoolery.
He should not hold any office whatsoever.
Not just for this statement, but for every idiotic statement he has made in the past.
No redeeming this one.
I’m becoming inured to offensive idiocy in the public sphere, unfortunately, but this one had even my cynical chin hitting the floor.
Me too.
His ethnic and cultural background make it doubly jawdropping. How can any person think slavery = immigration? What next? Auschwitz was a workers’ camp?
ETA: just noticed i missed out a word in my earlier comment. Comment should read, ‘ downright stupid, ignorant closeminded people don’t equate slavery and immigration.
I’ve found that surgeons, although brilliant technicians, often lack empathy and tend to lean HARD right (which is borne out by research, too!)
Whenever I hear about doctors getting up to political shenanigans, I assume it’s a surgeon, and it usually is. Two Canadian examples: there’s an orthopedic surgeon fighting to dismantle the laws that protect the publicly funded health system, and another pediatric orthopedic surgeon who is gunning for leadership of the conservative party using Trump-like rhetoric… SAD!
Very interesting. Thanks for the insight.
Arbeit machts frei, LAK, of course they were workers camps, what else? *Heavy sarcasm*
That is interesting. Most doctors (not surgeons but pediatricians, OBGYNS, general practitioners etc) I have met are liberals.
Reflects my experience as well.
Interesting Ellevogel, I’ve heard similar things.
To back up your comment:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/07/upshot/your-surgeon-is-probably-a-republican-your-psychiatrist-probably-a-democrat.html?_r=0
Maybe Carson is reading Texas textbooks.
“Coby Burren, 15, a freshman at a suburban high school south of here, was reading the textbook in his geography class last week when a map of the United States caught his attention. On Page 126, a caption in a section about immigration referred to Africans brought to American plantations between the 1500s and 1800s as “workers” rather than slaves.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/06/us/publisher-promises-revisions-after-textbook-refers-to-african-slaves-as-workers.html
@ElleVogel Here, in my country we have an ex prime minister who use to be a heart surgeon. The things he has done and said during the years would make you go crazy. The thing is that post communism he was the leader to the new democratic main movement and for years people looked up to him hoping for big changes to happen. It became obvious that he lacks the basic human understanding and empathy of everyday problems. In a given moment he even tried to push the narrative of “north against south” and inciting war. Thank God that people stopped and thought about that bullshit or else….civil war and blood would have been the narrative.
About this black guy saying those things. I live in Europe and I am as white as I can be but there are some things I know for a fact and that fact is that African people were brought to US as slaves and no other definition is acceptable. Denying it is…..STUPID
My experience of working with doctors over many years is that surgeons can tend to be rather arrogant and diva- ish. That is a gross generalisation of course and there are many lovely ones but there is a tendency. I think it comes from the fact that surgeons are required to act very decisively in the operating theatre. In many circumstances, surgeons can’t stand around and discuss the next step, they need to act and do it quickly. So I think it attracts people who have a pretty high self esteem and the atmosphere they work in feeds into that confidence that their way is the right way. It’s a very technical skill that doesn’t always include people skills. They have that rep among other doctors too-as a public health doctor once told me, “some surgeons are intelligent psychopaths…the rest are just psychopaths…”. Unfair really as they do terrific work. Carson sounds an absolute idiot here. Trump’s minions are a dreadful bunch.
I don’t know. I know a lot of people who really are not that bright in a general sense who are becoming RNs and Doctors. Dense, dense people. But they can memorize enough and compartmentalize enough that they can get through the schooling.
My sister in law is an RN and she’s dumber than a box of hair. She’s a nice person and is able to do her job well and excels at it, but she is just a dim bulb (to be fair, my mother in law is too- my husband took after his dad).
I think that because she studied an area in school that called for memorization she excelled. If she needed to post her own opinions and ideas I think she would have failed. That might be a huge part of it. Which is why I think the right likes to make fun of liberal arts students because their degrees “mean nothing in life and can’t get them a job.” They go for more practical fields with more memorization and set skills.
So when Ben Carson has to speak his own opinions and thoughts, he comes off as an idiot. If he were talking to a room of surgeons about surgery he’d do much better.
He’s an idiot savant. He’s a great brain surgeon, and basically an idiot at everything else. It happens.
Book sense, no common sense.
Proof that brain surgeons can be total idiots.
Made me laugh out loud. So true.
Maybe we should request to see his credentials. The Universities that he graduated from , should be shut down ASAP, and his professors should have their degrees taken away from them immediately.
F*ck this guy. We worked hard under threat of death and mutilation for the enjoyment of white people. The fact that he’s caping for them (and the GOP) now is spitting on their graves. Let’s not forget how poor Carson was and the GOP would’ve taken his food stamps away in a minute.
Worked hard for less is such a pretty picture of being stolen, stripped of identity, raped, mutilated and forced into backbreaking labor for hundreds of years.
Lawd 🤦🏽♀️
My favorite response was from the amazing and brilliant Anika Noni Rose:
https://instagram.com/p/BRUKBKVB49p/
Jesus…Tears to my eyes reading it. In my mind he offended not just African Americans, but every single person in the Americas who is here because of slavery. I’m sitting in Trinidad and saying..wait…really…REALLY?!
@SamfromTrinindad. From a fellow Caribbean to another. I feel the same way. This man is a real idiot
Kiki Barbados
Right, ,@samfromTrinidad? I’m also from Trinidad and I am pretty sure our history books did not mention immigration.
Bajan here and I know for certain that none of the slaves hopped off a Disney cruise and decided to stay over in the americas because it seemed ideal
I am crying from reading the translation on the sack.
For once i’m speechless. Too many emotions to articulate.
Yes! I keep reading it over and over again.. makes me so emotional
Wow. Heart-breaking and moving.
This twitter pic made me weep:
“We had about 12 negroes did willfully drown themselves,
and others starv’d themselves to death;
for ’tis their belief that when they die
they return home to their own country and friends”
https://twitter.com/owillis/status/838886438607458304/photo/1
Ben Carson is a disgrace and should never be allowed to forget or to live down his stupid, vile, hateful comment. Never, not ever.
Wow, what’s wrong with him? Is he always like that?
Same guy who thinks the Egyptian pyramids were built by Biblical Joseph to store grain.
He needs to be locked away somewhere where you can’t hurt anybody!! He’s sick in the head!. Maybe somebody left a sponge in his head!
Just proves you don’t have to be a brain surgeon to be an idiot.
P.S. Love you, Samuel L.
seriously, what is wrong with this man??? >:O
Just plain stupid
What he said should not be that surprising because this sort of stuff is currently being taught in some schools around the country right now. I believe it is in Texas or Oklahoma or both where the word “slaves” is not used but “indentured servant” instead. Instead of teaching white kids that some terrible actions were made by their ancestors, they are whitewashing and brainwashing those kids into believing that what happened was not so bad. We all know kidnapping, rape, torture and forced breeding is terrible, so turn into something more palatable. And people wonder why race relations are the way that they are in this country.
Ben is officially off his rocker crazy. Ben “Stephen” Carson is a certified moon (replace the m with a c) that is just as politically inept as his boss. I cannot believe this man is so power hungry that he is allowing himself to be debased in such a way. This is disgusting and pathetic to watch someone who legit has done some good things in the world act like this.
This gives me serious anxiety. I shudder to think what the next generation of privileged, white kids will be like. If I end up marrying my boyfriend, and if we have children, we’ll have at least one white child (I want to adopt too, so I have no way of knowing what the heritage of my future adopted child will be), and you can be damn sure that my child will know that slaves were PEOPLE SOLD AS PROPERTY, and that this country was built on their backs.
I feel the same way. The only thing that gives me hope right now is the fact that we do have the internet and movies and so many documents that can prove these idiots wrong. The problem is that our worlds are so segregated that it is going to be difficult to get to those kids before they become racist adults or non-whites like Den Carson or that Taco truck on every corner loser. I forgot the man’s real name who said the taco comment.
That is a lovely thing about your willingness to adopt across racial lines. I don’t plan on giving birth but I am slowly opening up my mind to foster care/adoption. I am even considering adopting outside of my race as well, a child is a child to me regardless of race/health status and I will open my doors to any kid that wants to be near me. Teaching kids the unvarnished truth about slavery/first nation history won’t hurt them in the long run, it is going to make them stronger, respectful, and smarter humans.
If you’re white and adopt a child who is not, please take special measures to make sure your child has real contact with both other children and adults in the same racial/ethnic category. If adopting from other countries, also try to provide language instruction so if they want to visit and/or look for genetic relatives, they have a starting point. But definitely a white American parent is seriously handicapped when trying to prepare a non-white child for a racist society. It’s not just about making sure they know the full American history. You need friends with direct experience to help you and your child navigate the stormy waters of American society, which is still racist to the core.
It’s the Republican revisionist theory that’s been percolating on the fringes that slavery wasn’t “that bad.” They got to come to America and had free room and board, right? Sure they worked hard, but they’re future generations weren’t “stuck” in Africa which they consider backward and corrupt. It means the white establishment owes people of color nothing because they’ve already given them these “advantages,” including introducing them to Christianity.
I was a dual major of art and sociology in college and I studied a lot about class in America. I also am really interested in the whitewashing of history and revisionist history. If I had the resources and know how, I’d love to make a documentary on it.
Indentured servants =/= slaves. Not in any way shape or form. I think some white people love to shout BUT OUR ANCESTORS SUFFERED TOO. There is some weird notion about acknowledging how awful slavery was and there are those that have to add the “white people were slaves too” “Africans had slaves” “Africans sold their own people” etc. I think that by calling slave indentured servants those textbooks are trying to equalize the suffering. Revisionists love to focus on class and don’t want to intersect the racial components. If we try to erase history, we aren’t going to learn from it and we are doomed to repeat it.
There actually were a certain number of white slaves – mostly Irish – who were captured by the English under both Cromwell and Charles II and sent to both America and the West Indies to be sold. These were not indentured servants, they were slaves. Hundreds of thousands of them. They were sent to both the colonial Virginia colony and the islands of Barbados, Jamaica, Antigua and Montserrat. Where they died in the heat a whole lot faster than the African slaves. In a 1647 census, 70% of the population of Montserrat were white Irish slaves. (To this day a strong link to the Irish culture is maintained on Montserrat.
As for Ben Carson, this song by the Irish Denis Leary keeps going through my head:
A. S. S. H. O. L. E. He’s an asshole…asshole…asshole…
Such an appropriate song!
@Deeanna about Montserrat
Are you sure your telling the right narrative?
“In a 1647 census, 70% of the population of Montserrat were white Irish slaves. To this day a strong link to the Irish culture is maintained on Montserrat.”
70% Irish slaves? A quick Google search tells a different story. Link provided. Where did you get your “facts”? Any resources you have would helpful. Why is the info I found 100% in opposition of what you typed? Isn’t the strong link to Ireland and Irish customs due to the slave masters being Irish?
**************************************
The Irish planters brought African slaves to work their sugar cane fields. Soon the slaves outnumbered them 3-to-1 and began rebelling.
In 1768, the slaves planned an island-wide attack on St. Patrick’s Day, when the planters would be celebrating. Servants were instructed to grab…
http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/slavery/montserrat.htm
Summary of slavery connected to the British Isles. The slavery is just further back in time but no less valid as slavery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Britain.
Also the barbary slave trade of white christians is well known https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_slave_trade
Indentured servants were treated horribly, but the man difference between them and slaves was that indentured servants were freed when the term of their indenture was up, usually after seven years. Slaves were slaves for life.
There were many abuses inflicted on indentured servants, especially children, but at least it had a time limit (usually seven years) and some other protections. Definitely not the same as slavery, which also was accompanied by very strange theories to justify it (like assuming Africans were innately “childlike” and had to be “taken care of”, despite all evidence to the contrary). They even censored the Bible taught to slaves to remove the pesky parts about freedom and Jubilee years when you were supposed to free slaves, free prisoners, and (oh, the horror!) forgive debts. And it often was forbidden to teach slaves to read and write, as another effort to keep them isolated from each other and from history.
One other nasty bit of business was that slaves were deliberately separated from people from the same geographical area, to increase disorientation (in case the journey wasn’t enough) and to minimize newly arrived slaves having a common language until they learned English (or whatever the language of their “owners” was — Sojourner Truth’s first language was Dutch in New York State). And children were sold away from their parents routinely, typically by the age of five. If you have children that age, imagine the trauma for both parent and child.
Schools at least by high school age really should be giving more details on the horror show that was American slavery, as yet another cautionary tale about human capacity for evil and silent cooperation with evil, and not trying to make it seem more benign.
Hi Grumpy. Thank you for links, but my questions were specific to the slave trade that occurred in Montserrat. I found a very different narrative than what Deeanna provided. My questions remain unanswered.
Did he perform brain surgery on himself or something???
@Darkladi ..Totally agree… This is an unforgivable betrayal of his own people by a man who should know better. Republicans seem willing to sacrifice all for power.
My head nearly exploded when I read about this. And then I watched the video to be sure his remarks weren’t taken out of context. Big mistake. Watching him say it was even worse than reading about it. AND TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY, he “clarifies” later on that slaves were actually “involuntary immigrants” and people need to look up the meaning of the word immigrant in the dictionary.
I think I ranted for hours last night about this fool’s tomfoolery. As my mama always said, “child, consider the source.” Ben Carson has dishonored the ancestors with his ignorant words. No one forcibly ripped from their homeland and forced into involuntary, unpaid labor is an immigrant.
I don’t think I can listen to him. Immigrant is a very generic word and I can see him using it to defend himself. Here is what immigrant is defined as:
a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.
synonyms: newcomer, settler, migrant, emigrant;
BIOLOGY
an animal or plant living or growing in a region to which it has migrated.
I was so outraged when I read this, that I posted it to FB, which I never do. How anyone can think that a slave and an immigrant are the same thing is beyond me. Went to look at the comments on DM (there was only one at the time – a Trumpster) and the commentor basically he was using it (immigrant) in an alternate way . #alternatefacts, y’all.
Ugh there were some people online that said his comments were not offensive because the HUD employees weren’t offended or reacted negatively. That just irritated me so much. Hello, this moron is the head of the agency. Do you think an employee would actually risk losing their job to react negatively to the comments?
Sorry I don’t think it was taken out of context and that man should never speak again.
This man is just stupid. I just can’t believe this…. did he just bumped his head or something. I hope he gets the backlash he deserves because someone should tell him in his face that he is an Uncle Tom, coon ass idiot and he should be ashamed of himself for being called black.
I have had it with these idiot politicians. Ben is a song and dance man for RACIST white people. At the end, no white man is not breaking bread with you Ben.
I can’t believe people let this shriveled testicle operate on their brain. How is one brilliant man so stupid? I’m convinced they brainwashed him, there’s no other explanation for the foolery
And to think I was smart enough to be a neurosurgeon all along!
Years before his ‘breakthrough’ at the National Prayer Breakfast, my father heard him speak at a conference for chemists. Many of the attendees were familiar with his backstory and were excited to hear him. Several people ended up walking out because the thrust of his speech was a bunch of religious nonsense. Besides his skill at surgery, the man is a buffoon.
high-functioning victim of a botched attempt at self-lobotomy,
or
he truly knows that he talks absolute nonsense but thinks that sucking up to Trump is more important than anything else in the world?
i’m truly afraid of the sinister depths these people in “traditionally smart-people professions” go to.
involuntary imigrants to work harder for much less… more like work to the death for nothing against their will. some of them were even treated as though they were less than livestock too!! i have yet to hear someone call a sheep an immigrant by the way.
I admired him so much when I was younger. For such a smart man, he really is so dumb. To an embarrassing degree. I blame religion.
Please don’t blame religion. Out of religion can come good, spiritual people. And then you have demented people that are fanatics and twist what is good. Don’t blame religion, blame the people twisting it to fit their selfish and greedy purposes. What they do has nothing to do with religion.
Look at the Muslim ban. Lots of good, peaceful Muslim people being persecuted because people blame their religion. Look at history, no good comes from that.
In this case, I do blame religion. I don’t blame everything on religion.
I agree with you Whyme. There are devout people who are kind, humble and the best people you could ever meet. There are fanatics that take a religious belief and twist it in such a way that no good comes from it for them or the people they encounter.
I blame the cult Mr. Carson belongs to. I joined that cult years ago and my family had to work on me to convince me, that it indeed is a cult. From the outside you can see the signs of what is occurring, except when it is happening to you and you are on the inside of that “cult” you have a different perspective.
If you read through the commenters here detailing some of the outlandish things he’s said in the past, it’s kind of hard NOT to blame religion, at least on some level.
I have a difficult time believing that a neurosurgeon would make so many baseless assertions were it not for strong religious ideology.
My thoughts exactly, Kitten.
That explains alot.
Being book smart doesn’t mean your not stupid in every other aspect of your life.
Seriously! My grandfather’s second wife was like this (book smart, common sense STUPID!) She thought making soup consisted of putting a CAN (still sealed!) in a pot of water and bringing it to boil. Hand to God! And don’t get me started on her “opinions”… like a chameleon, she’d spout whatever anyone around her said, or what she’d just heard on TV… Seriously, some people stay alive only because there are other people around to watch over them SMH
“Involuntary immigrants” were never listed as property. Slaves were. When you can only find a record of someone’s existence by looking through tax and property records, there’s no record of their birth, marriage, death, I wouldn’t consider them an immigrant. When they were made to work sun up to sun down for free, beaten mutilated, raped, then, no, not an immigrant.
His words dishonor not only the ancestors but everyone whose ancestors were forcibly removed from their homeland: Canada, the U.S., Central & South America, the Caribbean.
The reality that this nitwit is in charge of Urban Development is vomit inducing.
Reminds me of a favorite quote of my Dads
” Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt”
Ironically U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services grants T and U nonimmigrant visas (which can lead to a green card and eventually U.S. citizenship) to victims of human trafficking, which by definition include slaves. Even the U.S. government – Dr. Carson’s employer – recognizes that slaves are NOT “involuntary immigrants” but CRIME VICTIMS.
OH MY GOD.
Inmigrants! Objects and trade goods would be a better description. Have some respect for your heritage and the struggle and sh!t african americans had to go through.
NO! No no no!
Granted, he’s despicable… but I have to say there is something about reading comments here calling him a c–n that just really disturbs me. And that it’s probably coming from readers of color disturbs me even more. realize it’s from a place and anger but having had parents and grandparents called that term it makes my skin crawl that it’s being used so blasé here. You might as well just call him the n word.
The outrage is appropriate. But we’re no better if all we do is resort to using slurs to describe someone or something we don’t agree with. It disturbs me.
I personally have no problem with calling him what he is, a c**n. On the other hand, I don’t think anybody should be using the n-word, though I do acknowledge for my fellow African-Americans, it’s an individual choice. We aren’t a monolith and we will disagree. Let’s not miss the forest for the trees.
Big picture: Ben Carson is not cut out for a career in government. And being a great doctor doesn’t qualify him to speak on history without true, accurate and contextualized knowledge of it. Being a great doctor most definitely doesn’t qualify him to be HUD Secretary. And he’s allowed himself to be set up for failure by a man who does not respect black people and who threw him a bone that smacks of tokenism. He’s better than this. I wish he knew that. What he’s done is further tarnish his own legacy, which should be that of his rise from poverty to life-saving medical innovator. How can he be so smart and not get these basic things? Embarrassing.
I’m sure your grandparents had more pride and self-respect than Carson has. I know mine did. My dad grew up in the segregated South and he would be the first one to call Carson a c**n.
Late last night he issued a statement clarifying his remarks, half assed apology, I suppose.I believe it was on Facebook.
Oh dear.
This made me so angry yesterday, and now I’m just tired. One cannot revise history the way these conservatives have been trying to do for years. And Ben Carson should have been ashamed of himself.
It. Was. Slavery. Not immigration, or refugees on boats but Slavery.
Enough dancing around with these stupid attempts to make a horribly demeaning social/economic system sound palatable when it was anything but.
Slaves were not immigrants. Next they’ll try to say Manifest Destiny wasn’t about the forced subordination and disenfranchisement of Native Americans.
They tried to whitewash that manifest destiny bullcrap in junior high school when I was coming up.
My grandfather was a Russian Jewish immigrant who grew up in the tenements in NYC. It was a shitty life, he got polio, but put himself through City College and eventually law school. A very impressive accomplishment, to be sure. However, he insisted, to the point of driving 8 year old me to tears, that the slaves “had it easy… they got a free ride here and room + board.”
This was not a slip of the tongue. This was not an accident. This is what we mean when we talk about the subconscious racism in America. Many people believe that if your life is shit it must be your own weakness. If slaves had this awesome start, African Americans must therefore fall short only because of their laziness. It’s so frustrating to see successful people refuse to acknowledge that their success reflects well on them but cannot be used as a basis to judge others.
I think Carson is a smug SOB. He saw what was going on in Baltimore and judged himself to be better than those around him because he was a surgeon in this famous hospital and they were living in run down homes, possibly selling drugs or in gangs. Instead of wanting to help, he judged them and declare himself the better man for being able to rise above poverty and inner city life.
Carson seems like someone who steps on others to lift himself up. He definitely has that “if I could do it, anyone could” attitude, which is dangerous. The whole “anyone can pull themselves up by the bootstraps and excel in America” narrative is a false one because we know the playing field isn’t even. So yeah, but Carson framing it like slaves all came here with a gleam in their eye looking for a better life just adds to the right wing narrative that African Americans are lazy and don’t want to lift themselves up. It absolves white Americans from any role in keeping African Americans down, which is dangerous and racist.
Yes, exactly! The implication is we all started on even footing. We do not.
Yep great point, that seems to be the psychology of Carson and his “origin story”. And indeed I think that is why he was installed in HUD—-for the GOP to say “Look here, this guy pulled himself up on his bootstraps, so why does anyone need any of these programs?”
What’s next, the GOP will be characterizing slaves as “unpaid agricultural interns”??
I doubt your grandfather was aware that the average life expectancy of a young healthy male slave recently sold to a Louisiana sugar plantation was between seven and ten years, before being worked to death or whipped to death, whichever came first.
Ben’s in the Sunken Place.
My mom loves him and said she’d love to meet him one day. I asked her before what she makes of all his weird statements and she said he is so brilliant that he is on another plane of intelligence that we cannot understand. She is also jealous I saw him speak in college. I will tell you, I knew there was something up with the guy when he started talking about abortion and how it violated the Hippocratic oath. This was long before he started showing his true colors to the public (he was still a practicing surgeon). And whoever said it up further is totally right, far right wingers use people like Ben to say “look we love this black guy, we aren’t racist!” Or “look this black man is criticizing Obama so he must be right!” See also Sheriff David Clark, Diamond and Silk.
It’s actually fitting that one of the few African-Americans in the Trump administration is an embarrassment to African-Americans. What else could we possibly have expected?
Brilliant surgeon. Dysfunctional human being with a tortured relationship with his own blackness. Please go deal in private. I do not wish to bear witness to his tortured logic and disturbing thought process. And friendly reminder, totally unqualified for this job.
Damn you Trump! *shakes fist*
Dafuq did I just read? Omfg.
I have no words.
Is his brain so empty you could pour anything in and he would believe it?
Does anyone else remember a news article from a few month ago that he and Johns Hopkins had parted ways, this way bef he started campaigning? To me, that’s one of the saddest aspects of this- he was a gifted neurosurgeon who did a lot of good. Why abandon that to become a buffoon who spouts the dumbest crap? It’s like Bannon is giving him talking points. Just such a waste.
I think he had an undetected stroke or something similar. He may have had some odd beliefs and personality traits before that, but he doesn’t talk like a very smart person – he talks like someone with some neurological damage.
My guess is that he and Johns Hopkins parted ways because Carson was no longer functional as a surgeon. He was making mistakes and getting sued. He probably could no longer be insured for malpractice.
In other words- Ben is what we always called a bit addled. Not able to work anymore without close supervision on simple jobs. Comes across as kind of sweet, actually (remember when he was being interviewed and suddenly his sleepy eyes popped open and he scurried off saying “my luggage!”?), so the addling may have softened some rough edges. But he is going to continue to say silly things and will be easily manipulated.
Honestly, I don’t know how this man who made some remarkably stupid statements and seems of rather mediocre intelligence ever became a brain surgeon. It’s a mystery.
Ben Carson is dumb AF. He also told HUD staff that he could zap their brains into reciting a whole book from 60 years ago. And remember when he said he believed that the pyramids were used to store grains instead of being a pharaoh’s tomb. Or how about when he said ObamaCare is worst than slavery. That the fact that 21 million people had health insurance for the first time wasn’t a joyous fact, but something worse than slavery. Smh. Ben Carson is in the sunken place.
Meanwhile Bannon and Miller said that the country is comprised of 20% immigrants. Um…we’re an immigrant nation b$:@h. Unless you’re Native American or black, you’re descended from immigrants too. 🙄
I remember this Carson guy growing up because my brother had a friend whose older brother was diagnosed with a childhood brain tumor. Carson was the doctor/surgeon who was in charge of his treatment. I remember that the parents tried to sue Carson after their son died because they accused him of proceeding (doing surgery) prior to their consent and he passed away during the operation. I think they tried to sue for around a million dollars (this was way back in 1998-99) and of course they lost the lawsuit. I recall trying to defend Carson because something as tricky as brain cancer comes with great risks, especially since he was so well renowned as a pediatric brain surgeon. Hearing all the crap come out of his mouth the last few years really makes me regret my support and I really wish that poor family would have won. Maybe he would have gone away. Oh well.
No self respecting black person would ever attempt to disrespect our history this way. He may be a brain surgeon but this man needs someone to work on his soul.
I think I will watch “12 Years an Immigrant” tonight on demand
You made me laugh with that one😄
Nicely said!
Yes, and there’s that excellent story about the way in which black people “migrated” to the US, “Routes”.
You should send that one to John Oliver…
This comment FTW! I gotta laugh. If I don’t, I might cry.
There are some people that I wish I could send back in time, just for a few years even …to live in that time and see things first hand… ARGH! How this guy became a brain surgeon baffles me.
He didn’t actually say slaves were immigrants, he said “immigrants who came on slave ships.” They don’t have the same meaning.
He didn’t say that they’re the same nor compared them, so what the underlying meaning to what he wanted to say was that…there were immigrants who traveled along with the ships full of slaves to America that had the American dream.
Why do people have to take everything out of context? Of course we just love drama in America.
Ok thank you for the extra special alternative translation. From what I recall, slave ships weren’t the love boat. They actually just carried cargo and slaves (humans who were considered merchandise). There you go.
You must have graduated from Trump U with a degree in mansplaining. Nice try but no cigar.
I don’t normally say this to people I don’t know, but honestly STFU!!
Oh FFS! Have you seen the inside of a slave ship? There was NO ROOM for voluntary immigrants. It was crew and slaves.
“Kidnap victim” might be the term you’re looking for
Please tell me this was sarcasm
You know slavery actually still is a real problem nowadays. Of course it all might be just a big misunderstanding. May I ship you on that special cruise so you can explain it all better ?
Lady, are you really this daft??????
The immigrants he was referring to were the Africans They were mostly naked, and chained by the neck, feet and hands. They were packed by the hundreds on the ships like a can of sardines, face facing the neighbor’s feet lying down. MOST of the Africans DIED at sea. The White crew knew most would not make it which was why they worked off the percentage of those expected to live. If the weight of the cargo ( The Africans) was too heavy for the ship, they would throw them overboard. The voyage would take anywhere from 3 -6 months to reach the Americas. Most of the Africans were dropped off in South America, the Carribean and Central America. Less than 5% were shipped to the United States.
And please don’t think that they scrounged around in Africa for Africans only on the day of the ship’s departure. Africans were taken from almost ALL parts of Africa (central, west, south, north, east) and placed in forts built along the coasts of Africa as holding cells for captured Africans to stay until the ships arrive. An African could be captured and held against his will for as long as 6-9 months before he would board a ship. And yes, many died at the holding fort/cell as well.
Let’s be clear. NO African boarded any ship for the “dream” of a better life with the White people. They knew something bad was happening to them and were scared for their future. They were ripped from their families without cause. The way they were treated upon capture, while waiting to be “deported”, as well as the ship’s savage conditions and the crew’s treatment toward them during the voyage ( rape, murder, sickness, brutality) gave them no reason to look forward to their new hostile home. And this is why there were so many revolts and resistances on the ships.
The only ” immigrants of color”on slave ships were slaves! Do you think there were POC steering the ship? Cmon!
WHAT?! He says, “immigrants who worked even harder/longer for less” as if they some how were paid less of a wage or received less benefit than others at that time in history. Well, hey, dumba$$, how about the fact that they received zero, not less, ZERO, plus had the crap beat out of them regularly if they didn’t produce the output that they were expected to produce AND doing all of this against their will after being ripped from their homeland?! What an ignorant a-hole. Where is his degree from The University of Phoenix?
This is amazing to me. My dad (who passed away 21 years ago) knew Ben Carson well and was involved in his medical training. My father was one of the nicest guys ever who saw the good in everyone and when they came out with garbage like a lifetime channel movie about what an inspiration Dr. Carson is I told my husband that I hope wherever my dad is that he doesn’t have cable. Now I am at a loss.He thought he was a bad-tempered professionally overrated man with dangerous views regarding women and politics. Of course that doesn’t make it so and my father was far from perfect as we all are but he really didn’t feel this negatively about any other colleague.
Very interesting–your dad called it decades ago!
Petition to strap Carson into the chair from A Clockwork Orange and have him watch “Roots”…
Then he tried to walk back and say they were “involuntary immigrants.” Unbelievable
Being kidnapped and forced into slavery thousand miles aways from your home with a great chance to perish on the way or upon arrival due to harshest and utmost inhuman conditions is a human trafficking and not an immigration.
And we have to pay for this moron!
Turn in your American card and your African American card.
Damn, Ben.
He let Trump’s lunacy rub off on him.
Sadly he has been saying this type of idiotic stuff long before he got on the Trump train.
His past quotes include such pronouncements as prison turns people gay, the Egyptian pyramids were grain stores, the Jews would have prevented the holocaust if they had been armed with guns and many, many more such idiocy.
Further proof that you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to be a neurosurgeon.
Ben Carson was a ground breaking pioneer in his field. Outside of his field, he is an out of touch, babbling idiot.
Each and every one of Trump’s cabinet appointments is atrocious. This is purposeful, being Bannon’s plan to “deconstruct” America. In a million years I would never have predicted that the federal government is out to destroy the federal government. These people are traitors of the first order. This is like a bad episode of the Twilight Zone. When do we wake up?
Reagan tried to do the same thing, just not quite as fast. He also campaigned on the idea of less government. His solution to EPA limits on discharges being surpassed was to raise the limits so the offenders were now in compliance. He trashed the very good work study program that helped me and my brother so much getting through college, and also helped the institutions. His cuts to government assistance resulted in children with protein deficiency symptoms and an alarming increase in soup kitchens. In Washington DC, there was even a soup kitchen that catered only to children. The kids would “pay” for food priced at a penny, since the staff figured they could find pennies on the street. Reagan’s Education secretary was supposed to dismantle the educational programs, but once he saw how well they worked, he didn’t want to do that anymore. So he was replaced. Reagan put a premillenialist in charge of the Department of the Interior who didn’t understand why we shouldn’t just sell public lands now since Jesus was coming soon… etc. etc. etc.
And Reagan doubled the military budget from about $150 billion to $300 billion.
This guy needs to go away. Who the hell equates immigration with kidnapping and forced labor?
Immigration implies a choice. Slaves did not have a choice. They didnt choose to be ripped apart from their families and taken to a strange land. And they “worked for less” because they would have whipped/killed if they didnt. SMH.
This^^
“Worked for less”? What’s less than nothing?
Im quoting what he said.
Certainly, it wasn’t easy for those of African heritage who had not come here voluntarily and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves. There was discrimination and hardship and poverty. But, like you, they no doubt found inspiration in all those who had come before them. And they were able to muster faith that, here in America, they might build a better life and give their children something more. -Barack Obama in 2015.
Again, context and wording. See comment above. False equivalence.
Self hate. That’s all that is, self hate.
It’s pretty scary we have DUMP, and now we have this dumb*ss!!! We;re going down fast!
But most of the first generation of slaves that came to the United States were inmigrants, brought from Africa exactly for that purpose. I’m not sure what his point was with that comment but it doesn’t sound to me like he’s denying slavery, at least from what’s cited above. It’s hard to know the whole context, though, because most of the media are only citing those lines. Can someone give more (unbiased) context to understand?
Nevermind, I just watched the whole thing and this guy is an idiot.
The word “immigrant” has the feeling of voluntary migration from one country to another. It’s true that some immigrants to the USA didn’t have much choice (refugees facing starvation or persecution back home or deported prisoners), but most had some choices. Many came for economic improvement and the hope for job opportunities, just as many do today. Some regretted that choice, but a long time ago they couldn’t realistically go back to the Old Country due to distance and expense.
Ben Carson and that vile Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke are the epitome of what it means to be an Uncle Tom. The worst sellouts of the African-American community. They both disgust me.