Dr Ben Carson has been trying his best to debunk the notion that one needs to be smart to be a neurosurgeon for years, and he made his latest attempt Monday.
Whilst speaking to employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), which he has been appointed to head, Carson passed certain remarks about slaves which has sparked up a storm online.
According to Dr Carson, slaves ‘came’ to the US at the bottom of slave ships, yet worked hard in the hopes of one day attaining a better lives for their descendants.
“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.” Carson said.
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His remarks drew immediate ire online, with many pointing out to him that people who were forcibly brought into the country cannot be described as immigrants. Immigrating implies making a choice to move to a certain country from your own country – slaves never had that choice.
But Carson doubled down on his comments when confronted, writing on twitter that:
“You can be an involuntary immigrant…slaves didn’t just give up and die, our ancestors made something of themselves.”
He added, “An immigrant is: ‘a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.”
Again, key word ‘comes’. Slaves did not ‘come’, they were violently ‘brought’.
As Samuel L. Jackson noted on twitter following Carson’s remarks – ‘malafakka please’
..
OK!! Ben Carson….I can’t! Immigrants ? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!! MUTHAFUKKA PLEASE!!!#dickheadedtom
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) March 6, 2017