Advertisement

Ben Carson claims slaves were immigrants

No.

Housing a Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson speaks to HUD employees in Washington on Monday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh
Housing a Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson speaks to HUD employees in Washington on Monday. CREDIT: AP Photo/Susan Walsh

During his first speech to Housing and Urban Development (HUD) staff on Monday, HUD Secretary Ben Carson characterized Africans who were forcibly taken to the United States and sold into slavery as immigrants.

In a passage of his speech that was intended to motivate staff to think big, Carson characterized America as “a land of dreams and opportunity” — in his view, even for slaves.

“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less,” he said. “But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in their land.”

Implicit in the notion of “immigrant,” however, is free will. An immigrant freely leaves one country to start a new life in another. A slave is taken from one country to another against their will and treated as property.

Advertisement

This isn’t the first time in recent days the Trump administration has tried to rewrite the history of racism in America. Late last month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos released a statement applauding Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) as “real pioneers when it comes to school choice.” Her comment overlooked the fact HBCUs were founded in response to segregated schools that left black students with no other option.

And last month, President Trump characterized slave-turned-social-reformer Frederick Douglass as “an example of somebody who’s done an amazing job that is being recognized more and more, I notice” — even though Douglass died in 1895. Asked to clarify Trump’s comments, Press Secretary Sean Spicer also appeared to be unaware that Douglass has been dead for more than a century, saying, “I think through a lot of the actions and statements that’s [Trump’s] gonna make, I think the contributions of Frederick Douglass will become more and more.”

Carson has defended widely discredited historical takes before. In 2015, video surfaced of him claiming in 1998 that his “own personal theory is that Joseph built the [Egypian] pyramids to store grain.” Asked about that 17 years later, Carson stood by his view despite a broad consensus among archaeologists that the pyramids were actually tombs for pharaohs.

Though one of Carson’s close confidants told CNN in November that Carson felt he was unqualified to run a federal agency, Carson was confirmed as HUD director last Thursday.

Advertisement

While his slaves-were-immigrants comment might go down as the most remembered aspect as of his first speech to staff, Carson also hinted at skepticism about civil rights protections and his resistance to big government.