Ben Carson refers to slaves as "immigrants" in speech to HUD
Dr. Ben Carson, the new Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, compared slaves to immigrants in a speech to HUD employees on Monday.
After talking about the immigrant experience at Ellis Island, Carson said, “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, who worked even longer and even harder for less. But they, too, had a dream.”
“This is our opportunity to enhance that dream,” he added.
After Carson delivered his remarks, the NAACP published a tweet questioning Carson’s statement.
Immigrants??? https://t.co/f0RH7iXBrn
— NAACP (@NAACP) March 6, 2017
The comment arrived on the heels of Carson instructing HUD employees at the event to visit Ellis Island and “look at those pictures of all of those people who are hanging up there from every part of the world, many of them carrying all of their earthly belongings in their two hands.”
Carson was addressing the subject of attaining societal progress through hard work and resilience, a theme common in many of his speeches, when he skirted into the issue of slavery.
During a 2015 rally at the Arkansas state capitol building, Carson made an almost identical comment, saying that immigrants at the bottom of slaves ships came “involuntarily” to America.
The rest of the speech was less controversial.
Carson, who has no experience in the public sector, attempted to mend the gap between his life as a surgeon and the bureaucratic work of HUD. He cited issues such as lead poisoning and mold infestation, both of which, he said, intersect directly with his previous occupation.
Additionally, Carson likened HUD to the medical sector, telling the audience that the majority of people who go to work for either occupation do it because they care about helping people.
Carson pledged that his first goal at the agency would be to embark on a listening tour across various departments around the country.
In the question-and-answer session at the end, Carson did not offer specific proposals to address issues such as enforcing Civil Rights protections in housing and fostering public-private partnerships for manufactured housing.
President Trump nominated Carson in December for the HUD position. He was approved by the Senate, 58-41, last Thursday. He was sworn in along with Rick Perry, Secretary of the Department of Energy, by Vice President Mike Pence last Friday.