Carson ridiculed after referring to black slaves as ‘immigrants’
DONALD TRUMP’S housing secretary has been roundly criticised for an inaugural speech to staff in which he equated slaves with immigrants chasing the “American dream”.
Ben Carson, a former rival of Mr Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, was confirmed as secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week.
On Monday, he spoke of America as a “land of dreams and opportunities” that has drawn millions of people from overseas throughout its history.
“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, greatgrandsons, great-granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.”
The comments of Mr Carson, who is himself African American, were immediately met with derision on social media. Samuel L Jackson, the Oscar-nominated actor, led the condemnation. “Immigrants? In the bottom of SLAVE SHIPS??!!” he wrote on Twitter.
Some tweeted the definition of slave, while others asked if the chains that held them were perhaps just perceived as “baggage”.
A spokesman for HUD later called the row “the most cynical interpretation of the secretary’s remarks to an army of welcoming HUD employees”.
He added: “No one honestly believes he equates voluntary immigration with involuntary servitude.” Mr Carson, a 65-year-old eminent neurosurgeon, raised eyebrows during the election when he said a Muslim could not be the US president and that the Egyptian pyramids were to store grain, rather than pharoah’s tombs.
After the furore, he sought to clarify his slave comments on Facebook.
“The slave narrative and immigrant narrative are two entirely different experiences,” he wrote.
“Slaves were ripped from their families and their homes and forced against their will after being sold into slavery by slave traders. The immigrants made the choice to come to America.
“In contrast, slaves were forced here against their will and lost all their opportunities. We continue to live with that legacy. The two experiences should never be intertwined, nor forgotten, as we demand the necessary progress towards an America that’s inclusive and provides access to equal opportunity for all.”