Ben Carson says slaves came to ‘land of dreams, opportunity’

WASHINGTON — Ben Carson compared slaves to immigrants seeking a better life in his first official address Monday as Housing and Urban Development Secretary, setting off an uproar on social media.

Carson told a room packed with hundreds of federal workers that the Africans captured, sold and transported to America against their will had the same hopes and dreams as early immigrants.

“That’s what America is about. A land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less,” said Carson, speaking extemporaneously as he paced the room with a microphone. “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.”

A senior HUD official who spoke on condition of anonymity said no one in the room interpreted the comments as anything but a “heartfelt introduction to the HUD family.”

“He was making a point about people who came to this country for a better life for their kids,” the official said. “Only the most cynical interpretation would conflate voluntary immigration to this country with involuntary servitude.”

Near the end of the town hall event, during a question and answer session, one HUD staffer thanked Carson for addressing the staff, noting that many had been worried about how the Trump administration would approach HUD and its work. The staffer said that she had been reassured by Carson’s comments as others clapped.