Ben Carson Follows Up on Slavery Remarks: 'You Can Be an Involuntary Immigrant'

[DonViejo]

by Josh Feldman | 10:40 pm, March 6th, 2017

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson followed up tonight on his earlier remarks in which he referred to slaves as immigrants.

Carson issued the following statement on Facebook:

I’m proud of the courage and perseverance of Black Americans and their incomprehensible struggle from slavery to freedom. I’m proud that our ancestors overcame the evil and repression that we know as slavery.

The slave narrative and immigrant narrative are two entirely different experiences. 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. They saw this country as a land of opportunity. 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.

We should revel in the fact that although we got here through different routes, we have many things in common now that should unite us in our mission to have a land where there is liberty and justice for all.

more + audio
http://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-carson-follows-up-on-slavery-remarks-you-can-be-an-involuntary-immigrant/

[AJT]

1. I wonder who actually wrote that.

[Phoenix61]

4. His PR/Damage Control Team

[Turbineguy]

2. I'm glad he's found somebody to write for him

and clean up his messes.

You know, the way slaves do?

[cannabis_flower]

3. Yeah, keep digging

[MineralMan]

5. Deeper, Ben! Stick That Foot in Deeper!

[Greybnk48]

6. Old "Batshit Ben" doesn't want to use the 'S' word.

1984 is no longer fiction.

[nocalflea]

7. From the title , I thought, "and now he's insulting the Australians".

How much you wanna bet he plagiarized this ?

[PsychoBabble]

8. Ben, it's called kidnapping. Slavery.

I've stopped being ok with these idiots. White hot fury at their selfish cruelty.

[Sunlei]

9. Moron Republican- REFUGEES turning themselves in at US borders are NOT immigrants (visa in hand).

[BumRushDaShow]

10. Um

after he completely made a fool out of himself in front of the entire Department of HUD (and I expect it was broadcast to the field offices).

Will he send a Department-wide email with that statement too?

[WinkyDink]

11. The actual key words are hidden in the brambles (intentional allusion): "access to......."

Republicans to a person bow down to these words as they worship Mammon.

"ACCESS TO": equal opportunity, not the equal opportunity itself; private schools; gated communities; high-paying jobs;....

"ACCESS TO": HEALTH INSURANCE AND HEALTH CARE.

IF YOU HAVE ENOUGH MONEY.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ GIVES ONE "ACCESS TO" A DECENT LIFE IN REPUBLICAN AMERICA.

[WinkyDink]

12. And he, or his writer, still talks stupidly: "slaves were forced here against their will and lost

all their opportunities."

WTH does he mean here by "lost all their opportunities"? What they LOST was their FREEDOM.

[Wounded Bear]

13. Sorry, but slaves were Imports, not immigrants...

they were brought here for commercial purposes and treated as chattel.

Of course, the white descendents of the people who brought them here and enslaved them are now blaming the descendents of slaves for being here.

[Ms. Toad]

15. Good point. n/t

[leftstreet]

31. Tobacco, rum, cotton, sugar, slaves all commodities

[Ms. Toad]

14. While I agree that you can be an involuntary immigrant -

that's not what his comments yesterday said.

I had hoped he was just suggesting that voluntary or not, slaves were immigrants because they moved (albeit NOT of their own choice) to a country other than their birth country. Bad, because it whitewashes slavery by calling it something acceptable - in the same way that omiting Jews from the statement in Holocause Remembrance Day, but not literally false.

I went looking for his entire statement - because I suspected that we were picking and choosing to make him appear more of a buffoon than he actually was. I was wrong. He expressly linked slave "immigration" to dreams for future generations. Which is about 180 degrees from the above clarification.

[Me.]

16. Oh Just Shut Up Already

[hatrack]

17. Jesus Christ, STOP DIGGING!!!

What a dumbass.

[hatrack]

18. See also: "Involuntary Suicide"

[BeckyDem]

19. Involuntary immigrant? He is fucking ridiculous and must be called out for covering for the Trump

agenda. No one is this stupid.

[ismnotwasm]

20. Fucking idiot

[SFnomad]

21. "Involuntary Immigrant"? Is that a cousin to "Alternative Facts"? n/t

[matt819]

22. That's a new one

Involuntary immigrant.

Ben, we call those involuntary immigrants slaves.

Of course, then there were the involuntary immigrants (or, technically, emigrants) from England to Australia in the 1800s. They weren't slaves; they were criminals, and Australia was punishment (turns out that in the long run, the joke was on the British).

Ben, are you really that stupid, or are you channelling liberals who like to mock conservatives as a form of performance art or guerilla theater?

[Mendocino]

23. NO Ben, they were not immmigrants.

Immigrants could become citizens. It took a Civil War, Emancipation, Amendments and years of struggle just to get to what is still today an incomplete version of citizenship.

Good grief, how obtuse is this guy?

[onenote]

24. Other examples of "involuntary" immigrants

Thousands of French and Austrian Jews transported by railcar to Auschwitz -- immigrants
Thousands of American POWs who were captured in the Philippines during WWII and transferred to, and died in, Japanese slave camps -- immigrants.
The Malaysians being held "hostage" by North Korea -- immigrants.

According to the Oxford English dictionary, an immigrant is someone who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. Now, its true that the definition doesn't distinguish between voluntary and involuntary immigration, but implicit in the definition is the notion of intent -- did the person intend to come to live permanently in a foreign country. Slaves didn't intend to live permanently in the US. Hell, they didn't intend to come here at all. It was someone else's intent, just as it was the intent of the Nazis, the Japanese, and the North Koreans in the examples above, not the intent of their captives.

[procon]

25. Does he have a split personality?

His second statement is as incomprehensible as his remark about, "Black Americans and their incomprehensible struggle from slavery to freedom." What? He can't understand why anyone, "Black" (loose the caps, Dude!) or rainbow hued, fought to live free of bondage?

He may have added his name to it, but Ben Carson didn't write that follow up statement. Some PR flack tried to put lipstick on that pig and the insane rhetoric came off as shallow and trite.

[SHRED]

26. No way this fool is a brain surgeon

[haele]

32. Idiot Savant. He has one skill which made him a lot of money. What he lacks is a mental filter.

Being able to discern facts from opinion or conjecture, assess motivations, or to otherwise be socially savvy or flexible is a function of mental/emotional filtering and cogitation. It requires the ability to make conjecture using the ability to mentally visualize concepts and experiences one may not be personally knowledgeable or aware of - the ability to "think outside the box".

Being able to do brain surgery only requires strong eye-hand coordination, focus, rote memory and pattern recognition. Everything is pretty much a logical progression for a brain surgeon.

Haele

[SHRED]

34. How'd he keep his eyes open long enough...

...to complete a surgery?

[Orrex]

27. Can we make him an involuntary expatriot?

I have a few other suggestions for that list, while I'm at it.

[heaven05]

28. to hell with this bootlicking idiot

[dhill926]

29. Seriously Ben...just go back to sleep...

[Blue_Tires]

30. yep...just keep digging