Did Ben Carson Liken Slavery to Immigration?
Snopes reports that on 6 March 2017, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was the target of disdain for a statement interpreted by critics as likening the abduction and forced transport of African slaves to America with immigrants arriving on the shores of the U.S.: The controversial comment was made during Carson’s first address to employees since being confirmed as the Trump administration’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
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. 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.
KJ