By Gabrielle Seunagal
HUD Secretary Ben Carson recently attracted media censure after making a controversial remark during his first address to employees. To quote Mr. Carson directly: “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.” Although Mr. Carson’s rhetoric was meant to uplifting and inspirational, not everyone perceived it in that manner. Critics slammed his commentary as rude, offensive, and inaccurate.
The Anne Frank Center blasted Mr. Carson via Twitter labeling his remarks as “tragic, shocking, and unacceptable.” They went on to rant that Carson’s status as an African American did not “give him a pass” and falsely branded the President as antisemitic. I am not surprised that liberals took his statements out of context, but I will give my take on what Mr. Carson said.
The aim of his speech was to inspire the American people. He spoke of opportunity, freedom, and dreams. The reference to slaves as immigrants was in no way meant to be derogatory or hurtful. His intention was to convey the message that anyone can achieve greatness in America if they are willing to work hard for it. However, it is no surprise that Democrats would twist his words. Liberals are infamous for their hatred of black conservatives and if they have the slightest room to attack, they will. If Ben Carson was a black liberal, the Left would have glossed over his remarks and even supported them.
Following the backlash, Mr. Carson spoke on Siruis XM radio to defend himself, and declared: “I think people need to actually look up the word immigrant. Whether you’re voluntary or involuntary, if you come from the outside to the inside, you’re an immigrant. Whether you’re legal or illegal, you come from the outside to inside, you’re an immigrant. Slaves came here as involuntary immigrants but they still had the strength to hold on.” The HUD secretary is absolutely correct. Immigrants are in fact persons who come to America from foreign land. Slaves were in fact immigrants, even though the way they came to this country was horrific and brutal.
Ben Carson: Slaves Were Immigrants Too?
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You have to remember that when talking to liberals you can’t use big words, plus you can’t use words with real meanings. They aren’t able to comprehend that. They use Newspeak.
Excuse me? Slavery was based on the color of your skin. Slavery was forever if born with dark skin. White indentured servitude was so very different from black slavery as to be from another galaxy of human experience,” as Donald Harman Akenson put it in If the Irish Ran the World: Montserrat, 1630-1730. How so? Chattel slavery was perpetual, a slave was only free once they they were no longer alive; it was hereditary, the children of slaves were the property of their owner; the status of chattel slave was designated by ‘race’, there was no escaping your bloodline; a chattel slave was treated like livestock, you could kill your slaves while applying “moderate correction” and the homicide law would not apply; the execution of ‘insolent’ slaves was encouraged in these slavocracies to deter insurrections and disobedience, and their owners were paid generous compensation for their ‘loss’; an indentured servant could appeal to a court of law if they were mistreated, a slave had no recourse for justice.
immigrants chose to come here. Slaves were kidnapped. Unlike institutionalized chattel slavery, indentured servitude was neither hereditary nor lifelong; unlike black slaves, white indentured servants had legal rights; unlike black slaves, indentured servants weren’t considered property.
Let me try to educate., while you can go to Ancestry.com or other similar services and trace your roots back to Ellis Island and back to where ever your family immigrated from (Ireland, Italy, Germany, Russia, Australia….) MOST African-Americans can NOT trace our roots back to any country in Africa. Why? Because we were kidnapped & brought here against our will. Immigrants know their lineage and were not kidnapped. Some came over as indentured servants though to pay off their debts…they were not owned.
So when angry white folk say such ridiculous things like, “if you don’t like it here then go back to Africa…” Well, we would IF white people had not destroyed our lineage. We were brought here, separated from one another (family) & sold to the highest bidder. In the process of all of that we were raped (men & women), not only were we were raped physically but we were raped of our names, language, religion our heritage and every possession we had…so for these reasons and many others one can never say that those black people in the belly of slave ships were immigrants. But again, I don’t expect you to be capable of understanding at all.