Ben Carson: ‘Slave Ships’ Held ‘Immigrants’

While speaking with his employees on Monday, Ben Carson made a baffling claim that seemingly likened slaves to immigrants. Calling the United States a “land of dreams and opportunity,” the newly confirmed housing and urban development secretary said, “There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less.” He added: “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.” It’s unclear what the retired neurosurgeon meant by the suggestion that immigrants came over on slave ships; however, the NAACP responded to Carson’s claim with a one-word response: “Immigrants???”