Telling American blacks to “grow up,” 68-year-old former neurosurgeon Secretary of Housing and Urban Development infuriated 46-year-old former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams rejected completely Carson’s analysis of so-called “systemic racism” in America. Abrams, a vocal critic of 74-year-old President Donald, hopes to cement her front-runner status to become 77-year-old former Vice President and Democrat nominee Joe Biden’s running mate. Calling Carson’s take on race relations an “infantile response” on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, Abrams couldn’t contain her ire at Carson. She only hoped that the statement was made by Trump and not Carson, to promote the Democrat view that Trump is a bonafide racist. Abrams, known for her fiery rhetoric, unloaded on Carson in a friendly atmosphere.
Carson’s been around a long time and expressed his views on race in his inspiring autobiography, “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson story.” Carson grew up in Detroit’s “Eight Mile” zone, one of the most impoverished inner city neighborhood’s in America. Without a father president in his life, his strong relationship with his mother kept him out of trouble, away from gangs with his nose in his books on his way to Yale University and University of Michigan Medical School. Carson speaks with some authority about what it takes in America to lift yourself up, regardless of race, ethnicity or religion to achieve the pinnacle of success. Stacey Abrams, too, knows what it’s like to buckle down as a youth on her way to Spelman College, a master’s degree from University of Texas, Austin and Yale Law School J.D. degree. Both Carson and Abrams are extremely accomplished African Americans.
Abram’s been a forceful voice for the black community, working for equal rights especially in poor communities where youths are subjected to substandard education and criminal activity. With the May 25 George Floyd chokehold murder in the forefront for the black community, Abrams found Carson’s words about “growing up” insulting. Abram’s talked about Trump receiving the GOP nomination in Jacksonville on the 60th anniversary of the Ku Klux Klan attacking black civil rights demonstrators. Abram’s took umbrage to Carson dismissing street demonstrations as going nowhere. “We’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious motive to it,” Carson said, getting under Abrams’ skin. Abrams backs Black Lives Matter and other protests groups trying to dial back the heavy-handed role of law enforcement in black communities around the country.
No one grew up among more gangs and crime than Carson. Carson believes the values in the black community must reflect a strong work ethic to overcome socioeconomic obstacles, including single-parent families prevalent in the black community. “This isn’t about growing up,” Abrams said. “It’s about taking responsibility and having accountability for the actions that have been taken by this country and by people acting on behalf of this country,” Abrams said, not buying the argument that Floyd’s killer was an aberration, a bad cop. Abrams agrees with BLM, currently seizing six-blocks in Seattle as a police-free, “autonomous zone,” so black people can have safety against a heavy-handed racist police. Unlike Carson, Abrams does believe the United States has a problem with “systemic racism,” something that must be changed now.
Carson turned Abram’s argument upside down, not buying the “systemic racism” argument. Voting in 58-year-old President Barack Obama twice, Carson can’t see how white society has a systemic racial problem. “We really need to move away from that. We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, you know, of renaming everything,” Carson said, opposing renaming military bases named after Confederate generals. Carson also rejects violent protesters desecrating Civil War monuments to the vanquished Confederacy. Carson urges young black people to get beyond the “slave mentality,” rising up like he did to seize opportunity available to him in education. Abrams supports Black Live Matters’ call for reparations from the federal government. BLM seeks nothing less than a redistribution of American wealth.
Carson objects to the violent street demonstrations leading to rioting, looting, arson and anarchy, all designed to send a strong message to Washington. BLM Co-founder Alicia Garza said June 7 that if the government doesn’t take BLM’s demands to de-fund the police seriously, the street demonstrations will continue. BLM’s manifesto on its Website shows its leftist roots, believing wholeheartedly in a major redistribution of wealth in the United States. Garza finds capitalism repugnant, designed to hold down communities of color. Abrams finds Carson’s perspective on American success deeply flawed. “I think that is a fairly infantile response—to say that words don’t have meanings, that dates don’t have meanings, that dates don’t have power, Abrams said. “It really gets to the point of being ridiculous after a while,” Carson said. “You know, we’ve really going to have to grow up as a society.”
