I would encourage my fellow Trump (or Carson) critics to refrain from using slurs like “Uncle Tom” or descriptors like “whitest black man…”, which have racist overtones or are just outright racist. It’s easy to find things to criticize Carson (bigoted statements about Islam and Muslims, nutbar evidence-free pronouncements and conspiracy theories, ahistorical rambling, etc.) about without using such language.
After Dr. Carson’s unfortunate start, journalist Rosemary Armeo quipped:
Perhaps brain surgery isn’t as tough as we thought.
So before that they were exported, property.
It’s out of scope for the thread but I think it’s worth mentioning the so called child **migrant **programme to Australia (and Canada)
The difference is that these children escaped their servitude when they grew up, if they grew up. The reality was a high price for any dreams they had as they embarked from England. TheBritish inquiryhas just begun.
Those children I kidnapped and drowned in a lake were just “swimmers”. Those guys I chained to a rock in the desert were “sunbathers”. That’s technically true, so what’s the issue?
Our constitution did not count a slave as a person. It counted a slave as 3/5th’s of a person.
They didn’t come to this country. They were captured and dragged here in chains. And they were not immigrants. They were property. It is important to understand this. They were not considered people.
To speak of them as immigrants is to try to deflect and minimize the worst sin of our county and our species.
Calling Carson an uncle tom, which is basically what you’re doing, is pretty prejudiced and regrettable behavior. I don’t doubt Carson has some level of political ambition behind anything he says, but I don’t see any evidence he was trying to appeal to white people in that speech, it wasn’t an address to the Republican convention, it was basically a speech to HUD employees.
I agree with you this is insane ! Ben said nothing how many slaves committed suicide hoping they’ll get back to their home land . 
The American Dream was the most nightmare of their lives !
I think you could say the slaves were deported. A lot of people forget this (or never knew it) but there were plenty of Africans involved in the African slave trade. It was Africans who went out and captured other Africans and initially enslaved them. These African slave traders then brought their captives to the shore where they sold them to European, American, and Asian slave traders, who took them to other continents.
I have to say…so what? So some Africans also thought that they could capture and own people? Does that make it less evil? Does it somehow excuse the people who bought slaves?
You cannot say the slaves were deported. Again, they were sold as property, not banished as people. Deportees still had rights.
Even more to the point, they were not considered people PERIOD. 3/5 of a slaveowner’s “stock” was counted for the purposes of determining the amount of influence slave states had in the House of Representatives- this did nothing for the slaves themselves. It essentially rewarded those that could enslave the most human chattel.
Not so much “deported” as “exported.”
As someone who campaigned for the best part of a year he should have learnt by now to take great care what he says. But was it that bad? No. Yes, they were involuntary immigrants but immigrants nonetheless. And they were heading for a land that for their descendants could well prove to be a land of opportunity and fulfilled dreams. Many of those descendants of course would find those opportunities far scarcer than for their white compatriots and their dreams would remain but dreams but the fact is the home of their ancestors would in all probability have been even less kind to their hopes and dreams.
So could he have better phrased what he was saying? Oh yes. But did it deserve the piles of shit that have been dumped on it? It did not.
Why racist? Because it clearly describes a pattern of behavior that Carson has followed? Sorry if I call 'em as I see 'em and use terms that you don’t find PC enough for your sensibilities.
But please, continue the character assassination (with the ‘defense’ that you’re saying it about the post and not me). Impute some more beliefs to me that you know nothing about.
I am not calling him an Uncle Tom. I never said he was excessively servile. I am calling him a politician that presents stories to that his audience wants to hear. I believe they want to hear about an angry young black man who found God and became an amazing surgeon and Carson delivers it to them. I believe they want to hear that slaves were ‘involuntary immigrants’. In fact, I wager that most of the supporters of the notion that slaves could be described as ‘involuntary immigrants’ will be conservative leaning people and especially Republicans. So he screwed up and continued speaking to his political audience while talking to his employees. Maybe he will take the outrage to heart and learn to differentiate between HUD employees and white religious conservatives. Let’s hope so.
Commenting on Carson’s reference to slave “immigrants” Rosemary Armeo quipped:
- Perhaps brain surgery isn’t as tough as we thought. -
He didn’t “screw up”. He’s a public figure and knows anything he says in any setting will be news. The real audience was white conservatives; the employees were just props in his theatre.
Cut him some slack. I’m super-happy to have a post to quote next time he complains about liberals playing the racist card :).
Meanwhile, it’s frikkin racist to call someone an Uncle Tom, and you shouldn’t do it.
Well, that’s different!