Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson was awarded a little spotlight from the media today when he said that President Obama was not raised like a typical African-American, but was “raised white.” Carson then went on CNN and doubled down on that original statement.
“I grew up in Detroit, and I grew up in Boston. In Boston, we lived in the ghetto. There were a lot of violent episodes there. There were rats, there were roaches. It was dire poverty,” Carson said, speaking of his mother who worked around-the-clock but refused to accept welfare. “Now, let me contrast that to the President, who went to private schools, grew up in a relatively affluent environment, had an opportunity to live in multiple cultures and different countries. I think that’s a very different experience.”
Carson maintained that he was not “criticizing” Obama. But he had gone further in an interview with Politico’s Glenn Thrush on his “Off Message” podcast that aired Tuesday.
“He’s an ‘African’ American. He was, you know, raised white,” the retired neurosurgeon said. “So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch.”
