Ben Carson: Obama was ‘raised white’

Ben Carson said President Obama was “raised white” and can’t understand the African-American experience the way he can, according to a Politico podcast published Tuesday. “He was, you know, raised white”, Carson said to Politico.

Carson has often told the story about how his mother worked multiple jobs while he was growing up just to make ends meet and said there’s no comparison between his upbringing and Obama’s. Last year, media mogul Rupert Murdoch suggested in a tweet that, if elected, Ben Carson would be the first “real black president”, something he later apologized for, the BBC reported. “Many of his formative years were spent in Indonesia”, Carson said to journalist Glenn Thrush.

Thrush: “So you think these criticisms by progressives principally – the MSNBCs and all those folks, and even some people sort of close to Obama – you think the criticisms that some of the critiques of the White House and Obama in general were rooted in racism? He didn’t grow up like I grew up by any stretch of the imagination”, he said.

Part of Carson’s central message is that he came from an impoverished home in Detroit during the civil rights era, rising to become a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon.

On CNN’s New Day, host Chris Cuomo pointed out to Issa that the Republican Party faced challenges in the presidential race because of its tone. “It’s just that when a claim is made that he represents the black experience, it’s just not true”. “I think the way that I am treated by the left is racism”, Carson said when asked what was his last personal experience with racism.

“They assume you’re black, you have to think a certain way”. I know that in the progressive side of things, they like to say that the Republicans are racist. “I know that. I haven’t experienced that”, he added.

Pundits have been quick to denounce the words of Carson as being divisive and showing that he is a risk as a presidential candidate because he is essentially engaging in a game of “Who is the most black” while saying that ethnicity should not matter. Once a role model for black Americans because of his achievements in the field of medicine, Carson’s indifference to Obama’s ascendency to the highest office in US government has caused some to question his stature.