Dr. Ben Carson is unquestionably a pioneer in neurosurgery and that can’t be taken away from him, but his political observations leave a lot to be desired. The former secretary of HUD and noted conservative was a guest on CNBC’s
Squawk Box program over the weekend, stating that Delta and other companies should’ve opted out of the discussions surrounding Georgia’s
new voting law.
Delta joined other prominent companies such as Coca-Cola and Major League Baseball, who all had strong criticisms of the new voting law in
Georgia that opponents say restrict access to voting, particularly to Black, brown and poor voters. Supporters of the law claim that Georgia and other states have voting laws that need to be repaired, and it is worth noting that an overwhelming majority of those in favor of these laws are in the Republican Party.
Carson believes that Delta and the other companies should have stayed out of speaking on the civic process in the Peach State, making a staunch defense of the new law and its necessity in regards to upcoming elections. When
Squawk Box co-anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin posted a question to Carson while agreeing with the point that rules should be in place in regards to voting but added that the executives and companies are unified by the idea that the new laws
could hinder some voters.
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“I’ve yet to have somebody explain to me that those rules that are there to codify early voting and make sure voting ID requirements are met, how are those restricting people from voting? Someone has got to explain that,” Carson said in response.
Local NBC outlet
11 Alive has a great breakdown of the Election Integrity Act, which had full-throated backing by Republican lawmakers and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp amid outcry from voting rights advocates in Georgia and across the nation.
In other news, Carson also penned an opinion piece for
The Washington Post this past Sunday (April 18) that centers on the idea of racial equity. Using a well-worn tactic of evoking the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Carson opened the piece by saying that equity is essentially another form of racism as it would exclude others in favor of another.
It rings heavily of the same “All Lives Matter” rhetoric that has decidedly missed the point of what equality or equity is. Carson’s observation that seeking equity takes aim and centers all white people as the overlords of oppression and puts poor whites on the outs simply due to their race is short-sighted and not at all factual.
That should ring familiar to Carson and those who think that equity is a ploy to oppress in reverse, considering Black and brown people in this nation are routinely given nothing that resembles the equality Carson pines for in the piece.
Across Twitter, a strong reaction cropped up in response to Carson’s
Squawk Box appearance. In the name of fairness, we’ve added tweets from all sides, mostly because we believe in equality, equity, and all of their related terms too.
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Photo: Getty
