“The Daily Show” ripped apart retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson’s claim that President Barack Obama “was raised white” on Wednesday night’s episode.
In an interview with Politico, Carson said Obama was “an ‘African’ American” and “was you know, raised white,” which Trevor (the first black host of “The Daily Show”) didn’t understand.
“So, Ben Carson is saying that because Obama didn’t grow up poor, he didn’t grow up black. That’s such a bullshit argument. Being poor isn’t what makes you black,” Noah said.
That criteria would be a bombshell for a large swath of Americans, Noah added.
“Because it if is, there are a lot of people living in trailers in the middle of American who will be very upset to hear the news,” he said. “But they’re not black and we know this. Because if they were, their trailers would have nicer rims.”
Watch Noah’s complete takedown of Carson, from Comedy Central, below:
Noah is so right – that is a great observation. If that is what makes one black, then a whole bunch more people have been checking the wrong box on the Census forms.
Carson’s statement about Obama was extremely shocking, and from anyone else other than Trump it would have gotten a lot of attention. But coming from Carson, who believes that the pyramids are grain silos and we have a truth serum, this is just another in a long line of wacky off-the-wall comments.
But it deserves special recognition as being racist garbage. Just because Dr. Carson is black doesn’t mean that he hasn’t bought into some very racist ideas of what it means to be black. And to have him of all people perpetuate it is even more disgusting than if a white person had implied that all black people were poor.
I’m sure Obama did have quite a different experience growing up than a majority of black folks especially in the home and some of the places he lived, but when he was out in public in america I’m sure he got treated no differently than most black folks in the US.
Edit: But quite differently than most white folks!
Carson is mad as a Hatter; has he ever uttered an intelligent idea?
It is an interesting psychological question here-- why are the rightwingers so obsessed with making Pres. Obama “something other”? We all know that the majority of GOPers don’t accept him as “like us” because he’s black. Now the black GOPer won’t accept him because he’s “not black enough.” Fella can’t win.
Haters gotta hate, I guess.