Dr. Ben Carson Strikes Back at MSNBC's Toure Neblett: I'm No Uncle Tom

NewsBusters.org ^ | March 26, 2013 | Noel Sheppard

[Kaslin]

MSNBC’s Toure Neblett last weekend mocked Dr. Benjamin Carson as a token “black friend” to Republicans admired only to “assuage their guilt” for past racial indiscretions.

On Fox News’s America Live Tuesday, Carson struck back at his liberal media critics saying that he’s no “Uncle Tom” (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary):

Dr. Ben Carson Strikes Back at MSNBC's Toure Neblett: I'm No Uncle Tom

MEGYN KELLY, HOST: Boy, have you been attacked. A token you've been called, an Oreo, please pardon me for repeating these to you. Most recently a commentator on a rival network said you’ve been embraced because you're smart and helpful in assuaging white people's guilt and went to on to say that you’re enjoying the GOP’s version of affirmative action because then people will get to put on a bumper sticker on their car saying “How can I be racist, I would have voted for Dr. Ben Carson?” Your thoughts on the attacks on you?

DOCTOR BENJAMIN CARSON: Well, you know, if you don't have anything useful to say then you attack people. And you know, if you feel that your house of cards has been discovered and is starting to come unraveled, you become very desperate. You know, intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don't sit around and call each other names. That's what you can find on a third grade playground. This is something that we need to move beyond in this country, and let's have a real discussion about the real facts. If somebody disagrees, let's talk about why they disagree, let's talk about the pros and cons, let's see if we can find some accommodation. But to sit around and act like third graders is nonproductive.

KELLY: So quick to dismiss some of your ideas because they're coming from a man who happens to be a black man. And Condoleezza Rice actually was on the Fox News Channel a couple of years ago speaking to our own Sean Hannity, and she said, because she was subjected to some of this, “If you look at a black person and you say that person has to think in a particular way, I don't care if you're white or black, if you say that, then you've got a prejudice, then you are the one with the prejudice.” Do you think that the people who just dismiss you as a token have a prejudice of their own?

CARSON: Oh, well, there's no question. They feel if that you look a certain way then you have to stay on the plantation. You know I've heard some people refer to me as an Uncle Tom. Well, obviously they don't know what an Uncle Tom is because they need to read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” You’ll see that he was very, very subservient, kind of go along to get along type person. Obviously, that's not what I'm doing.

And what the left frequently does, and some aspects of the right, too, is they try to make life so unpleasant for anybody who disagrees with them that people will keep silent. And I know that it's working because so many people come up to me and say, “Thank you, thank you for having the courage to express this. This is the same way I feel.” But most people won't speak up. I'm trying to get people to speak up because, you know, this country is changing into something else, and we need to make sure that we really want it to change into something else and not just end up there and ask ourselves how did we get there.

[Gator113]

Good. On that we would all agree.

[Belteshazzar]

C’mon, Toure is the brightest candle on the plantation.

[RobbyS]

Obama’s only gift is talking. Judging by the style of his letters, I doubt he wrote his books. He may have dictated them, but don’t think he put them in final form.

[chris37]

As a 2nd amendment purist, obviously I do have some trouble with his position, but yeah, I do love the man too.

[bobby.223]

So far I like this guy quite a bit! I do not know to much about him. I have not heard speak other than that talk he made with obama sitting down right next to him. (It looked like hussein was gonna pop one right in his shorts a few times!) Is Carson not on board somehow with the 2A? I hope not. Anyway, This time around this old boy is gonna wait and learn a bit more about the ‘new guy’, unlike what I did going full speed ahead in my supporting of Allen West, (Palin/West 2012), not doing my homework, and then being very, surprised and very disgusted when finding out just what he supported.

[bboop]

Yes, I am reading his book America the Beautiful too. Read his first one, about growing up in the slums, and was so moved. His is an amazing story.

[LifeComesFirst]

Why is it that black conservatives/Republicans/libertarians get such hostility from many other black people even though many/most black people actually have conservative views, socially and fiscally? I hear black celebrities say things like “too much government,” “end welfare,” “crack down on crime,” “ban abortion,” etc. and yet they are whole-hearted Democrat supporters. This pre-dates Obama, so it can’t be blamed on him.

Can anybody else think of another example where a large swath of a political party’s base was out-of-step with the actual party’s on-record views? It is truly puzzling.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

MSNBC’s negro trained seal calling anyone an Uncle Tom is like Al Sharpton calling someone an antisemite.

[LachlanMinnesota]

You wait...they will find that he had white girlfriends (whether he really did or not) who will testify, or they will find white co-workers who will complain about a hostile sexual working environment, which seems to be the way the muckrakers want to trash a black man to white voters...They play on stereotypes and fears that all white women should be frightened of some over sexualized black man. They did it with Clarence Thomas, and they will do it again.

[Terry Mross]

“Who you callin’ boy?” I heard that a lot in the sixties and seventies. Using my natural southern dialog I started many sentences with such examples as “Boy, it sure is hot today.” Now I usually use the term “man” such as “Man, that is one hot babe!”

Carson needs to call Cain and ask him if he was guilty. If Cain convinces him it was a set up, Carson will know he’s about to get hit. If Cain admits they had his number Carson can feel a lot better.

[Ann Archy]

GIFTED HANDS was on TV last week....I think it’s a regular movie because the star as a really big name....Cuba Gooding, maybe.

[trubolotta]

I would have said the same thing but when I saw your post and reflected on what Carson said I had to pause and rethink the entire idea of a litmus test for Conservatives. I have a number of hot key issues as well and maybe that has blinded me and other Conservatives to a more fundamental truth.

So I now ask this question to illustrate my point: does Carson believe Congress should pass gun control legislation or does Carson accept the Second Amendment and believe it should be repealed or some how amended?

I don’t know the answer to that but the difference between the two is completely relevant to how I would identify allies and candidates I would support. If someone favors gun control but accepts the Second Amemdmemt is the law and must be changed to implement gun control, that’s good enough for me. Having the debate within the framework of the law and honesty about what the law says - isn’t that what we should look for?

[MamaTexan]

I didn’t know about the gun part.

You can find the original here

All he said was that he would 'rather not' have certain guns in the urban areas. I read that as just his opinion.

He did say it was a local issue, but what he didn't say was anything about it being a federal issue.

Points in his favor.... IMHO anyway.

[MrB]

“intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don’t sit around and call each other names. “

Ben... the left knows that if we discuss issues factually and logically, liberalism makes no sense.

[MrB]

Sheeperalism can be boiled down to
“how does my position on this issue make me feel about myself?”

[Lakeshark]

BUMP to your post: "They don’t have to find anything; they can always just make sh*t up and have it accepted by most as true."

Romney payed no taxes. Romney killed a woman by stealing her health care. Romney hates women and will forcibly remove their birth control.

In spite of the insanity of those campaign claims, the US came out and voted for the other guy........Benjamin Carson better figure this out quick if he's going to run for office.

[JimRed]

Dr. Carson is intelligent, articulate, and is allowed to speak truths which would get any white branded a bigot. What’s not to like?

[sergeantdave]

Carson could have led a life that qualities him for sainthood, and the left wing nazis in the media will just make stuff up to smear him.

It will be up to us to attack the propagandists and smear them for their lies.

[Gator113]

“.....isn’t that what we should look for?”

Yes.

[mc5cents]

That little black punk Toure Neblett is not fit to tie Dr. Benjamin Carson’s shoes.

I believe the expression is that he is not fit to shine the shoes of Dr. Carson but that might sound racist. :-)