Ben Carson, who served as the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the Trump administration, decried critical race theory and its effects on the American people. He believes that it is a "bunch of garbage" that threatens to destroy the country from inside.
"[Critical race theory is] an attempt to use race as a mechanism for redefining our society, redefining what it was based on, and how it impacts everybody," Carson told Newsmax's Eric Bolling during their conversation on Independence Day, Christian Headlines reported. "It wants our people to believe that your race is the most critical determinant of who you are and what happens to you in our society."
"In other words, it's a bunch of garbage."
Carson argued that while America is a "magnificent place" that cannot be "destroyed" by external forces such as Russia or China, it is a house whose pillars can be destroyed for the whole structure to come falling down. He confirmed that a country "can be destroyed from within" and that it was one of Jesus' teachings that "a house divided cannot stand."
Carson added that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln "reiterated" the lesson that Americans "need to recognize that we, the American people are not enemies."
A former neurosurgeon, Carson related his experience as a physician to understanding Americans as a people. He said that when he performed surgery on people, he came to the realization that a person's attributes isn't what makes him or her who they are. Instead, he argued, "It is their brain, and the way they process information. That's what determines your character. That determines exactly who you become."
Carson warned that American schools are "changing for the worse" and are changing what the "youth believe about the country." He added that those who are pushing for critical race theory to be taught in classrooms know how important it is to infiltrate school systems and "[indoctrinate] young people." He warned that this will have a "permanent effect."
Carson decried the critical race theory narrative that Black people are oppressed. As a Black man himself, he admitted that it meant a lot to him "when some black person came on television in a non-servant role." Today, he argued, people are living in an age when Black people can become leaders in both the public and private sectors, as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, presidents of universities and Ivy League schools, and even the president or vice president of the United States.
Many are decrying the critical race theory narrative that Black people are oppressed, including an Illinois parent by the name of Ty Smith who argued that teaching critical race theory in classrooms is the same as "teaching kids to hate each other, how to dislike each other."
The pushback against critical race theory began last year, when former President Donald Trump called it "a crusade against American history" and "ideological poison that...will destroy our country," the Associated Press reported. Today, Republican leaders are continuing the fight to ensure it doesn't end up in every American classroom.
