Ben Carson says Black Lives Matter advocates are 'creating strife'

While visiting with local leaders in Harlem on Wednesday, Dr. Ben Carson said that Black Lives Matter activists are "creating strife" and not searching for solutions to the issues that are important.

"Of course black lives matter," the Republican presidential candidate said. "But what I feel instead of people pointing fingers at each other and just creating strife, what we need to be talking about is how do we solve problems in the black community. Of murder, essentially." African-Americans, he continued, need to return to "faith and family, the values and principles that got black people through slavery and segregation and Jim Crowism." Without those values, he said, there are higher rates of poverty, single-parent homes, and dependency on welfare programs: "As we throw those things away, we're seeing terrible crimes occurring in our communities."

When asked if the Republican Party has a race problem, the former neurosurgeon responded, "Everyone has a race problem. What the Republican Party needs to do is come out and discuss more the kinds of relationships and the programs that will help bring people out of poverty, to rise rather than simply be satisfied in a dependent position in our society."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up