Ben Carson’s misreading of history is nothing new

Dr. Ben Carson has caused a social media uproar over recent comments he made referring to slaves as “immigrants” who came to “a land of dreams and opportunity.”

Dr. Carson is no stranger to controversial comments that border bizarre. He once seemingly equated same-sex marriages to bestiality, a comment for which he later apologized and attempted to clarify. 

Carson also called Obamacare “the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” However, Carson’s immigrant comments have exposed problematic rhetoric about immigration to the United States.

Firstly, the dictionary definition for immigration must be adjusted. It simply states a person, who comes to live permanently in a foreign country. It says nothing of how the person came to live in that new land. By that definition, Carson is correct.

{mosads}However, no one uses the word that way. Immigration implies agency and willingness. To put an underage victim of human trafficking in the same category as someone who is seeking better opportunities in a foreign land doesn’t make sense. Their process should not be described using the same verb. The dictionary is not a static document, but a living and breathing one that needs to be updated.

The rhetoric that came out of pro-immigration movements was incorrect. There were many that thought they were advocating for the human rights and fair treatment of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, by saying that everyone in the US is an immigrant unless you are Native American.

President Obama even joined the chorus of well-meaning people who repeated this phrase. In fact, Mr. Obama’s comments, though different in intent and eloquence, were similar to Carson’s. The former President stated the following: “My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are here only because this country welcomed them in.”

Africans may have been strangers, but certainly not made to feel welcomed. Ditto for Mexicans who crossed the Rio Grande, and Asians who crossed the Pacific. Early European immigrants were seen as non-white initially and were also discriminated against.

What they didn’t recognize is that the “nation of immigrants” rhetoric reifies a white supremacist social contract. It basically says anyone who matters is the descendant of immigrants, and it usually references people of European descent. There are actually many people who live in the US or US territory who are not immigrants of any kind, and they are mostly people of color. The following is a list of people who live in the US or US territories who are not immigrants:

1. (some) Mexican Americans in the Southwest
2. Native Hawaiians
3. The Natives of Guam
4. Puerto Ricans
5. American Samoans
6. The Natives of the Northern Mariana Islands

Regardless of where you fall on the discussion of African Americans being immigrants, the erasure of the aforementioned groups does a disservice to our history as a nation. 

We can advocate for human rights of immigrants, including DACA, DAPA, ending nonsensical religious bans and inhumane for-profit immigrant detention, and the stopping the separation of families without making all Americans the descendants of immigrants or inadvertently dismissing the history of some Americans.

Lastly, if Dr. Carson would like to learn about slavery, my colleagues Jonathan England, Shane Walsh, and I teach courses on the subject and would welcome his presence.

Jason Nichols is a full time faculty member in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. His writing has appeared in the Baltimore Sun.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.