There’s no ‘We’ in ‘Ben’

Stephanie Tate | Staff Writer

The time in which we will have to say our goodbyes to the Obama family as our first family is approaching rapidly. Although we may want to mourn the removal of the Obama’s boldness, it has become critical that we start thinking about the future of our country.

With former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the lead for the Democratic Nomination, it is time that we examine the sixteen candidates in the running for the Republican Nomination. After having our very first African American president, many wonder will we have another anytime soon.

According to the twitter page of leading Republican candidate, Donald Trump, we won’t be seeing another African American president for a while. Trump’s tweet read “Sadly, because president Obama has done such a poor job as president, you won’t see another black president for generations!” Ironically Trump chose to ignore two factors. First, the hard fact that we have had a number of white presidents perform poorly, yet we continue to elect white men and second, Ben Carson.

According to CNN, Carson, the only African American candidate and retired neurosurgeon, is polling at third for the Republican nomination.. Just slightly behind Carly Fiorina, Carson has definitely made a splash against the competition. Because of his race, many have dubbed Carson a representative for the black community. The real question is: as the only African American candidate does Ben Carson accurately represent majority of African Americans?   According to the New York Times Carson first made his appearance in the political sphere after a speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 in which he heavily criticized President Obama.

With his original claim to political fame being his critiques of President Obama how well can Carson poll with the African American electorate? Carson has clearly demonstrated his views on issues such as health care, taxes, and more.  It is not difficult to see that Carson fares on the more conservative side of the political spectrum when he favors flat tax rates or is known to be adamant about cutting Medicaid.

During his time as a Fox News commentator Carson referred to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act as “the worst thing that has happened to this nation since slavery.” After considering the 9/11 attacks, police brutality, Jim Crow, numerous wars and more, is it appropriate to say that Healthcare is the worst thing to happen since almost 400,00 people were uprooted from their home for profit? Social media has shown that Carson has not garnered the type of support from the African American community that some have anticipated.  With Carson’s conservative views and his risky statements it becomes increasingly difficult to see how anyone could consider Carson the voice for the African American people.