Ben Carson on Fire: America Needs to “Grow Up” and Stop Being Offended By Everything

Carson's comments came days after Trump was criticized for hosting the Republican National Convention speech in Jacksonville, FL.

Other critics accused Trump of blowing racist dog whistles for scheduling a MAGA rally in Tulsa, OK.

Both cities have history in the civil rights movement.

However, Carson's point is that there wasn't a nefarious reason for the scheduling.

Any historic events that happened in those cities is coincidence and circumstantial.

In other words, the Trump campaign did NOT choose those cities or venues in order to "attack" minorities.

Politico has more details on Carson's comments:

Amid ongoing demonstrations against racism, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson said America needs to stop being offended about everything and “grow up.”

On ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Carson was asked whether it was appropriate for President Donald Trump to give his convention speech on Aug. 27 in Jacksonville. That date is the 60th anniversary of “Ax Handle Saturday,” when a white mob organized by the Ku Klux Klan attacked mostly black civil rights protesters in the Florida city.

“We’ve reached a point in our society where we dissect everything and try to ascribe some nefarious notion to it,” replied Carson, the only black member of Trump’s Cabinet. “We need to move away from being offended by everything, of going through history and looking at everything, you know, of renaming everything.”

He continued, “Some of our prestigious universities have a relationship with the slave trade. Should we go and rename those universities? It really gets to a point of being ridiculous after a while. And, you know, we’re going to have to grow up as a society."

Activists have argued that monuments and buildings honoring the Confederacy, slavery and white supremacy should be removed or renamed. Statues, like ones of Christopher Columbus and Jefferson Davis, have been toppled. The Clemson University Board of Trustees voted to remove the name of slave owner and secessionist John C. Calhoun from its honors college.

Meanwhile, cities continue to be gripped by demonstrations against police brutality. Fresh outrage was sparked in Atlanta after the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, a black man, on Friday night — leading to an officer being fired, the police chief stepping down and instant condemnation.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who appeared on ABC shortly after Carson, said it was “a fairly infantile response” to say words and dates don’t have meanings.

“This isn't about growing up," Abrams said. "It's about taking responsibility and having accountability for the actions that have been taken by this country and by people acting on behalf of this country. And we do have a day of reckoning and that day of reckoning is going to continue until we actually make change."

Some have noted that Stacy Abrams' critique of Ben Carson as "infantile" is demeaning and insulting.

Carson, of course, is a famous neurosurgeon who was the first physician to successfully separate conjoined twins.

Carson also said that the Rayshard Brooks case in Atlanta is not a "clear-cut" case like George Floyd's.

According to Atlanta's AJC:

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Ben Carson, Housing and Urban Development Secretary, shared some comments about the the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta. He compared Brooks arrest to George Floyd, and the comments have brought Carson both praise and disgust from the court of public opinion.

In the "Fox News Sunday" interview, Carson was asked about whether it was appropriate to use deadly force on Brooks, who had fallen asleep in a downtown Atlanta Wendy’s drive-thru. Brooks, 27, was a father of three girls. He was suspected of driving under the influence, and when officers attempted to arrest him, a scuffle ensued. It ended with Brooks running off with a taser and an Atlanta police officer fatally shooting Brooks in the back.

Carson said there was no question about the “callous murder that occurred in Minnesota.” In the Atlanta case, Carson said he wasn’t sure what the police officers were thinking once Brooks had the taser in his hand."

We don't know what was in the mind of the officer when someone turns around and points a weapon at him. Is he absolutely sure that's a non-lethal weapon? This is not a clear-cut circumstance,” Carson told the program’s host Chris Wallace.

He expounds on the matter by stating that there may have been better ways to handle Brooks’ arrest.“ Could have it been handled better? Certainly in retrospect, there probably are other ways to do things,” Carson said. “Again, we don’t know. We the public don’t know. Is there a reason they don’t use night sticks? There are qualified officers that would know the answer to that.”

Carson's comments come as a relief for many people.

Policemen and women have been underattack as the rhetoric in the nation has called for defunding the police.

However, conservatives are finally beginning to fight back.

Thank you, Ben Carson, for speaking common sense!