Ben Carson: Where Does He Stand On Racial Issues?

The first GOP presidential debate was held yesterday between the top 10 Republican presidential candidates. Though no one clear winner rose above the rest, Ben Carson, a little-known retired neurosurgeon who entered politics only a couple of years ago, made quite a mark on viewers.

While quiet, Ben Carson made the few words he spoke count. Perhaps the most glowing comments Ben made were directed towards a question regarding racial issues. Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked Ben Carson how he would go about healing the racial divide if he were elected president.

“Well, I think the bully pulpit is a wonderful place to start healing that divide. You know, we have the purveyors of hatred, who take every single incident between people of two races and try to make a race war out of it, and drive wedges into people, and this does not need to be done. What we need to think about instead, you know, I was asked by an NPR reporter once, why don’t I talk about race that often. I said it’s because I’m a neurosurgeon, and she thought that was a strange response.”

Ben Carson, of African American descent, used his career history as a neurosurgeon (a specialist in brain surgery) to continue his answer to the query in a unique way.

“When I take someone to the operating room, I’m actually operating on the thing that makes them who they are. The skin doesn’t make them who they are, the hair doesn’t make them who they are, and it’s time for us to move beyond that because — you know, our strength as a nation comes in our unity.”

Ben Carson went on to state that we are the United States of America, and as such, should not be divided.

Well said, Ben Carson. Well said

A related report by the Inquisitr states that Ben Carson is “one of the most celebrated neurosurgeons in the world”. Amazingly, Carson was the first brain surgeon to perform a successful operation to separate a set of conjoined twins who were joined at the head. It is evident that his medical career is an important part of Ben Carson’s life.

Carson ended the debate on a lighthearted note, again referencing his career in neurosurgery.

“I’m the only one to separate Siamese twins. The only one to operate on babies while they were still in the mother’s womb, the only one to take out half of a brain – although you would think if you go to Washington someone had beaten me to it.”

What are your opinions about Ben Carson following the GOP presidential debate?

[Image credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images]