Given that Ben Carson’s popularity among Republican primary voters has risen since his formal presidential announcement, it seems logical that MSNBC.com would publish a hit piece entitled “From idol to ‘sellout’: How Ben Carson is losing his legacy.”
In it, author Jane Timm touts how the prominent African-American neurosurgeon has gone from local hero in Maryland to someone with “very conservative” political beliefs:
Growing up in the predominantly black neighborhood of Forest Park in Baltimore, Erica Puentes considered Ben Carson her ultimate role model.
“We were fed a healthy diet of Ben Carson. Ben Carson is the figure you have to look up to, model yourself to be,” Puentes, a 20-year-old University of Maryland College Park student, recalls now. “We were working class students of color and he just represented hope.”
But now, his very conservative views and harsh criticisms of President Barack Obama, Carson has disillusioned many who once looked up to him.”
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“Everyone I’ve spoken to is just completely disappointed. The community definitely does not support him,” Puentes said. “He was a working class hero to us and now he’s advocating on behalf of a party that we believe and know advocates for the interests of more wealthy people.”
The liberal writer goes on to play up how Carson's conservatism has become a “problem” for many within the African-American community:
Carson’s party affiliation alone is a big problem, explained Leah Wright Rigueur, a professor of public policy at Harvard’s Kenney School of Government and author of “The Loneliness of the Black Republican.”
“African-Americans fundamentally believe that the Republican Party does not care about Black people and that’s a very hard legacy to overcome,” Rigueur told MSNBC. “Historically, Black Republicans … do not fare as well amongst black audiences.”
When Carson went to meet with community leaders in Baltimore after riots broke out following the death of Freddie Gray in police custody, community leaders clashed with him over how to address the racial unrest plaguing the city where Carson had worked for three decades. Carson, according to those who attended the meeting, reiterated a message of self-reliance and turning the other cheek.
The MSNBC writer insisted that many consider black Republicans to be “mythical creatures” who rarely make noise within the conservative movement unless they are the "most conservative" out there:
Black Republicans are a small group that tends to be fairly quiet, Rigueur said, because they struggle to find comfortable footing both within the GOP and their own communities. She estimated that 30% of African-Americans identify as socially conservative, but don’t vote for national Republicans.
“We treat Black Republicans like these mythical creatures that don’t really exist, but they do,” Rigueur said.
The most vocal Black Republicans – the ones you see, who receive funding and a following within the GOP – are the most conservative ones, Rigueur added.
“Black Republicans who receive a bigger platform within the GOP tend to be the ones who mirror the conservative Republicans. We’re going to see more Tim Scotts, Mia Loves, Herman Cains, Ben Carsons,” Rigueur said, referring to the South Carolina Republican senator, Utah Republican representative, and 2012 presidential candidate, and Carson, respectively.
Timm concluded her anti-Carson piece by returning once again to Puentes who recalled how a teacher would “tell us he [Carson] also came from a low-income family” but now calls Carson a “sell out” because he “can’t really trust him and it’s really disappointing to me, because I really did look up to him.”
Earlier: Ben Carson Goes From 'Hero' to 'Fringe Political Figure'
