Ben Carson criticized for downplaying 'systemic racism'

Ben Carson has been heavily criticized for comments he made on Sunday on systemic racism.

In a segment on his show on CNN, Jake Tapper asked Carson his opinion on whether systemic racism is endemic in law enforcement agencies in the US.

"I grew up at a time when there was real systemic racism," Carson replied. "I remember, as an eighth grade student, I was the only black student. I got the highest academic achievement. And the teacher got up and berated the other students they weren’t trying hard enough because a black kid was number one."

"And that kind of thing was not uncommon when I was growing up. That kind of thing is very uncommon now," he continued.

"Are there still racists around? Absolutely. There were yesterday, there are today, and there will be tomorrow. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t fight it," said Carson.

"And this is an opportune time. Right now, people are concentrating on this. We can’t let this moment slip away. We need to deal with some of the issues in the police departments, but it’s — it’s — this is an easy time to do it," he said.

He continued by saying that the vast majority of police officers are "wonderful," but that there are some who have gone rogue. And that these rogue officers go from one jurisdiction to another and no one does anything about it.

"At the same time, we must be very vigilant about these groups of anarchists who destroy the livelihoods of the very people that they claim to be trying to help," he said.

Carson also took the opportunity to address the "anarchists" (Antifa) who have taken this opportunity of potential social change to destroy and vandalize the livelihoods of those they claim to be trying to help.

He concluded the segment by suggesting that it was absurd to even think about the idea of abolishing police departments.