Shoutout to Ben Carson for his response to the Black Lives Matter movement. Carson articulated why the Black lives matter movement is misguided and misdirected. While Carson stated that police brutality is an issue that should not be ignored, it's not the single biggest issue confronting African Americans.

There are far more important issues confronting African Americans and their communities. Unemployment, black on black crime, drugs, drop out rates are all issues that are more important than police brutality. If you remove police brutality from African American communities these issues would still persist. That's Carson's basic point and I agree with him.

The Black Lives Matter crew are the latest in a list of Black spokesman which fail to hold African Americans accountable. Black lives cannot simply matter when they are killed by the police. They have to matter when they are killed by African Americans. They also have to matter when they are not murdered at all.

Carson also criticizes the Republican Party. He challenges Republicans to be a more inclusive party. Republicans have been highly critical of African American over reliance on the Democratic Party. Their criticisms have fell on deaf ears because they really have not sought to provide an alternative for African Americans. In most cases African Americans have also been shunned by the Republican Party.

I don't agree with all of Carson's points but I do respect the fact that he was willing to speak out about this issue. The reluctance of black leaders to address the issues that really affect African Americans has long been a problem and Carson touched on a number of things that should be higher on the priority list. I'm happy that he did it quite frankly.

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