Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson is the latest to defend Kanye West after the rapper was criticized for professing his adoration for President Donald Trump and conservative pundit Candace Owens.
West, who is reportedly working on a new album, sent social media into a tizzy last week when he posted a photo of himself sporting Trump’s infamous “Make America Great Again” hat and dubbed the president his “dragon energy brother.” The string of pro-Trump tweets reportedly cost West millions of followers, including fellow celebs like Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Kendrick Lamar.
Secretary Carson has remained in the rapper’s corner, however.
“I was pleased to see Kanye West come out and talk about that,” the retired brain surgeon told conservative outlet The Daily Signal. “I’ve had the opportunity to have a conversation with him in the past and he actually is a very thoughtful person.”
Carson, who is facing backlash himself after proposing changes that would triple rents for Americans who live in public housing, went on to blast “racist” liberals who he accused of assuming all Black folks should think a certain way.
“What our country doesn’t realize, and particularly a lot of liberals don’t realize, it really is fairly racist for you to think that a Black person has to think a certain way and that if they don’t think that way there’s something wrong with them and start calling them names and persecuting them,” he said. “That is just as racist as anything I can imagine.”
Carson blamed this sort of thinking on a so-called “herd mentality” by people who refuse to think about how the efforts of opposing groups have benefited them.
Watch more of the interview above.
