Ben Carson said Wednesday that Republicans are more colorblind than Democrats when it comes to race.
“I find black Republicans are treated extremely well in the Republican Party. In fact, I don’t hear much about being a black Republican,” he said Wednesday at an event in Michigan. “I think the Republicans have done a far superior job of getting over racism.”
Carson was a Democrat for years, but said he’s found the Republican Party to be more welcoming.
“When you look at the philosophies of the two parties now, what I have noticed as a black Republican is that Republicans tend to look more at the character of people. And Democrats tend to look more at the color of their skin,” he said Wednesday.
Carson, the only African-American running for president, spoke at an event in Jackson County, Michigan, which boasts itself as “the birthplace of the Republican Party” — a party whose history the presidential hopeful referenced.
“It was founded as an anti-slavery party, an abolitionist party. The Republican Party worked very, very hard to abolish slavery and after it was abolished to try to gain rights for the freedman including the right to bear arms,” he said.
Carson said the Democratic Party is not welcoming to African-Americans like himself.
“If you’re black and you don’t think a certain way as far as they are concerned, you’re an Uncle Tom, a sellout, a traitor, you hate yourself,” he said.
Although more than 90% of blacks supported Obama in 2012, Carson said he is finding that more black people are entertaining conservative politics.
“They’re seeing that 50 years of these policies have not resulted in improvement and has really resulted in worsening the situation,” he said. “A lot of people in the minority community — contrary to popular opinion, all they want is a fair chance. All they want is an opportunity to succeed.”