*Ben Carson is now giving advice to the #BlackLivesMatter movement…while simultaneously calling out the movie “Straight Outta Compton.”
The GOP presidential candidate, one of the movement’s chief critics, has written an op-ed for USA Today about how #BlackLivesMatter activists are angry at the wrong people. Carson called it “lunacy” for the group to target his Democratic presidential rival Bernie Sanders when he’s so far from what is actually harming the black community.
Carson said that the anger they feel is, of course, real and there are serious issues to address, but says, “Unjust treatment from police did not fill our inner cities with people who face growing hopelessness.. Far too many families are torn and tattered by self-inflicted wounds. Violence often walks alongside people who have given up hope.”
Carson proposes that #BlackLivesMatter focus on failing schools and local politicians who won’t solve the problem, as well as Democrats who need to hear their calls for “honor and dignity” and Republicans who “have ignored us for too long.”
But Carson also accuses Hollywood of glorifying some of the ills of the black community, and takes direct aim at the current top movie at the box office:
Let’s confront the entertainment industry that lines its pockets by glamorizing a life where black men are thugs and our women are trash. Let’s tell them we plan to start talking with our wallets.
It is time for them to pick on someone else because we have had enough. Demeaning women is not art, and it shouldn’t be profitable. Neither is glorifying violence and equating prison time with authenticity. Straight Out of Compton, #1 in movie theaters, is just the latest example. You only have to watch the trailers.
You can read Carson’s full op-ed here.
