Ben Carson continued his criticism of the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday, arguing that it was "alienating a lot of people who are not black" in an exchange on NewsOne, an outlet targeted at black Americans.
Carson has previously argued, in an op-ed for USA Today, that the movement is inspiring anger and is distracting the black community from what matters most.
On Monday, the Republican presidential candidate expanded on that line of attack, asserting that other problems from "institutions like Planned Parenthood," "rotten schools," "crime up on each other," and toleration of drug use, were more damaging to blacks than bad policing.
"Yes, black lives matter," Carson said, "but I believe all black lives matter. And I am very disappointed that the movement doesn't recognize that the carnage in the community coming about from institutions like Planned Parenthood and crime up on each other is very significant. And we need to be looking at the things that are keeping the black community from accelerating, like rotten schools and tolerating the drugs that are in your neighborhood."
When asked by host Roland Martin why he thought it was wrong for the movement to focus on one issue, Carson, who is the only black candidate in the presidential field, said that the movement needs to be "all-encompassing" in its approach to problems facing black communities.
When pressed again on this point, Carson replied that, "I want them to be successful. And they're gonna be a lot more successful if they don't alienate a big part of the community."
Asked to be more specific as to who they were alienating, Carson said he was referring to "people who are not black."
"They're alienating a lot of people who are not black by just — because what they're hearing is that we're the only ones who are important and nobody else is important."
"A lot of people are hearing that," he said. "And we don't want them to hear that."
The interviewer responded that he thought the movement had been effective at "forcing a conversation," as well as "actual changes, that others have not been able to actually do."
"I've heard a lot of the opposite of what you're saying," Carson shot back. "And here's the issue. We're probably not even on the opposite sides of this. We want the same things to occur."
Asked if this meant he supported the Black Lives Matter movement's "calls for police accountability, and their calls for better policing, as well as changes in terms of how people are treated by police," Carson said, he could not imagine anybody being against that, before returning to a point he often makes, about mutual respect.
"Well, I can't imagine anybody who would be against that," he said. "But what we have to start talking about is mutual respect. And that's what I talked about down in Ferguson. The police have to have a different attitude toward the people and the people have to have a different attitude toward the police."