When questioned about reparations during an interview on CBS This Morning, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson said, “What I would say about reparations is, you know, show me a mechanism that works. You know, I did my DNA analysis. OK. I’m 77 percent sub-Saharan African, 20 percent European, 3 percent Asian. So how do you proportion that out to everybody?”
CBS News correspondent Jericka Duncan pressed Carson, asking, “If you can prove you’re a descendant of a slave, though, do you think it’s worth having a conversation?”
The former neurosurgeon answered, “Yeah, but what percentage of money do you get? What percentage of reparation? No one is ever going to be able to work that out…Proportionately, you’re not going to be able to figure it out. And where do you stop it? It’s unworkable. So, I would much rather concentrate on how do we provide the opportunities for people to get into a better economic situation now.”
