The former secretary of Housing and Urban and Development, Dr. Ben Carson, likened Black conservatives to “runaway slaves” in a recent podcast episode with a political analyst from Fox News.  

Carson was a guest on Outloud with Gianno Caldwell speaking about conservative beliefs when he commented, according to Essence.  

“Just remember that this is not anything that’s any different than many, many years ago during slavery,” Carson said. “If you ran away and you got caught, they didn’t just kill you. They brought you back and tormented you in front of everyone else so that you would get the lesson: Do not run away.”  

The former presidential candidate said that he believes that Black conservatives face institutional racism, according to Essence.  

Following his primary loss in 2016, Carson worked as the head of Housing and Urban Development, where he got rid of a rule under President Obama’s administration that would make the suburbs more diverse, according to Realtor.com.