Marc Lamont Hill, one of CNN's supposedly bright liberal minds and a professor at Columbia, echoed the familiar refrain of "you didn't build that," favored by Democrats like Barack Obama and Elizabeth Warren, on Sunday when he said "nobody makes themselves" without the "safety nets" government put in place first. Hill went on to say that the self-made man -- well, person -- is just a "myth" and "the greatest lie in American history." Not surprisingly, the conversation on CNN's Newsroom was all about self-made man Ben Carson.
CNN's Poppy Harlow set the stage for Hill by reading parts of a recent Washington Post opinion piece by black rights columnist Janell Ross. Her take is that Carson's up-from-nothing story purposely leaves out the helping hand of government in order to make "white Republican voters" comfortable:
Carson and his team have to protect and vigorously defend the once-violent-and-poor, now delivered-and-rich story -- hard...
Carson's up-from-nothing, saved-by-Jesus-and-personal-effort story works, primarily with white Republican voters.
...for some it affirms the conscious or unconscious connections (stereotypes) they draw between blackness, poverty and violence.
For others, it demonstrates that Jesus saves. And for others still, it is a narrative that says other, potentially costly social solutions to poverty and violence are not necessary.
Harlow singled out the "white Republican voter" bit and asked Hill if that is the "key" to Ross' greater point. Hill couldn't have agreed more:
Absolutely, absolutely, I mean, Ben Carson -- the greatest lie in American history is the myth of the self-made person. Nobody makes themselves. We're all shaped by communities, by people who struggled and sacrificed for us, by governments that offer safety nets.
Ben Carson is able to say, "I was saved by Jesus and hard work." That allows him to reject a safety net. That allows him to push back against the expansion of a welfare state. That allows him to resist tax cuts for the middle class and poor and tax hikes for the wealthy. It allows him to create an entire narrative where people say, "Hey, wait a minute, why are you doing this?" Ben Carson can say, "Hey, because I did it myself," and it makes white voters feel comfortable to say that, "Look, this black guy himself is telling me poor people… [Hill is interrupted for time]
Hill was interrupted once before on the show when CNN's conservative commentator, Ben Ferguson, interjected with a truly American ideal: "The government didn't make me, though, Marc." Hill was more upset at being talked over than considering that point. If only the government had provided him some courtesy at that moment, he may have entertained another's opinion.
H/T Newsbusters
