On Monday, in an address to his staff, Ben Carson, the new secretary of Housing and Urban Development referred to slaves as "immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships" who "worked even harder, even longer for less." This did not go over well.

Shortly afterward, he published a statement on Facebook, saying that slavery and immigration “should never be intertwined,” but that apology was undone when he went on a show hosted by conservative pundit Armstrong Williams. On it, Carson said, “Slaves came here as involuntary immigrants,” which means he still wants to soften what slavery actually was.

American History, According to Ben Carson Our Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, ladies and gentlemen.

For the second time in as many weeks, members of the Trump administration have found a way to diminish the history of black people in the United States. In February when asked by April Ryan, a long-time black White House correspondent, if he would meet with the Congressional Black Caucus, Trump asked her if she could set up the meeting. (Because in Trump’s world all black people must know each other.) Last week, according to new education secretary Betsy DeVos, black people created HBCUs to give themselves even more school choices.

While I was bothered by DeVos’ comments about HBCUs, after having attended one myself (Howard University), I now meet smart people all the time as an adult who aren’t quite familiar with the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I see that as a teachable moment and I am always happy, even eager, to enlighten those who are unfamiliar with schools like Howard or Morehouse College and Spelman College in Atlanta and their long, rich histories.

But Ben Carson is a black man and the only black member of Donald Trump's cabinet. It's why his comments are not only troubling, but also why he might not suffer any consequences for them. Carson’s comments are far worse than DeVos’, and not just because they go against everything you learned in a 7th grade social studies. The effects of slavery and its ugly spawn known as Jim Crow hindered the socioeconomic progress of black Americans. For example, in Baltimore, it wasn’t until 1977 that Johns Hopkins University had a black resident in their neuroscience department. That man was Ben Carson, who found a way to succeed in a country where men like him were originally brought over to serve as slaves, not surgeons.

And yet, since rising to the national stage, Carson has regularly engaged in whitewashing history, presumably in an effort to comfort those who would rather forget slavery happened. Carson first did this in 2013 while speaking at a summit in Washington. He said, “Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery.” Which tells you all you need to know about Ben Carson.

Carson's ability to withstand controversy is unique. In 2002, Trent Lott, a former U.S. Senator from Mississippi, found himself in hot water following comments he made on behalf of Strom Thurmond, a U.S. Senator who famously ran for President as a Dixiecrat strongly in favor of segregation. At the 100th birthday of Thurmond, Lott said, "When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over the years, either." He was called to resign as Senate Republican Leader shortly thereafter.

Historically, public figures like Lott have suffered consequences for their choice of words. It's telling that Carson—who as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is responsible for the very communities he seems to fundamentally misunderstand—probably won’t suffer the same fate. (Watching all of this unfold is making me feel like I’m watching the White House version of Get Out.) Trump’s team has diluted the history of black people in the United States before, but this is the first one to come from a member of Trump’s team who is also black. As it stands, one of this administration's lasting legacies will be about how his team fed the nation a sanitized Cliffsnotes version of black history in America. And Carson, a black neurosurgeon who was once venerated in his community, will be complicit in all of it.

Trump's Amazing Speech Didn't Age Well: