Actor and conservative pundit Ben Stein says the real problem with race in America is a "very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass."

"If you read the liberal mainstream media, that the main problem with race in America was poor innocent black people being set upon and mistreated by the police," Stein said on NewsMaxTV, commenting on a report that the mother of Michael Brown could face felony armed robbery charges for attacking people in Ferguson, Missouri. "That's just nonsense."

"I mean, the real problem with race in America is a very, very beaten-down, pathetic, self-defeating black underclass that is — uh, just can't seem to get its way going in the way that blacks were able to before the scourge of drugs and the scourge of gangs."

The former game show host and Nixon administration official cited drugs and family destruction as a "crisis in the black community" that President Obama has not addressed.

"I mean, it's an amazing thing — blacks were on their way in this country, even after the horrors of slavery, and then drugs came in, the destruction of families came in, and the crisis in the black community is just absolutely unbelievable. And that, it seems to me, is something that Mr. Obama could have addressed, and he just ignored it completely."

During an appearance on Fox News Sunday last week, Stein called Obama "the most racist president there has ever been in America."