Stacey Dash seems to have everyone riled up with her comments that BET Networks and Black History Month need to be abolished. Even presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson decided to weigh in on her inflammatory remarks, trying his hardest to defend his fellow Republican while also distancing himself from her sentiments.

In an exclusive interview during the Iowa caucus, Louisiana rapper Dee-1 and Vote America Now President Chris Prudhomme sat down with Carson on behalf of BET, asking the presidential hopeful a series of questions concerning his campaign and vision for American, and one very direct question about Dash. 

Prudhomme played the clip of Dash voicing her opinion on Fox News, and then turned the question to Dr. Carson. “Well I know Stacey, she’s a friend…and that did not come off exactly the way she meant," he began. "I think what she was trying to say is ‘I wish we were at a stage where it wasn’t necessary to have a Black station or Black awards, but you know we’re not there.’ That part she didn’t add.” 
Carson went on, "Therefore it does serve a very useful purpose at this point in time. Maybe as we continue to make progress and we begin to understand that a person is not defined by their race, we will be in a much better place, in our nation, when we get there.”

When asked about the importance of Black media and Black History Month, Carson defended the need for these institutions. “At this point in time it is important. If we didn’t have a Black History Month, there are a lot of things we wouldn’t talk about,” he conceded. “I mean [without Black History Month] there’s a whole bunch of people that we probably wouldn’t talk about and we need to talk about them. Not only in the Black community, we need to talk about them in every community in America. Everybody needs to understand that the greatness of America has a lot to do with contributions from everybody…Our ethnic diversity is not a problem unless we make it a problem.”
Watch Carson's full reaction to Stacey Dash's words in our exclusive interview, below:

(Photo Left: Scott Olson/Getty Images) (Photo Right: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)