Ben Carson, a surging Republican presidential candidate, recently journeyed to the divided Missouri city of Ferguson and gave a speech on the need to "de-emphasize race."

During a visit to the small suburban city just outside of St. Louis where a white police officer gunned down unarmed black teen Michael Brown last summer, the only black candidate in the crowded Republican field also criticized President Barack Obama for talking too much about race.

According to CBS, though he openly spoke of how his visit reawakened memories of his own childhood in inner-city Detroit "where he saw firsthand the death and violence bred by poverty," Carson insisted the Black Lives Matter rallying cry, which sprang from the protests after Brown's death, should be changed to exclude the word "black."

"I would prefer it be taken out," he said. "I obviously prefer that we focus on everybody."

Later, Carson added he thinks the movement has been "bullying people" and said, "I never liked the idea of bullying on behalf of anybody."

Carson pointed to the recent plight of Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley and how he was roundly criticized for likewise suggesting changes be made to the Black Lives Matter agenda as a primary example of how he insists protesters have become overly abusive.

"He got so much grief he came back and apologized," he said.

"That's bullying. Of course all lives matter. Of course we need to be concerned about everyone. Of course we need to extend respect to everyone. And you know, when we get off into a little thing that says 'no, this is the only thing you can say' -- that's sickening to me."

The retired neurosurgeon has surged in recent Republican polls by seizing on the frustrations of some and the overall sense of disappointment now expressed by many toward much of the political establishment. He has never held political office and only became well-known when he started to attack the president's signature health care law.

Carson has been adamant in expressing his view that the federal government should only play a limited role in the race debate, which has intensified in recent months following the high-profile deaths of several young black men in cities across the country at the hands of white police officers.

"I think we've actually regressed with this administration and its emphasis on race, because it emphasizes race to indicate that things are not progressing well," he said.

"And that just isn't true."