Ben Carson speaks out after school board votes to remove his name from high school
Dr. Ben Carson weighs in after a Detroit school board voted to remove his name from the public high school on 'Hannity.'
Like millions of patriotic Americans across the country, I was shocked to see that "cancel culture" had come for Dr. Ben Carson when the Detroit school board voted to remove the name of the Benjamin Carson High School of Medicine and Science in November.
Dr. Carson and his wife, Candy, are both close friends of mine, and I can personally testify that he is a man of faith and strong character. His former HUD staff shared a wonderful testimony of the sort of man he is in an op-ed for Fox News and I encourage you to read it.
However, upon deeper inspection, the motivations of the Detroit school board are even more outrageous than one could ever imagine. In a push to get the name removed all the way back in 2018, former school board member LaMar Lemmons said that having Dr. Ben Carson’s name on the school is "synonymous with having Trump’s name on our school in blackface."
Lemmons went on to say that by "doing Trump’s bidding," Dr. Carson has "adversely affected the African American community" and "allied himself with a president that says he is a white nationalist and sends dog whistles that even the deaf can hear."
WE WORKED FOR DR. BEN CARSON. WE KNOW DR. BEN CARSON. CANCELING HIM IS JUST NOT RIGHT.
Of course, a Detroit school board member would never say such a thing about a president who said, "you ain’t Black" to African Americans who didn’t vote for him, suggested providing crack pipes for "racial equity," and continually pushes abortion policies which disproportionately harm the Black community. Instead, their ire is saved for men like Dr. Carson, who has devoted his entire life to helping others around him.
Former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson promotes his book during CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) Texas 2022 conference at Hilton Anatole on August 4, 2022. (Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Dr. Carson was raised in poverty by a single mother, attended college and medical school, and worked his way up to become one of the most famous pediatric neurosurgeons in the world — including leading the first-ever successful separation of twins conjoined at the back of the head. In recognition of his achievements, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian honor.
Dr. Carson also founded the Carson Scholars Fund, an organization that which offers scholarships to dedicated students who demonstrate a devotion to humanitarian causes.
Dr. Carson is the sort of man we ALL should pray our children to grow up to emulate, and he is an inspiration to millions of Americans from all walks of life.
During the Trump administration, Dr. Carson spearheaded groundbreaking initiatives to help minority communities as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Under his leadership, to name just one example, HUD launched the Opportunity Zone initiative, which implemented nearly 9,000 districts across the country in which capital gains on long-term investments are tax-free. This powerful incentive raised $75 billion in capital for underserved communities in the first two years alone, and is estimated to have lifted 1 million Americans out of poverty.
The truth is, this is just one of many policies the Trump administration pursued to uplift the Black community. President Trump famously signed the First Step Act into law, which reformed sentencing laws which have disproportionately harmed the Black community for decades, and he signed the FUTURE Act, which makes permanent $255 million per year in funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
President Trump was also a firm champion of the pro-Life cause and nominated the justices that overturned Roe v. Wade, which will save untold millions of Black babies from the evil of abortion.
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All of this demonstrates that this push to rename the Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine isn’t driven by a genuine concern for our children’s future. If that were really the Detroit school board’s motivation, I would think they would focus their attention on the dismal education statistics they produce for our children.
According to the data, in the Detroit Public Schools Community District only 16% percent of middle school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 13% percent tested at or above that level for math.
THIS is what should be drawing our outrage, and THIS is what the Detroit school board should fix. This utter neglect of quality education for our inner-city children will only just serve to perpetuate further perpetuate the vicious cycles of poverty that already plague so many of our minority communities.
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Dr. Carson is the sort of man we ALL should pray our children to grow up to emulate, and he is an inspiration to millions of Americans from all walks of life. With this decision, the Detroit school board has placed its own political agenda above truly educating our kids and preparing them for the future.
In my mind, that’s the real outrage here.
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