Dr. Ben Carson rose from being the product of a broken home that relied on government assistance to become the world’s preeminent pediatric neurosurgeon.
In addition to the lives he changed with his surgical skills, Carson has written several books, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by former President George W. Bush, was named a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, was a presidential candidate himself, and served for four years as the nation’s secretary of housing.
Yet that resume was not enough to keep the school board in Detroit, where Carson mostly grew up, from scrubbing his name from a school named in his honor.
As the conservative Daily Signal recently reported, Carson’s name was erased from the Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine, a magnet school that once boasted a 99% graduation rate, because the former surgeon dared to serve his country under former President Donald Trump.
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The board voted to do that in November.
The Daily Signal noted that until the vote, the school proudly associated with the famous surgeon.
Previously on its website, Carson High said it was “named in honor of the acclaimed Detroit-born, African-American pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson.”
“As a pediatric neurosurgeon formerly on the staff of Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Carson was honored with the 2008 Presidential Medal of Freedom for his contributions. The school aims to honor the contributions Dr. Carson has made not only to the global medical community, but also as a role model for Detroit students with aspirations and interests in science and medical fields.”
Yet as Daily Signal columnist David Sokol wrote, “What has caused such an underperforming school district to remove the name Benjamin Carson from its best-performing high school? Wokeness and cancel culture, plain and simple.”
“His sole offense, as stated by former and current Detroit school board members Lamar Lemmons and Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, is that he had the audacity to agree to be the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development under Trump,” Sokol wrote.
In a column for Fox News on Wednesday, Dr. Alveda King, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s niece, wrote that Lemmons once said having the school named for Carson was “synonymous with having Trump’s name on our school in blackface.”
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According to King, Lemmons further said that by “doing Trump’s bidding,” Carson had “adversely affected the African American community” and willingly “allied himself with a president that says he is a white nationalist and sends dog whistles that even the deaf can hear.”
This, of course, is a lie, as there is no evidence Trump ever proclaimed himself a “white nationalist.” That was always the work of his critics, like Lemmons.
King further noted that as HUD secretary, Carson spearheaded the Trump administration’s Opportunity Zone program, which promoted tax-free, long-term investments that in just two years generated $75 billion for projects in 9,000 largely minority areas. She added that the program is estimated to have lifted 1 million Americans out of poverty.
“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,” King argued.
“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 his piece, Sokol agreed, writing, “Any school district in America should welcome the opportunity to have such an amazing American as Carson serve as a role model for their students.”
“This slight by the Detroit school board demonstrates just how harmful cancel culture and wokeness truly can be—harmful not only to the target of that cancel culture but to all the children who would benefit if the school board focused its energy on providing a quality education rather than on being woke.”
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