Once upon a time, a boy from Detroit was born into poverty. His mother worked several jobs and raised the young boy and his brother alone. Their life wasn’t easy but they worked hard, studied harder, and never gave up.
This young boy graduated from Detroit public school, earned a scholarship to Yale, and went on to become a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon. He made history, leading a surgical team for the first separation of twins conjoined at the back of the head. He ran for president, was the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and still advocates for quality education and its role in fighting poverty, even establishing a scholarship fund.
Anyone visiting his home district will see his name displayed proudly on one of the schools: The Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine. It was, that is, until the Detroit Board of Education voted to take his name down.
Detroit schools wanted to erase Dr. Ben Carson, hometown hero, because he happened to run the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) during the Trump administration.
To the woke mob, this is an unforgivable crime. There was a time when people on both sides of the political aisle could “agree to disagree.” No more. The keystone of Cancel Culture is to push people into hiding and wipe away legacies until brute force consensus is achieved.
And that’s exactly what the Board did. The Board of Education took it upon itself to change the name of the school because Dr. Carson does not align with their personal politics. This, despite the superintendent recommending they keep the name, along with a student poll that said the same. No surprise there — Dr. Carson’s story is an inspiration for other students in the district to pursue their dreams, despite the odds.
One student, Antavia Ellis, a junior at the school, said Dr. Carson is “the whole reason I came to this school, because I want to become a surgeon.”
But the decision to change the name of the school was never about the students. It was about a small group of bureaucrats who believe their viewpoints are the only ones worth celebrating.
More than 50 former staffers who worked for Dr. Carson at HUD penned a letter in opposition to the change and in defense of his career and character. In it, they wrote:
“Dr. Carson operates on the belief that if we just put aside all the noise and sit down with each other, we will soon find what we share in common far outweighs our differences.
“Ben Carson cares deeply about education and the future of America’s children. He spent his life saving lives and serving the public. He inspires students from his home district to believe that if they dream big and work hard, as he did, they too can defy the odds.”
Maybe instead of trying to erase Dr. Carson, the Board should be taking notes.
