Dr. Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development under then-President Donald Trump, told Newsmax on Friday that he's not upset by a Detroit-area school board's decision to rename a school that had been named for him.
Carson added that he wasn't surprised by the move, given the current political world.
"I see cancel culture infiltrating every aspect of our culture now, and I hope people realize how destructive it is to demand that everybody have the same thinking process," Carson, for years a renowned neurosurgeon, said on "National Report."
Considering that America is based on liberty and freedom of speech, thought, and association, it does children a "great disservice" when they are taught that "political ideology is more important than academic achievement," Carson said.
"I don't feel bad for me," he said. "I feel bad for the students who are being indoctrinated in such a way."
Last month, Detroit Public Schools Community District voted to change the name of the Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine. In a statement to Fox News, the district said the majority of current students, staff, parents, alumni, and community members favored a name change for the school.
Carson told Newsmax that many other places are named in his honor, so for him, the renaming isn't about the name but about the inspiration it provides to others.
Further, he questioned the school board's motivation, considering the push comes at a time when reading scores are going down, and "people are graduating from high school who are functionally illiterate, they're sitting around, worried about something like this."
Carson said his message, overall, is that if young people want to be successful, they need to get a good education.
"You need to do everything you can to avail yourself of that, and if you equip your children with that you greatly enhance their chances of being successful in life, and that's what you should be concerned about," Carson said. "You shouldn't be concerned about political ideology, although if you are going to be concerned about that, do your homework."
He challenged people who oppose him to look at his achievements as HUD secretary, and his efforts to get people out of poverty — through reading rooms, named in his honor, to help children become educated.
Carson also discussed the growing number of COVID cases and the call in some areas to reinstitute mask mandates.
The health experts are not "paying attention" to reports that there are "a lot of people" who have COVID but "they're not very sick," Carson said.
"Each iteration of the disease is less virulent, contagious," Carson said. "It's exactly what happens as something becomes endemic, and they know that."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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