On Sept. 8, former Trump administration HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson asked, “Why would anyone want to change from a society that is working beautifully?”
Carson made the comments during a discussion on “Mornings with Maria” about kids wearing masks in schools after host Maria Bartiromo asked the retired physician about his thoughts on the hot-button issue.
“I sympathize with the children, particularly the very young children,” Carson explained.
“Because they are being socialized. And by that, I don’t mean turned into socialists. I mean learning how to function in society.”
Fights over mask mandates have broken out across the country, and individuals’ thoughts on the health measure fall largely along party lines.
A poll by Axios found about 85 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents, and 32 percent of Republicans support mask mandates for all students and staff at their child’s school.
According to Carson, mask-wearing could hamper kids’ social development. “Part of that is being able to look at facial expressions and to be able to correlate that with what they’re saying. If you miss out on that early on, it puts you at a severe handicap.”
Carson said a “more scientific and not emotional and ideological approach” is necessary to assess the pros and cons of mask-wearing.
“And you’re telling them they may pass on some horrible disease they can pass on to their grandmother,” the former neurosurgeon said.
“Even though, they aren’t sick, they could pass it to their grandmother. And then when she does pass on, they have these guilt feelings.”
Carson said the same principle should be extended to teaching critical race theory in schools.
“Then if they’re white they’re getting told that ‘you are an oppressor,’ and all of your people are oppressors and if you’re Black you’re a victim. I mean how are you supposed to develop a healthy self-image under those circumstances? It makes no sense.”
Critical race theory first originated in the 1960s and is an intellectual movement based on the idea that race is a social construct used to exploit people of color.
It asserts that legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist and help maintain social, political and economic inequalities, particularly between whites and Blacks.
After The 1619 Project was published in The New York Times, schools across the country began to integrate critical race theory into their curricula and many states moved to restrict the teachings, although there is often disagreement about what constitutes CRT.
Carson said the pressure around vaccinations, masks, and critical race theory is coming from people who want to change society by first sowing seeds of discomfort.
“This is coming from people who want to fundamentally change our nation,” he said. ” Why would anyone want to change from a society that is working beautifully? … You have to convince people none of that is going on. It starts early on with indoctrination.”
