Surveying American institutions, one searches in earnest for even a few organizations or systems that progressives have been unable to control. News story after news story confirms that indeed that one, that one, and, yes, that one too have all succumbed to ideological capture.
Naïfs like myself once held out hope for science and mathematics. How could geometry be racist or gravitational waves foster systemic oppression? Sadly, we were wrong. The latest institution to go is medical education.
“Health equity” pushes doctors beyond surgeries or appointments to perform advocacy against systems of oppression.A recent essay at Inside Higher Ed bravely declares that all prospective doctors must be trained not to become skilled surgeons or perceptive dermatologists. Rather, their training must direct them towards “health equity.” This shift pushes doctors beyond surgeries or appointments to perform advocacy against systems of oppression and various “-isms.” Many medical schools have already adopted such advocacy-focused instruction.
For example, the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill has an entire center dedicated to health-equity research, the stated goal of which is to dismantle systems of oppression, systemic racism, and other internalized oppressions. Among its recommended resources are the 1619 Project’s podcast, Richard Delgado’s Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, and Becoming an Anti-Racist Church. What any of these resources has to do with medical education is left to the imagination.