DEI initiatives force medical students to only go skin deep, report reveals

An investigation of curricula in Texas medical schools reveals requirements drenched in “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” (DEI), the anti-racism rallying cry critics say creates racial divisiveness.

Do No Harm, a medical watchdog group, released a report detailing various DEI programs at medical schools in the traditionally conservative Lone Star state.

“Medical students are indoctrinated with the idea that the entire healthcare industry is systematically racist, everyone in it is steeped in implicit bias, and its entire structure is designed to inflict harmful inequities and health disparities on specific patient populations,” the report begins.

Numerous examples are cited, revealing a shocking disregard for academic excellence:

• At University of Texas (UT) Dell Medical School, students spend less than 20 hours a week in the classroom and all grades are pass/fail. Curriculum outcomes include recognizing “the important non-biological determinants of poor health, including the psychological and social factors such as racism, stigma, oppression and trauma that contribute to the development and/or exacerbation of illnesses.”  
• UT Southwestern Medical School doesn’t have minimum GPA or MCAT requirements, instead asking applicants to write essays on such topics as harassment or discrimination, cultural differences, and equity and inclusion.  
• The John Sealy School of Medicine similarly has no GPA or MCAT score requirements, but has candidates “describe a time when you advocated for someone whose social identity (e.g. race, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, ability status, etc.) differed from yours.”  

• The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center even uses the “Gender Unicorn,” a child-like cartoon explaining the difference between gender identity, gender expression, sex, and physical and emotional attraction. It recommends using pronouns like ze, zie and hir as an act of cultural competency.  

Though it seems incongruous with a medical school, such requirements are quickly becoming the norm.  

In September, Do No Harm accused medical schools of trying to weed out applicants based on their DEI-related beliefs. Just last month, Texas A&M bragged about removing images of white male graduates in its building entrance.  

“The act of degrading medical education with the destructive and divisive ideologies that radical activists have used in other segments of American society will destroy the dynamic of trust between physician and patient that this long-valued relationship depends on,” the report concludes.  

More than just undermining trust, the universities policies could even be deemed unconstitutional, according to some. 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott rebuked such equity initiatives on Saturday.  

“Rather than increasing diversity in the workplace, these DEI initiatives are having the opposite effect and are being advanced in ways that proactively encourage discrimination in the workplace,” Abbott’s chief of staff, Gardner Pate, wrote. 

The report comes shortly after some Texas medical schools are being sued for allegedly discriminating against whites, Asians, and men.