Future doctors learn racism at medical school

Medical students at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are required to study racism without any emphasis on health.

Leaked slides and audio from a course called Equity Health and Justice, mandatory for first year students, show that America’s future doctors are being taught that they are either oppressed or an oppressor.

“Racial privilege plus the misuse of power equals racism,” said the instructor, according to the audio. “In our culture, in the United States, white folks hold power. That doesn’t mean other folks don’t have power, but in this construct, in this culture, white folks hold power. We live in a system of white supremacy.” 

Students are required to learn a table of oppressions, including classism, racism and white supremacy, Eurocentrism and xenophobia, ableism, religionism, ageism and adultism, lookism, sizeism, heterosexism and homophobia, transphobia and genderism, and sexism/patriarchy.

The instructor told students that a Black doctor who is discriminatory is racist, while a White doctor who does the same is a White supremacist. 

“If I am poor, I am white, I can still be racist because my whiteness gives me skin color privilege,” the instructor explained in the audio. “What I can’t be if I’m poor is classist, because I don’t have power as it relates to class.”

She also claimed that those with public insurance and those with private insurance are forced to take separate elevators.

The presentation, obtained by medical watchdog Do No Harm (DNH), asks students at the end to reflect on how racism would “relate to your roles as future physicians”.

“Having a definition of race oppression being white supremacy doesn’t have any value in teaching medical students in how to take care of people who are sick and injured,” DNH Program Manager Laura Morgan told the Daily Caller. “It’s just a course that is given to first-year medical students and it masks for the purpose of indoctrinating them into those kinds of ideologies.”

Frontline News has been reporting on efforts to force medical education and health into the context of racism and “diversity”.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last month published an academic paper suggesting that medical education at its core is racist. It added that medical schools must make racism a focus for medical students, which includes segregating them by race.

Medical schools should also address the “general antiracism curricula that is integrated into medical training” and how “anti-Black racism is endemic to the culture of medicine,” says the article.

Nearly 30 medical schools across the US no longer require applicants to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), according to a list published last month by Inspira Advantage. The exams have been dropped as a requirement due to “diversity” based on the premise that non-White applicants are simply unable to perform as well as their White counterparts.

The MCAT exam is a standardized test developed and administered by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which itself grades medical schools based on their commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), an ideology which views humans according to skin color and genitalia. The AAMC takes a “holistic” approach to admissions which takes factors such as skin color into account rather than just scholastic or medical aptitude.

DEI is enforced at medical colleges by the AAMC’s accreditation arm, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), which makes DEI a requirement for accreditation. 

Many medical colleges now demand applicants pledge their commitment to DEI during the application process by asking pointed secondary (school-specific) questions.

Stanford Medical School, for example, makes it clear in one of its application questions that applicants must present proof of victimization to be considered:

The Committee on Admissions regards the diversity (broadly defined) of an entering class as an important factor in serving the educational mission of the school. You are strongly encouraged to share unique attributes of your personal identity, and/ or personally important or challenging factors in your background. Such discussions may include the quality of your early education, gender identity, sexual orientation, any physical challenges, or any other life or work experiences.

University of California, Irvine School of Medicine asks applicants a similar question:

Do you identify as being part of a marginalized group socioeconomically or in terms of access to quality education or healthcare? If so, please describe how this inequity has impacted you and your community.

Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry asks applicants to explain DEI and “why they are important” while George Washington University’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences assumes that all applicants are motivated by DEI:

Describe how current issues regarding advocacy and social justice have impacted your motivation for medical school?

As one of its secondary questions, New York Medical College warns students to first comb through their social media accounts for any “dishonorable” content, whether past or present:

Is there anything in your social media presence (past, or present) that would bring discredit or dishonor on you, the institution, the program or profession (if applicable) or that could be considered derogatory, hateful, or threatening? (Yes/ No).

Accepted, an application consultation firm, cautions New York Medical College applicants to make sure their social media accounts do not reflect political arguments “other than reflecting values for diversity, equity and inclusion in genuine and meaningful ways, since these are values that medical schools wholly endorse.”

Tulane University School of Medicine openly asks its applicants for proof of victimization:

Tulane University School of Medicine values the diversity of its patients, faculty, staff, and students. Do you identify with a particular group that you believe is underrepresented among medical professionals? These include groups oriented around, but not limited to: ethnicity, race, sexuality, religion, disability, and economic background.

Stony Brook School of Medicine forces applicants to view the medical profession in the context of racism by asking, “What, in your opinion, is the role of a physician in addressing systemic racism and societal injustices?”

The University of California–Davis School of Medicine has developed a mandatory “anti-racism” course for students. Faculty at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport School of Medicine must take “annual unconscious bias training” and “cultural sensitivity, diversity, and bias training”.

Efforts to inculcate America’s future physicians with DEI ideology are beginning to bear fruit.

In August, medical students at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Medical School recited a DEI oath at their white coat ceremony:

With gratitude, we, the students of the University of Minnesota Twin Cities Medical School Class of 2026, stand here today among our friends, families, peers, mentors and communities, who have supported us in reaching this milestone. Our institution is located on Dakota Land. Today, many indigenous people throughout the state including Dakota and Ojibwe, call the Twin Cities home; we also recognize this acknowledgement is not enough.

Some parts of the pledge mentioned issues like “health care violence.”

We commit to uprooting the legacy and perpetuation of structural violence deeply embedded within the health care system.

We recognize inequities built by past and present traumas rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, the gender binary, ableism, and all forms of oppression.

As we enter this profession with an opportunity for growth, we commit to promoting a culture of anti-racism, listening, and amplifying voices for positive change.

We pledge to honor all indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by Western medicine, knowing that health is intimately connected to our environment, we commit to healing our planet and communities.

We vow to embrace our role as community members and strive to embody cultural humility. We promise to continue restoring trust in the medical system and fulfilling our responsibilities as educators and advocates. We commit to collaborating with social, political, and additional systems to advance health equity.