North Carolinians Deserve Good Doctors, Not Woke Political Activists

Recently, The University of North Carolina has come under scrutiny for the radical diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives being pushed in its School of Medicine. Disturbed by the blatant racism and political activism coming from the medical school, North Carolinians have begun asking questions. In response to these questions, Wesley Burks, the dean of the School of Medicine, has been essentially telling inquirers their fears are unfounded.

But a public records request has revealed that Dean Burks gets all of his DEI talking points from the UNC School of Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The DEI officers coached Dean Burks on how to respond to the backlash and criticism caused by the UNC DEI task force’s recommendations for implementing social justice into the curriculum.

But the talking points that the DEI office gave the dean are dishonest. The UNC School of Medicine’s own internal documents and diversity initiatives refute them. 

First, the talking points try to shift responsibility and downplay the number and importance of the recommendations outlined in the report. They state, “Most recommendations were created as a response to concerns highlighted by our accreditation agency, the LCME … others were modified following their original posting or not adopted…” They don’t specify which goals were merely created at the behest of the LCME, nor which recommendations they chose not to adopt. 

Moreover, the UNC School of Medicine DEI office’s website demonstrates that, even if certain recommendations from the report were scrapped or consolidated, the overarching themes of the report are still alive and being actively pursued by the school. The website lists three priorities: (1) “recruit and retain diverse faculty, staff, and learners”; (2) “Cultivate an environment that promotes a more inclusive culture”; (3) “Strengthen institutional infrastructure and systems to support diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.”

These goals are all worded with pretty language that makes them sound like noble objectives that anyone would support, but they are just vague rewordings of the same social justice priorities outlined in the task force’s report.

For example, one goal of the task force report is: “The work of the admissions committee should be guided by the UNC School of Medicine’s education and patient care missions to recruit students from highly diverse backgrounds to create a socially responsible, highly skilled workforce…” One need only look at UNC’s discriminatory admissions practices to see that they are very much still working toward this aim in the worst possible way. UNC uses a so-called holistic admissions approach that factors race into admissions decisions. This approach unfairly disadvantages Asian and white applicants and, because of this violation of civil rights, has landed UNC in a Supreme Court case.

And it doesn’t even stop there. UNC’s Department of Neurosurgery is offering a summer research fellowship open only to black medical students. The blurb for the fellowship openly declares: “The purpose of the award is to provide a neurosurgical-based research fellowship for black students … who wish to gain research experience in the fields of neuroscience and neurosurgery, and have early exposure to the field of neurosurgery.”

The UNC School of Medicine also subjects its faculty to mandatory implicit bias training.

So Dean Burks and the diversity office can’t claim that their diversity goals are “no big deal.” The university has devoted itself to the cause of DEI — and all that entails — enough to force woke ideology down its faculty’s throat, enough to openly discriminate against Asians in favor of blacks and end up in court. 

The talking points claim that negative reporting on the school’s DEI initiatives “misrepresents and sensationalizes our great work at the UNC School of Medicine.” But that is simply not accurate. If you look at The College Fix article that these talking points reference specifically, that article sensationalizes nothing. The author of the article merely quotes excerpts of the SOM’s own report. The author does not embellish or add any objectives that the social justice task force itself did not create.

Also of note, the DEI office’s talking points assert in the very next sentence: “We have prioritized and are proud of our work in DEI.” If Dean Burks and UNC leadership are so proud of their DEI work, why would they need to rush to deny the validity of statements found in their own DEI report? If they are proud of their work, why not just honestly own and defend all the details of their DEI priorities? If you believe your work is admirable and there is nothing insidious in it, why try to downplay or deny certain aspects of it?

The talking points claim that the UNC School of Medicine’s DEI work “has no political agenda.” This is a flat-out lie. A presentation slide from the UNC SOM Health Equity Speaker series explicitly credits Critical Race Theory as the foundation on which UNC’s DEI work is based. And Critical Race Theory is political, no matter how much UNC’s DEI executives deny it. The Health Equity presentation slide states that Critical Race Theory “recognizes that racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of the American society” and “identifies that these structures are based on white privilege and white supremacy, which perpetuates the marginalization of people of color.” CRT’s claims are political claims. So once again, the talking points mislead and obscure the truth.

The UNC School of Medicine is actively pursuing a destructive DEI agenda, and the school’s leaders don’t even have the decency to be honest about their agenda. That is why Color Us United has created a petition urging Dean Burks to abandon this poisonous ideology and realign the school’s focus to what should matter most — excellence in health care. North Carolinians deserve good doctors, not political activists.

Emmie Lo is a writer and Latin teacher currently living in Jacksonville, Florida. You can read her personal blog at blindgirldreaming.blogspot.com and follow her on Twitter at @teabooksgirl.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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