Identity Politics Don’t Belong in Medicine

This election underscored that a person’s appearance is a bad predictor of how they vote. Americans know that despite the claims of the Left, skin color doesn’t determine how or what a person thinks. Yet medical associations still haven’t received the memo. While some companies and universities are retreating from DEI trainings that demand a focus on immutable characteristics, medicine is holding fast to a racial lens that exemplifies the very evils of racism it seeks to overcome.

In 2021, the American Medical Association (AMA) introduced an organizational plan to “embed racial justice and advance health equity” which rallied against the advantages of “white (also wealthy, hetero-, able-bodied, male, Christian, U.S. born) people at the expense of Black, Latinx, Indigenous and people of color.” Initiatives included conducting research “informed by social epidemiology and critical race theory,” training medical students and physicians in the pedagogy, and exploring medical reparations.

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About the Author

Aida Cerundolo

Dr. Aida Cerundolo is an emergency medicine physician and a senior fellow at Do No Harm.

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This election underscored that a person’s appearance is a bad predictor of how they vote. Americans know that despite the claims of the Left, skin color doesn’t determine how or what a person thinks. Yet medical associations still haven’t received the memo. While some companies and universities are retreating from DEI trainings that demand a focus on immutable characteristics, medicine is holding fast to a racial lens that exemplifies the very evils of racism it seeks to overcome.

In 2021, the American Medical Association (AMA) introduced an organizational plan to “embed racial justice and advance health equity” which rallied against the advantages of “white (also wealthy, hetero-, able-bodied, male, Christian, U.S. born) people at the expense of Black, Latinx, Indigenous and people of color.” Initiatives included conducting research “informed by social epidemiology and critical race theory,” training medical students and physicians in the pedagogy, and exploring medical reparations.