Emphasis mine:
:In April 2021, after thirty years as a Fellow in good standing in the American College of Surgeons (ACS), I was banned for life from the ACS Communities, the online discussion forum for ACS Fellows.
“In addition to this, I was banned from access to the membership directory of the ACS and from my own private messages.
Why was such an extreme action taken against me? It was because I objected to the characterization of the ACS as a systemically racist organization, of surgeons as implicitly racist, and of surgery itself as a racist discipline in which non-white patients do not fare as well as white patients when operated upon by white surgeons. In their own words, the ACS “recognized its responsibility to address the issue of structural racism within the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and within the profession of surgery.” What was the basis for such an incredible claim? The only evidence offered was the existence of disparities in representation of blacks in surgery, in the leadership of the ACS, and disparate outcomes in surgery. Structural racism was accepted without question as the cause of these sufficient to justify a radical restructuring of the ACS.”
The above is from a petition, on a tip from a lead from a friend, on Change.org. Yes, I know, a fairly Left learning organization, but was put it up and is getting a number of signatories (yes, I have signed it). The tip was this:
My friend Rick was banned from the American College of Surgery’s online Communities forum for respectfully questioning DEI initiatives and the presumption that the specialty of surgery is systemically racist. He wrote a WSJ op-ed regarding his ban, which the college refuses to reverse. Please consider signing this petition to have him reinstated.
With many thanks,
Rick would be Dr. Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS.
Well, it’s clear that the American College of Surgery (“ACS”) is NOT all that welcoming, not all that INCLUSIVE, and certainly has its snootiness showing by only believing in the Woke definition of Diversity. This is to say, you either are in lockstep with holdings that you MUST be part of our philosophical monoculture that Diversity is only skin deep. It has been totally captured by a political movement, and having watched this for years, know that the George Floyd event was a “crisis not to waste” by both the BLM and CRT missionaries being the leading waves of this movement (re: the mansions that the BLM founders have bought with the gazillions of donations by individuals & Corporations who decided that Virtue-Signaling is a great way to go!)
Soon after the George Floyd murder in June 2020, the ACS assembled a Task Force on Racism, which reported its recommendations in the Bulletin of the ACS in November 2020. Among its recommendations were adding antiracism to the values of the ACS. It added a sixth pillar, Diversity, to the pre-existing five (Advocacy and Health Policy, Communication, Education, Member Services, and Quality, Research, and Optimal Patient Care). A new Staff Office of Diversity was added with its own Executive Director and new leadership position of Clinical Director of Diversity. The Task Force recommended implementation of such initiatives as mandated courses for ACS leaders and staff on microaggressions, ally and active bystander, and implicit bias.
Translation: you WILL be indoctrinated because if you reject the statement by Ibram Kendi that if you are not an “anti-racist”, you ARE a racist! And if you disagree, you ARE a racist! Nice to see that these “highly educated folks” couldn’t bother to see that this is one of the poorest debating tactics ever (think “heads I win, tails you lose, and you CANNOT question me on it!”).
In June 2021, the ACS hosted a leadership retreat for leaders of all of the surgical societies with invited speaker Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and advocate of, among other things, reverse discrimination as the answer to past discrimination.
And they FELL FOR IT! Discrimination against ANYONE is both unethical and morally wrong simply on the visual superficiality of the color of someone’s skin. But when you’re Woke, every other serious attribute is discarded.
And being that Kendi is a Professor at my alma mater (B.U.), I can easily say that I am ashamed of my alma mater. For years, I walked by the art installation in front of the Marsh chapel on Commonwealth Ave in Boston that honored Dr. King:
You remember him, right? Does his speech that focused on “the content of their character” ring a bell? Kendi can’t hold a candle to King’s intellectual, moral, or spiritual heft. You’d think that a bunch of MDs with a whole host of acronymed degrees would have seen right through it. Seems like King couldn’t hold a candle to Kendi BS under cover of Floyd. And the whole rest of the snake oil salesmen that have turned “racism” into a racket.
Kendi is the antithesis of King. /rant.
My objection took the form of a post in the General Surgery Forum in April 2021 in which I objected to the characterization of the ACS as systemically racist and to the installation of critical race theory in the ACS under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. That post garnered nearly one thousand comments, most of which expressed the same concerns as I. I was invited to a Zoom call with the ACS leadership in March 2022 to discuss this. Shortly thereafter, the rules for the Communities were changed and all posts on DEI were relegated to a new Diversity Forum. I and other Fellows objected in that we felt DEI/CRT clearly had clinical implications per the ACS’s own stated concerns. Our posts to this effect were deleted by the General Secretary, Tyler Hughes.
…I asked for examples of my disrespectful language and improper posts and this request has never been granted. I appealed to the Board of Regents, again asking for examples of my posts justifying this ban and was again refused. I demanded reinstatement and was informed by Executive Director Patricia Turner that my lifetime ban would stand. I was also assured that I had received “due process”. I appealed to Douglas Wood, the Head of the Central Judiciary Committee seeking a hearing and he informed me that my ban had not come before the Committee, therefore this did not qualify as a disciplinary action meriting a hearing! I pointed out the violations of the ACS Bylaws dealing with disciplinary matters in banning me in this fashion and received a single sentence response essentially refusing any further discussion on the subject.
No one can be allowed to vary from The Narrative. And no, they will never tell you why (just like Facebook and (formerly) Twitter) as that would expose them to ridicule, derision, and falling on cement nose first.
Sidenote: I thought this on “Restrictive Covenants” was rather amusing. While it is about contracts and no-competes, isn’t this really what the ACS did to Dr. Bosshardt by effectively restricting him out of their lives? Nice to see that these old white guys decided to “erase” him (as the Trans-Authoritarians accuse others of doing).
Speaking of the old White guys in the ACS leadership suite, 25 of the Regents are White out of a total Regents/Current Regents listing of 31. They are only Virtue-Signaling as NONE OF THEM RESIGNED THEIR high perches in order to allow Black and Brown people to take their places (re: Hypocrites Supreme!)
I also will say that ANY group that wants to infringe on my Second Amendment Right and Dr. Bosshardt’s First Amendment Right needs to be shamed as hard and as often as possible.
So sign the petition, please.
I also have a suggestion for Dr. Bosshardt – start a competing group. Your revenge will be accomplished (rapidly if there were thousands of comments agreeing with you) by leaving them in the dust membership-wise.