November 1980: New York City’s WASHINGTON HEIGHTS – The Columbia Medical School applicant was walking out of the parking garage. A semi-comatose man lay across the sidewalk. People gave him no notice and walked by and over him.
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Across the street, under the bridge, were the remnants of a burnt-out car.
The medical school interview was going well until the applicant asked the interviewer about the previous years shooting/murder of one of the medical students. Without hesitation, the interviewer answered, “he was in a place where he should not have been, and if a person was smart about such things, odds were good that they would be safe.” The school applicant left and never looked back.
The admission process to medical school is especially rigorous, and only top candidates are offered admission. Because of the SCOTUS decision that diversity could be used to violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, minorities with much lower academic credentials are granted admission and makeup approximately 10% of the class. Quotas are technically illegal, but year after year the class ratios are approximately the same.
The first two years of medical school are extremely challenging. The building blocks (think anatomy, physiology, microbiology, biochemistry, and pathology} must be mastered. In general, there are 32 hours of class/labs per week and then many more hours of home study. Most medical schools do not have grades and courses are evaluated with pass/fail or honors. For many decades, after the first two years of medical school, a graded standardized test was required. The test scores assessed whether the medical students had mastered essential medical building blocks and simultaneously assessed whether the medical schools were teaching what needed to be learned. The score was a very important part of a medical student’s future. Combining the score with clinical third/fourth-year rotation evaluations, interviews, and recommendations formed the basis of being accepted to post-medical school training programs {residencies}. The cream rose to the top, and the best students landed the best residencies.
In the wake of the George Floyd BLM movement, academia’s fixation on diversity, equity, and inclusion {DEI} has taken on religious fanaticism. And like elite colleges and law schools, medical schools have enthusiastically hopped on the DEI bandwagon.
With the impending SCOTUS overturning of Affirmative Action, all of woke academia is in panic. In the aftermath of the expected SCOTUS decision, these institutions will have to change their admission/promotion practices or face legal and Federal consequences for discriminating against non-DEI applicants on the basis of race or gender.
Many prestigious Colleges and Law Schools, understanding that any standardized testing puts them at risk, have moved to no longer require such testing {SAT, LSAT}.
Some medical schools have followed suit and no longer require the MCAT. And in order to continue their ideological DEI commitment the post-second year test {previously graded} has been made pass/fail {96% pass rate}. The administrators have tried to justify this decision by saying it will take the stress out of the first two years of medical school, but their excuse rings hollow. The change really means medical schools will not be held accountable for poorly teaching students in the first two years and allows poorer-performing medical students to move on without objective evidence of achievement.
Evaluation in the clinical 3d year of medical school is much more subjective, and “Woke” academia can shift the curve toward DEI students. The first merit-based evaluation test does not have to be taken until later in the 4th year{after residency job decisions have occurred}. Suddenly residency directors, who, like medical school administrators, are under extreme stress to show their “Woke” credentials, can accept DEI students into their training programs because there will be no objective standards. The whole process will be subjective.
The best and the brightest will be forced to take a back seat to a “Woke “DEI ideology.
In most situations, the effect of DEI hiring will not be apparent for years. The federal government is so bloated with incompetence that adding new DEI hires makes no perceivable difference. Law firms will virtue signal and hire lawyers using DEI, but if their product is not top-notch, the firm will lose clients. This is unacceptable and poorly performing associates, DEI or otherwise, will be marginalized (although DEI employees probably will keep their job). Fortune 500 companies will behave in a similar fashion. Added costs for middle management deadwood will be the price they pay to appear “Woke”.
With San Francisco bank SVB’s bankruptcy, real-world consequences of “Woke” DEI management have become apparent. Massive amounts of funds and resources were used to promote BLM and woke causes while “banking competence” was nowhere to be found. Without competent employees, when things got tough, the bank folded.
Undoubtedly lowering standards in our military to accommodate (DEI) will have terrible real-world consequences, but it is unlikely the public will ever be made aware.
The downstream effect of “Woke DEI” infiltration of medical training won’t be apparent for a few years but will result in divisive unintended consequences.
Wealthy people will not stand for even the perception of low-quality physicians. Private concierge physician groups will accommodate their wealthy patients’ wishes or lose business. The result will be wealthy people, and their families will not obtain their healthcare from DEI-trained physicians.
The American public also has no tolerance for medical care that isn’t top-of-the-line. When their loved one needs care, they want the best. As DEI medical education matures and the public becomes aware of what is happening, people are going to be forced into making a calculated decision. In a similar fashion to the Columbia Medical College admission officer who in 1980 told the school applicant that in order to stay safe certain places in Washington Heights as well as nearby Harlem minority neighborhoods should be avoided; People who have lost faith in the process of how a DEI physician achieved a place in society, are going to look for a non-DEI medical provider. Of course, this is not fair to physicians such as Ben Carson, who competed at the highest level and achieved {or the non-violent residents of Harlem}, but it is an unavoidable reality. It is not racism any more than when a person decides to stay safe and avoid a sketchy part of a big city. It is simply a calculated probability as to whom will give a loved one the highest quality care.
In June of 2023, the SCOTUS is going to correct the terrible divisive mistake that it made 50 years ago and rule that affirmative action is a violation of the equal protection clause.
Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is openly advocating returning to a merit-based America. And other politicians are starting to follow. Ramaswamy’s message is resonating across America and forcing needed uncomfortable conversations. Returning America to meritocracy will not be easy. The usual race hustlers will be out in force, and radical unrest is almost a certainty; but for America to move toward MLK’s united colorblind future, DEI and its divisive substandard consequences must be part of the past.
2024 is coming!!
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