Recently, the Wall Street Journal’s “Free Expression” panel published an article discussing a now-closing “politics fever” amongst medical schools. The article drew connections between policies and proposals over the past years from schools like Harvard, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of California, San Francisco. The author alleges that these schools partook in political propaganda during the COVID-19 and post-COVID years by encouraging — or in their perspective, pressuring — students to promote antiracist activism. These proposals included reparations, protests, and even chanting ‘long live intifada’. At the University of Minnesota, the promise to uproot structural violence and promote indigenous healing was part of the oath new medics took.
These practices are surely problematic, but not for the same reason that the author Sally Satel claims. On one hand, they force students to take extremist approaches to fighting social problems. On the other, that was not Sally’s case. Her premise was that including antiracism in new doctors’ promises meant that the doctors were foregoing politicization of their identities as medical professionals. However, the article is entirely underdeveloped and does not make any suggestion as to the intended meaning of these practices which seem to fight racism.
Historically, medical practices were racist, whether we are ignorant or not. Gynecology was founded on the backs of abused slaves, and much of medicine altogether used colored people as test subjects. Medical practitioners have been significantly different in their treatment of white and black people for decades. Satel should consider this; if confronting racism doesn’t matter, why are maternal mortality rates much higher for black women, and black medical tragedies aren’t rare at all?
Ultimately, yes, promoting indigenous healing over modern medicine and shouting to cheer on intifada is a form of propaganda. Still, facing the battle against racism in our society is not inherently problematic. We should be encouraging a more rounded, fact-focused movement against racism in the medical field — not ignoring it altogether.
