Medical school infuses curriculum with CRT, DEI

Tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have permeated the University of California San Diego School of Medicine (UCSD). 

That claim comes from Do No Harm, a nonprofit organization of “physicians, healthcare professionals, medical students, patients, and policymakers” that “[p]rotect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology.”

In a June 2022 report, Do No Harm stated that the school had implemented a multitude of race-based programs across its institutes following the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) riots in June 2020, such as an “anti-racism statement“ explicitly supporting the BLM Movement.

[RELATED: University spends month celebrating Critical Race Theory]

Other findings included an Antiracism Journal Club, ‘health equity’ components in curriculum, an ‘antiracism lab,’ separate ‘Antidiscrimination’ and ‘Anti-Racism’ task forces, as well as DEI training for faculty. 

Do No Harm also reported that the medical school’s Family Medicine Diversity & Anti-Racism Committee is “responsible for hosting talks on topics often unrelated to administering quality care” including race in medicine, implicit bias, microaggression, LGBTQ health, and spirituality.

In keeping with the University of California system’s current proposal to drop the traditional A-F grading convention, reported on by Campus Reform in May, UCSD has adopted “pass/fail” at its medical school during the first two years, the report noted. 

Campus Reform has found CRT principles in other universities’ medical curricula. 

In March, Campus Reform reported that Columbia University published an article written by one of its graduate students calling for Critical Race Theory to be taught in medical schools, and additionally reported on a director of diversity and inclusion at Mercer University who called racism a public health crisis in May. 

CriticalRace.org found that 39 out of 50 of the United States’ top medical schools have mandated some form of CRT in their institutions and curriculum.

[RELATED: 2021 in review: Medical schools’ push for social justice health care]

In July 2021, California allocated $12.9 million to be used for “healthy equity” programs across the UC medical school system, $2.6 million of which will fund UCSD’s medical DEI programs.

Another example from UCSD in Do No Harm’s report includes the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science offering Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to be an Anti-Racist. 

Accordingly, in May 2021, Campus Reform reported on UCSD creating a “White Allyship” program to promote anti-racism, which has “an intentional focus on the work white people need to do.”

DO NO HARM concludes: “The confluence of the Covid-19 pandemic and a racial justice frenzy since June 2020 has resulted in academic institutions increasingly developing curricula and departments designed at fostering social engineering.”

Campus Reform reached out to UCSD, UCSD School of Medicine, and UCSD Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science for comment. This article will be updated accordingly. 

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