Washington U lecturer warns medical students not to ‘debate’ her on ‘systemic oppression’: ‘shut that’ down

EXCLUSIVE: A lecturer for Washington University in St. Louis’ medical school was caught on camera warning students that if they try to debate her on critical race theory and “systemic oppression,” she “will shut that s— down real fast.”

“I have a really hard time being neutral around issues of systemic oppression,” Kaytlin Reedy-Rogier told a class of medical students this past semester in a video exclusively obtained by Fox News Digital. “So oftentimes you will know how I feel. This does not mean that I am opposed to hearing other perspectives. I would like to be very clear about that: I am always willing to engage in dialogue with folks that may disagree with me. Always.”

“And I will not think less of you, nor will I try to fight you or debate you. And in fact, if you try to fight me or debate me, I will shut that s— down real fast,” Reedy-Rogier, who holds a master’s in social work, added.

Reedy-Rogier serves as a member of the school’s “Understanding Systemic Racism Team” as a co-lead, according to the university’s website. 

The lecture is part of Washington University’s “Health Equity & Justice” lessons, which is included in the medical school’s required “Gateway Curriculum” that was rolled out in 2020.

“At Washington University, we are advancing human health as a diverse and inclusive community, inspiring learners to create the future of medicine, science and society. Our goal is to produce physicians who are leaders in medicine, science, education and advocacy,” the medical school’s website states of the curriculum.

Ahead of implementing the Gateway Curriculum, the medical school vowed in June 2020 – as protests and riots erupted across the country following the death of George Floyd – that it would “require diversity and bias training for all searches and admissions processes including student, resident, fellow, faculty, and staff positions in education.”

A summary for Reedy-Rogier’s lecture, which was also obtained by Fox News Digital, shows a focus on “anti-racism,” including describing race as a “social construct,” and that being “anti-racist requires active, intentional learning.”

“We are very firm in race being a social construct, and that that has implications for how we practice medicine,” Reedy-Rogier said during the lecture. “That has implications for how we understand research, and that has implications for how we understand health disparity. And so when we are asking you all to engage in this, we’re really asking you to think about your own identities, and what that means to be anti-racist, which is an active stance in medicine that we know has a really bad racism issue.”

Fox News Digital reached out to Washington University in St. Louis for comment on the class and Reedy-Rogier’s remarks, but did not receive a reply.

Dr. Stanley Goldfarb, the board director of Do No Harm a group of medical professional that work to “protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology,” slammed Washington University’s lecture as one that is “undermining” the legacy of the school.

“Washington University of St. Louis is one of the outstanding research institutions in the country. Yet it is undermining that legacy with a racist approach to medical education,” Goldfarb told Fox News Digital.

“These videos of faculty teaching medical students that they must consider race as primary factor in practicing medicine is a corruption of health care,” Goldfard went on. “There is no valid evidence that health care disparities are the result of the manner in which patients are treated by physicians. To claim that is the case only prevents an effective approach to reducing disparities such as improving access to health care and better patient and community education about adherence to treatment plans and early recognition of the signs and symptoms of disease.”

A report published by a group that tracks mandatory critical race theory curriculum on college campuses, CriticalRace.org, found earlier this year that 23 of America’s 25 most prestigious medical schools have some type of mandatory student training on CRT.

The study also found that 16 of the top 25 medical schools have declared that anti-racism, DEI, CRT, or other similar studies will be embedded into the general curriculum of the university.