Commentary

Yet Another UCSF Civil Rights Investigation is Underway

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • December 30, 2022
  • University of California San Francisco

The University of California-San Francisco School of Medicine is the latest medical program in the UC system to be investigated by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for illegal race-based discrimination. The investigation was opened in response to a federal civil rights complaint filed by Mark Perry, senior fellow for Do No Harm.

OCR is responsible for enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race by academic programs that receive federal funding. UCSF School of Medicine is violating Title VI with its Racial Affinity Caucusing Groups (RACG; archived page here), which advertises its purpose on the School of Medicine’s website (bold added):

RAGC (sic) recognizes that the work that Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) are doing to process, heal, and dismantle racism is different from the work thaft (sic) white people need to do. This article explains the importance of having protected spaces for people to process.

Racial Affinity Caucusing Groups at the UCSF School of Medicine.

UCSF School of Medicine is using these “protected” (i.e., segregated) spaces to engage in “anti-racism work.” Ibram X. Kendi, the main proponent of anti-racism, says, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” What types of discriminatory activities are the UCSF Racial Affinity Caucusing Groups conducting in these “protected spaces?” But the better question is the one the UCSF School of Medicine actually asks itself: Why have affinity groups based on race? The taxpayers of California deserve an answer.