These States Force Doctors To Take “Anti-Racist” Training

Is your state indoctrinating physicians with extreme racial ideology? The Annals of Internal Medicine has helpfully published a list of states where the answer is yes. Specifically, these states mandate that physicians take “anti-racism” courses as a condition of licensing and/or licensing renewal. Such training divides people by skin color and paves the way for racial discrimination.

The list of states is long and clustered on the coasts, with a few exceptions. On the East Coast, it includes Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C. On the West Coast, the list is California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada. Illinois and Michigan round out the list in the middle of the country.

The Annals of Internal Medicine thinks these mandates are praiseworthy. In publishing the list, it accuses physicians of playing “a key role in perpetrating racial health disparities … including biased clinical decision making and verbal and nonverbal communication.” The mandates are supposed to help physicians realize they’re racist by subjecting them to continuing medical education courses.

But there’s no evidence that such training improves patient outcomes. The accusation behind the training is also insulting. Physicians strive to treat every patient equally, giving them the best possible care regardless of race. While health disparities exist, they reflect a host of other factors, including patient lifestyle choices and other issues — not physician bias.

What’s worse, the training is dangerous, and may even lead to worse patient outcomes. By indoctrinating physicians in the lie that they’re racist, states are encouraging actual racism. “Anti-racism,” according to its most prominent advocate, Ibram X. Kendi, is built on the idea that racial discrimination is essential and even praiseworthy, since it’s supposed to right past wrongs. Yet racial discrimination is always unacceptable, especially in medicine where lives are on the line.

The states with anti-racism training mandates should be ashamed. Better, they should immediately repeal these laws. Do No Harm is already suing California over its mandate, but these unjust policies need to be written out of the law everywhere they exist. Patient health depends on it.