Commentary

What’s In a Name? Turns Out a Lot, When You’re Trying to Hide Discriminatory Activities

  • By Do No Harm Staff
  • April 10, 2024
  • Oregon Health and Science University

At the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), the school launched “Camaraderie Groups” as a pilot in 2023 to facilitate “small group discussion meetings” as a means to “lead conversation on a variety of thoughtful, emotional, and relational topics in the spectrum of the work-life experience.”  

Upon first glance, this may sound innocent enough. But through anonymous reporting by a Do No Harm associate and the school’s response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, Do No Harm learned that these “Camaraderie Groups” are a lot more concerning than their name suggests.

Here’s the kicker: one of the three groups in the program is only for OHSU employees who identify as “Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, Asian, and other people of color.” Put simply, despite OHSU’s statement that “All OHSU employees are eligible to participate”, in reality non-minorities are unwelcome to join in these discussions.

Figure 1. “Camaraderie groups” at Oregon Health and Science University.

Interestingly, the University does not provide any justification or reasoning as to why they needed to segregate-out a separate racially based group. It appears the utility from these conversations would be just as productive—if not even more so—if individuals from all walks of life were welcome to participate.

Figure 2. Spring 2024 Camaraderie Group Cohorts at OHSU.

This is yet another example of an American medical school implementing discriminatory practices by excluding certain racial groups from participating in offered programs. However, this is not all that much of a surprise coming from OHSU given the school’s track record.

In August 2022, Do No Harm asked the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) in the U.S. Department of Education to investigate OHSU for violating the Civil Rights Act. Specifically, the school operated a “diversity” program which was restricted to junior medical faculty applicants who are “underrepresented” in medicine and belong to select racial groups. Roughly a month following the OCR complaint, OHSU completely disabled the links to the program in question.

Additionally, in 2023, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital—which is affiliated with OHSU—came under fire for offering consultations on transgender treatments to children under 10 years of age. At the time, Do No Harm Founder Dr. Stanley Goldfarb noted that “The Oregon [H]ealth and [S]cience Children’s Hospital gender clinic provides a detailed series of descriptions of the various maneuvers that children may receive at the clinic during their gender transition…Nowhere in the descriptions for children is an opportunity for these often depressed, anxious, perhaps autistic children to receive psychological counseling or psychiatric therapy to help him deal with the incredibly complex and difficult transition that the unit continuously advocates.”

Now, yet again, OHSU is demonstrating an instance of the very worst of DEI activism on its campus through the creation of racially based camaraderie groups. The sooner this discriminatory experiment is ended, the better.