We want our doctors to be as competent as possible, so they can keep us as healthy as possible. We select them based on their education, experience, and recommendations about the quality of care they provide. For most of us, their race, gender, and ethnicity are irrelevant factors.
An experience Americans still take to heart is the fact that all of the civil right movements in this country were based on demands to not be treated differently based on race, sex, or sexual orientation. This speaks to why a majority of Americans agree with the recent Supreme Court decision outlawing race-conscious affirmative action in college and university admissions. That decision is designed to ensure that students are being admitted based on their academic qualifications.
Long before the Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious affirmative action, higher education institutions were using a variety of devices to increase enrollment and graduation rates for Black and Hispanic students removing the barrier to meet the same admissions standards as other students. Facilitating this soft bigotry of low expectations is a hallmark of the American left. Claiming to be the champions of dealing with the “root causes” of social problems, the left has never been interested in addressing the failure of public schools in the inner city, including the crime, drugs, and poverty plaguing Democrat-run urban America. Instead, affirmative action allows them to ignore their failed public school and policy system while pushing their abusive racism and victimhood narrative even further.
For example, The New York Times reported this month that the medical school at the University of California, Davis has developed what it calls the Socioeconomic Disadvantage (S.E.D.) scale to evaluate applicants for admission. The 99-point scale gives applicants points for coming from low-income families, for having parents who didn’t attend college, and for facing six other types of challenges.
Because socioeconomic disadvantage plays such a big role in admissions decisions at the medical school (on top of grades, test scores, essays, recommendations and interviews), 84% of first-year students at the UC-Davis Medical School are from disadvantaged families, 14% are Black and 30% are Hispanic. Among practicing physicians across the nation, about 6% are Black and about 8% are Hispanic.
The success of the UC-Davis Medical School in boosting Black and Hispanic enrollment has prompted 20 other schools to request more information from the medical school so they can possibly start similar programs. More colleges and universities will undoubtedly now adopt such programs to consider race in what could be seen as an end run against the SCOTUS affirmative action decision.
But while the liberal New York Times gushes about the success of the UC-Davis program, it fails to point out the obvious fact that coming from a disadvantaged background does nothing to make anyone a better doctor. On top of this, the Times doesn’t report the wide gap in test scores between Black and White students on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), which has been used since 1947 to measure knowledge students need to succeed as doctors. In 2021, White students taking the MCAT scored in the 71st percentile on average, while the average Black student score was less than half that, in the 35th percentile.
Rather than working to close this gap between the races (doing so would require progressives to repudiate their own agenda), more than two dozen medical schools have stopped requiring students to take the MCAT. Expect more to follow, just as many colleges have stopped using the SAT and ACT standardized tests for undergraduate admissions.
Medical school are also diluting the education they provide to students by reducing the time students spend on learning how to provide medical care so they can spend time learning about far-left woke concepts. The Association of Medical Colleges, which advises the national accreditation agency for medical schools, said in 2022 that medical students must learn about “diversity, equity and inclusion competencies” and “overlapping systems of oppression and discrimination that communities face based on race, gender, ability, etc.”
None of these lessons will improve the way doctors treat their patients. They are simply a bow to nonsensical political correctness and are watering down appropriately difficult medical school curriculums. We know Black and Hispanic students face very real obstacles — through no fault of their own — in admission to undergraduate schools and graduate schools. But eliminating affirmative action finally removes the cover-up available for the progressive political establishment’s generational abandonment of their own constituents.
The public elementary and secondary schools that many Black and Hispanic students attend are abysmal — underfunded, overcrowded, and focused not on the needs of students but on catering to the needs of teacher unions that make big contributions to Democratic political candidates. The whole of the progressive agenda is one of ruin and division, and it’s time to reject this insult to nation as a whole.
Clearly, instead of lowering college and graduate school admission standards in the name of diversity, our focus ought to be on doing a better job preparing students from kindergarten onward to meet high standards. If we don’t, we are allowing the progressive destruction of lives to continue from cradle to grave.
Educational vouchers that give parents the ability to send their children to private schools and high-quality public schools outside the attendance areas of their neighborhood schools at no charge are an excellent way of giving minority students a better education. Free tutoring services and academic enrichment programs for low-income students would also help level the playing field for many of those same young people.
Other steps that could increase diversity on college campuses include greater financial aid to low-income students so they can afford to attend, the elimination of preferential admissions consideration for the children of alumni (a practice known as legacy admissions) and ending special preference for admission to applicants whose parents donate money to a college.
As conservatives, we champion the importance of merit. This is a value that must be applied across the board, especially as we deal with the ‘traditions’ of both affirmative action and legacy admissions.
I have a hard time reconciling to the fact that we are even talking about this time immemorial notion that MERIT should be the primary criterion for hiring people. I so despise the Left for turning our world into a crazy hellhole.
It’s called common sense. Why would you hire someone based on color, someone with no experience, or both? Same with colleges….. what were their SATs , experience, etc. Just look at our government! Harris, Buttigieg, Blinkin, Milley, and most of those selected by Biden are inept in their positions and have destroyed our country. Would you like someone who knows nothing about nuclear weapons in a position to make the decision to release one?
OK, let’s be honest here. You need a heart bypass. Which doctor do you want to perform the operation? The one who graduated in the top 10% or the guy who finished last in his class? White, black or yellow, I want the BEST doctor I can afford! Same with airline pilots, BEST qualified to fly the plane. Because in the event of an emergency, I want the BEST, regardless of racial makeup. End of story.
The biggest problem for poor children in Democratic run cities is the lack of a quality education so that they could compete in the real world. The fact that these cities have been run by Democrats for decades and the quality of life for these neighborhoods has decreased one bit, in fact has declined for some neighborhoods.yet the Democrats keep them on the poverty plantation while stealing millions of dollars in aid money.
Agree whole heartedly. If i had studied and kept my grades in the top category I would be extremely unhappy to be passed over for someone who was of a different race or sex just because.
We need to find politicians who are for America and not their wallets and then shut down ALL government unions. What has been going on in our great country since WW II is pathetic and many politicians and bureaucrats should be in jail. Talking about our problems (all of them brought on us by rotten politicians) might help but action is what counts. We have got to find a way to get rid of democrats who have destroyed our great cities. I think we need to have some qualifications on who can vote and I say this because the same voters keep voting for the democrats who are destroying them.
This whole program is a way to dumb down America and have everyone be beholden to the dems and keep them in power.
Doctors who are not qualified are being protected by the government and in tuKrn they will obey any government edict regarding the healthcare. Like they did during COVID. Forbid medicine that could have saved millions of people.
All this is stated in the UN agenda 21 and the WEF protocol of the New World Order.
As always, Amac is right on with its assessment of the affirmative action situation. 45 years ago, my neighbor was rightfully very, very angry about being passed over as a result of Affirmative Action. His employer was going to advance 10 rank-and-file employees for consideration as managers based on test scores and time with the company. He scored well and was anticipating being advanced since based on his test score, he ranked at number 6. He wasn’t given the opportunity since 4 black candidates, who didn’t score as well as he did nor did they have his seniority, were advanced instead due to Affirmative Action. He was livid and felt betrayed. Here we are years later talking about the same thing. The fact is If all local schools were graduating students who were all equally capable, we wouldn’t need affirmative action, now would we? That’s where the problem is and that is what is being ignored by Democrats who dominate on school boards.
Affirmative action is a useful and powerful tool for losers. color of the skin in academic world gender reassignment in sports Voila success guaranteed
Affirmative Action was the biggest mistake America made regarding the working stiff. In the late 1980’s Reno,NV was hiring 21 Firefighters and I had been a volunteer at Incline Village,NV for several years. 4,900 people applied and tested for these 21 spots and I scored in the top 3% but I’m a white male. They hired ONE white male and hired Blacks, American Indians, and women some of whom didn’t pass the physical agility test. If someone needs pulling and carrying out a burning building these ladies would have to let them die all due to affirmative action. Shortly thereafter it happened to me again in Carson City, NV. After I realized America doesn’t want the best or those who dedicated themselves to rescue, America wanted minorities irregardless of their ability to do the job. Don’t get me wrong, if a minority had dedicated themselves to this profession and scared high on the tests then they deserve the job but not just because of color or sex. After the second kick in my balls I went a new route in life. F the public is what American government has said so F them. Finally thise who deserve will get.
Dear World:
As I went to vote (yes I tried one more time) there were certain people I wanted to vote for in the positive like Ann S or Monica but they said meaning AMAC I was not allowed to vote for them. I called AMAC yesterday and got information on the IT department from the lovely lady I have spoken to in the past. I guess when they changed the way it is all presented they need to work out the “glitches” in the program. I told her that this had been ongoing since the changes were made. I also told her I really hate the new way we have to do things! I also said I was almost ready to stop receiving the articles but I read the ones by Mr. Charles and now Ms. Bruce as they make so much sense. This one is a keeper and I love that she is now part of your organization. I save all the other articles (some I have already read) and hope I can read them later.
Anyway, this is as much time I have left to write today. I want you to know I took both the SAT to get into University and I also took MCAT before I had even finished all of my prerequisites for medical school and this was why I ended up at “Berserkley” for my pre-medical requirements that I had not taken in my undergraduate work. That was quite an experience as I was there in the 60’s.
I had worked 40 hours per week at L. A. County-USC Medical Center and 3 weekends a month for 4 years to get enough money to attend school at “Berserkly”. I wish that ALL the whiners would shut up about the need for the government to step in and pay their college loans. The government is me you stupid people (who will pay for all the work I did in the past to get through my undergraduate studies and my master’s degree and all my pre-med studies?).
Those who want reparations do not even know their history (the good, the bad and the ugly). They keep trying to erase it though. I had better quit before you all want to label me a RACIST which I have never been called in my life until the WOKE generation arrived on the scene! Thank you for listening to this old lady (83+ years) expound.
Carol
This is absolutely ridiculous! We are going backwards because of the democrats. We finally get to a point where anybody if any color, race or religion can pretty much do whatever they want, and now they want it based on race. How stupid!
Of course it was already starting when I went to college. I had to go to a local 2 yr. School and work 2 jobs to pay for my tuition, meanwhile minorities received their books for free and their tuition either paid for or at reduced rates. Where was my “ white privilege” they’re always talking about? I had to drop out and accept a full time job.
40 or so years ago the affirmative action may have served a purpose but today it’s not needed. blacks have more advantages given to them, if they take them. those who whine and complain that the action is still needed are ridiculous. all people, all colors, should get into a good college based on their minds, not skin color!!! that is a fact. i don’t want someone who is doing surgery and just made it thru i want someone who is smart. END OF STORY
Excellent article. It goes along with my own opinions. All teaching of CRT, DEI, and other divisive subjects recently entering the conversation should be BANNED in all education; including work seminars, military and anyplace else. They serve no purpose but to fan more prejudice in education and jobs.
All preliminary paperwork presented to apply for any job or to attend school should NOT show race, gender or age. Only on final, face to face interviews should the person deciding know the race or gender of the applicant. Political opinions of applicants should not be known.
All schools in the USA should have vouchers so that the tax money follows where-ever the student and parents want the student to attend. In this way, all failing schools must improve or go out of business. Competition for students should prompt a lot of improvement.
Decades ago, I applied for a job that had more than 600 applicants. The testing procedure took nearly a year to complete. Throughout this process all applicants were known to those scoring the test only as a number. It was not until the last step, a face to face interview with a review board that the race, gender or exact age of any applicant was known. The final hiring list held only 25 names; 3 women & 22 men. Only 1 was non-white. The lack of diversity in gender and race was due entirely to the fact that few women or non-white individuals applied in the first place. All 25 were hired within a 2 year period and all were fully qualified to do the job successfully. The job was that of a city police officer. THIS is how you hire or admit to school in a FAIR manner. By hiding these irrelevant facts, no bias can happen in the hiring or admitting process.
It clear that until America refuses to elect any marxist democrat politicians the failed,partisan, destructive policies and divisive actions will continue.
There is no reaching across the aisle,finding common agreement, compromise or middle ground with anti American marxist.
They are shove it down your throat, in your face, like it or not scum. They are not smart enough to even disguise it anymore. They’re arrogant,self serving, racist,hateful and must be eliminated from America’s political arena.
The proof is in what you see from their own mouths daily and the refusal to accept anything other than their immoral, un- american,twisted agenda!
THROW THEM OUT
GREAT article! Exactly on target,factual and thoroughly enjoyed it!
So why is it that so many cannot understand and accept such a simple concept??
My take is the educational brainwashing of children, ans the marxist media lies aimed at adults.
I know many who’s only information cones from the same biased sources which stifle free thinking.
A VERY scarry circumstance for America. A voting populace who cannot think???
We’re closer than most believe, prove it to yourself, try an honest conversation with a liberal marxist democrat party member.
Easier discussing with a wall!
I could not agree more. You earn your right to get into college or get a job etc. You need to quit playing your race card. Everyone has an equal opportunity now for these things. Work for it!
We had that. Until someone decided that a certain group of people couldn’t get hired because … why? they had no qualifications, because they didn’t finish school, didn’t bother to learn anything in school or school didn’t teach them anything useful? So we dumbed down schools to the lowest common level(really LOW) so that no one learned anything that made them ‘qualified to work any job or get into college’. Then they insisted that this certain group could NOT advance on their own and required the most help available by preferential hiring by skin color rather than being able to do the job. Sure there are as many reasons that people can’t/don’t/won’t make themselves ready to work, as there are people. But, it boils down to did their parents insist upon them doing the work and learning? Did the parents bother to help, encourage, heck- FORCE the kids to go to school? Oh! oops- this particular segment of society has the highest rate of single parent families- no fathers- raised by grand mother or grand parents.. This is the single segment of society that gets the most attention, most financial support, most governmental benefits per capita- the most help and especially the most government money to re-vitalize their neighborhoods every 10 years. And the same segment of society that blames everyone but themselves for their failures and demands MORE free stuff including free college degrees, and preferential treatment. ergo admitting that they cannot make it in society without lots and lots of help- while complaining that another segment i to blame for their problems. Now that SCOTUS has said that it is time to chose based upon merit rather than color- they are suddenly forced to admit they cannot do anything without government help. Which, is EXACTLY where the Democrats want them to be. Voting has consequences…
New Zealand has long based immigration on merit. Why has the US been so slow to see that admissions and hiring decisions should be merit based?
I couldn’t agree more. If it had not been changed it wouldn’t be long now before admissions and hiring would also include Pro Nouns. The area that we moved to was a much smaller town than my wife grew up in. She studied hard and earned her BA, and while working earned her MBA. When we moved up here, she started the job search. We both felt that her MBA would be a big plus in finding a good job. Unfortunately, that was not the case. It turned that it meant nothing if not a negative because she was considered over qualified and therefore a threat. She was finally forced to remove her MBA from her resume, in order to find work. She ended up working for the county. A couple steps above entry level accounting work. She was by all other means qualified to take on a managerial role, however that was not the way the county saw it. She ended up working for the county until she finally retired almost 14 years later. During that time she was passed over not because of her qualifications but because she was not part of the in crowd, you know not raised here, not young enough, not pretty enough, not flexible enough to do substandard work, the list goes on. So, she ended up working for little kids with little or no education, no managerial experience. One of these sat at her desk all day on the computer playing games, messaging friends, the only way she got anything done was when she delegated it to someone else and took credit for the work. She was overheard many times bad mouthing those that worked in her group. But that is what the county wanted in that position. The department my wife first worked for at the county had an awesome purpose, they called it the opportunity center, the objective was to work with businesses and agencies in the area to find gainful employment for handicapped folks that would otherwise probably not have the opportunity. They were doing a valuable service to this community of folks. Before my wife got transferred to another department the Opportunity center came under different leadership. And things started going downhill, the manager was mismanaging the day-to-day operations, and just recently it was announced that the center would be closing permanently. Due to Mismanagement and Financial Issues. Fortunately, many of the Clients (the folks they served), had been placed elsewhere. But that also left small businesses that counted short on manpower. The State was employing Clients to clean two of the rest areas along the Interstate north of town. They were cleaning city and county buildings among others. I would hope the city, county, and state agencies found room in their budgets to bring these folks on.
Affirmative Action is nothing more than Reverse Discrimination.
Maybe hiring should be based on qualifications and merit, but, of you’re involved in any government contract, that all goes out the window. Been that way for years. That’s why some firms won’t bid on or sign into any sales agreements involving the government.
Years ago, in the 90’s I interviewed for an Administrative Assistant position with the local office of the “Fair Housing Council”.
Most of the office staff were black, including the Director. The Director interviewed me and told me I wouldn’t fit in because I was “too white”! Yes, I was qualified but my color wasn’t what they were looking for! I later found out the Director didn’t like white people. So how fair is that???
There are poor and excellent performing workers of every ethnicity and both ses/genders. There are poor and excellent performing workers in government and organized labor unions. The difference is that in government and organized labor union companies, the poor workers are compensated as well as the excellent workers. This causes workers to race to the bottom of job performance. Why do better if there is no benefit for doing better?
THIS, not reparations, is what is needed.
Totally agree! Would you rather have a physician that achieved by aptitude, study and hard work or one who filled a quota !!!!!
Affirmative action sure didn’t work when I got my job. It was based on my ability to do the job – merit. But then look at everything else that is upside-down in the USA these days.
“An experience Americans still take to heart is the fact that all of the civil right movements in this country were based on demands to not be treated differently based on race, sex, or sexual orientation.” What has Tammy Bruce been smoking? She cannot possibly be that ignorant. King and all the other civil rights leaders wanted hiring to be based on races in favor of Blacks. King even demanded quotas in hiring. For example, if a hospital was located in an area where 30 percent of the population were Black, then 30 percent of the doctors, 30 percent of the nurses, 30 percent of the administrators, etc. should be Black.
Bruce begins her essay arguing in favor of merit and ends it by recommending ways to by-pass merit. Like most people, she fails to recognize that East Asians have a great genetic IQ advantage over Blacks, and no amount of training or education can overcome this advantage.
The whole concept of “equal opportunity employment” is to disregard race, gender, religion, and other factors not directly related to the job. Todays ideas for “affirmative action” and making quotas forces putting the factors cited as discriminatory back into play. Job applications should be two part. Part one has the personal information and an identifying number to the part two form. The part two form would only list education, work experience, and any special qualifying factors. In essence, their resume. The applicant would be selected based on form two, and then identified by form one to contact and inform them they had the job.
In the left’s world of “equity” there would be more short, average talent white guys playing in the NBA. I always wanted to play center for the Lakers… racists.
Merit is the standard for competition in sports and should be in admissions and hiring.
Back in 1974 I took a test with SNETCO for a high paying “yellow pages” sales position. I was the first person to be interviewed after they graded the tests. I was told that I had the highest test score, a 96, and my 4 years experience working for a daily newspaper made me the best qualified candidate but that I wouldn’t be hired because of Affirmative Action! I am STILL working at age 76 whereas I would have retired at least 11 years ago if I hadn’t been discriminated against because of my skin color! So “thank you” to the politicians who decided to support Affirmative Action for discriminating against me!
I sure hope hospitals are aware of UC-Davis and the 20 other Medical Schools that have done an end around of the SCOTUS ruling in boosting Black and Hispanic enrollment. I hope hospitals are also aware of the more than two dozen medical schools that have stopped requiring students to take the MCAT. Hospitals MUST boycott hiring graduates from those schools. I will be questioning hospitals that I am considering for my care about their hiring practices.
I get the AMAC AM and PM news emails every day. But for some reason when I go to read these, you folks don’t know me? I have to constantly prove I’m not a robot to comment, always getting that “you already voted on this comment” when I didn’t, and the constant pop up to subscribe when I already do! How is it that I’ve been a member for close to 10 years and you folks don’t know me?
Way back when I was younger, there was an opening in the next higher position in my department where I worked. I’d worked very hard and successfully in my field and bot myself and a couple of my coworkers should have been a shot at the position. Instead the company brought in an outsider who was black, and it turned out to be not qualified for the position. The rest of us ended up doing the work that he couldn’t possibly do. I voiced a loud complaint to management about the situation and their response was that they had government contracts and, as a result, had to be able to show “a little color” in our staff.
Best thing about all of this was that I got fed up and resigned. I went to a company not involved in government contract work at all and got a significant increase in salary and a career that consistently progressed upwards.
It’s just bigotry and racism, there shouldn’t be a problem for it to be overridden if there’s any sense of logic being used. Plus if I’m correct I think it’s illegal to discriminate in such a factor.
And our once great AMERICA isn’t screwed up,PLEASE,take another look.
absolutely, without exception!!!!!!!
I must ask, if one’s going-in position is that someone of an arbitrarily chosen race or skin color is too dumb to be fully qualified for a certain position or school acceptance, then WHO IS THE RACIST HERE????!!!!!!!
Yes day 1
IF THE CHIMPS EVER GET REPARATIONS, BEING WHITE, I WANT THEM ALSO FOR THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION UNQUALIFIED BLAX WHO GOT ALL THE JOBS I APPLIED FOR..