University did n’t produce data to back claim racism is a’ public health crisis’: doctor
After being fired for questioning remarks about structural racism in his company’s commitment, a former Duke University Health System emergency healthcare physician is now expressing his opinion.
Dr. Kendall Conger ( pictured ) had been with the Raleigh, North Carolina medical provider for 12 years before he lost his job this summer. He even served as a faculty member at Duke University School of Medicine’s Family Medicine and Community Health Department.
The doctor claimed he opposes prejudice and that appreciation for all people should be shown, but the commitment went too far, calling racism a “public health crisis.”
Conger expressed frustration with the lack of scientific data that supported the commitment in a new phone appointment with The College Fix.
” They’ll state’ racism is a common health problems,’ but I’ve never seen them state,’ We’re guided by research,'” he told The Fix.
In response to the George Floyd unrest in the summer of 2020, Duke Health published the commitment in 2021 as part of a wave of businesses and educational institutions doing the same.
According to the Duke Health home, “racism is a public health problems and anger cannot be tolerated in our communities.” We think we must identify and unite forces against racism and hate in order to deliver excellent care, cutting-edge research, and top-notch schooling.
The commitment also says the program stands “against bigotry, partiality, and hate”.
Conger claimed to have spoken with his fast bosses about the allegations made by the pledge, but that no information was provided to support them.
Therefore, Conger went higher away. He claimed in a conference with Duke Health Raleigh’s president that he raised concerns about the lack of scientific evidence supporting the pledge’s assertions, but he never heard anything back.
” I became more outspoken, started copying more and more people on my letters, and they got tired of it”, Conger said.
He was informed in January that his work contract may expire on June 30 in a letter.
We think that your behavior is putting a strain on the emergency room team, which was put off patient care. Given this, we are choosing not to renew your commitment for employment”, the email says.
Two emails asking about Conger’s cancellation and its commitment to combat racism were sent to Duke Health’s advertising office for comment.
Conger, when asked about the effects of diversity, equity, and inclusion vows on the morality of the clinical practice, told The Fix about a decrease in the caliber of receiving medical students and finishing doctors. He claimed that this might have a negative effect on how healthcare will turn out in the future.
” You might be the best student of your race, but not necessarily the best medical student”, Conger said. ” DE I acts like a quota system”.
Conger also criticizes Duke’s policy’s distinction between “equity” and “equity,” or what he refers to as a “guaranteed outcome,” Conger told The Fix. Sometimes this can lead to hiring candidates and students based on demographics, such as race or sex, rather than merit.
” I think equity will run afoul of the]Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ], this idea of equal outcomes”, he said.
Color Us United, a group dedicated to a race-blind society, recently launched a petition criticizing the university and its related health system for “unethical, dangerous, and potentially illegal practices in hiring and training”.
” Judging applicants, employees, or patients according to things like skin color is shockingly inappropriate and completely unacceptable”, the petition states. ” Any doctor or doctor’s employer’s primary duty is to take care of patients, not to promote political activism or racial ideology.”
According to Mike Markham, program coordinator for Color Us United, he thinks the medical industry should place an emphasis on providing quality care over racism.
” For the benefits of its patients, employees, and its standing in the community, Duke must return to placing merit and ethics above all else”, Markham said in a recent email.
IMAGE: Color Us United
Conger and others were shown during a Duke Health event in a graphic that suggested white men are “agents of oppression and exploitation,” according to Markham in a column at the James G. Martin Center for Academic Revival.
The graphic ( pictured ) refers to an “agent” as someone who is a “member of social groups privileged by birth or acquisition”. The “agent” in the graphic is white and male.
No empirical or clinical evidence was provided to support or explain why a major healthcare provider advocated such skewed, overt views of people, Markham wrote.
In his farewell letter in February, published at the American Thinker, Conger wrote:” Duke is leading us away from the successful melting pot. … Americans do n’t want equity, we want equality. We do n’t want social justice, we want justice”.
Addressing his queries for scientific data backing the anti-racism pledge, Conger wrote,” Duke refused to answer because equity is wholly on their belief in the unconscious racism of white people – a pretentious, dubious, insulting, and risible pretense for wealth redistribution”.
He questioned whether the university and its health system are actually “dedicated to the American proposition that all men are created equal” or whether they have adopted” the socialist view that all groups should be made equal.”
Around the same time as the pledge came out, Duke Medical School also released a” Dismantling Racism and Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion” guide. According to a recent article in the New York Post, the document attributes being on time and upholding a dress code to white supremacy.
” In the workplace, white supremacy culture explicitly and implicitly privileges whiteness and discriminates against non-Western and non-white professionalism standards related to dress code, speech, work style, and timeliness”, the guide states.
MORE: NIH spends$ 136 million in taxpayer funds on racism and medicine studies
IMAGE: Duke Health/Facebook, Kendall Conger/James G. Martin Center for Academic Revival
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