I’m a Black physician, and I’m appalled by mandated implicit bias training
An important Washington Post piece by a board certified anesthesiologist on California’s mandated implicit bias training in continuing medical education. “The malignant false assumption that Black people are inherently inferior intellectually has been traded in for the malignant false assumption that White people are inherently racist…That is the basic message conveyed by implicit bias training… [and] is harmful both to physicians and patients…”
“There is no room for debate, for the law states baldly: ‘Implicit bias, meaning the attitudes or internalized stereotypes that affect our perceptions, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner, exists’…”
“I reject the unscientific accusation that people are defined by their race, not by their individual beliefs and choices. It is little consolation that studies are finding implicit bias training has no effect on its intended targets, and might even make matters worse… [For example,] collegiality and collaboration — two essential components of high-quality medical care — are targeted by this mandate…”
“When we all took our oath to ‘first, do no harm,’ we meant it, and we live it. I can’t imagine spending my entire career thinking my peers can’t uphold that oath without constant racial reeducation… The whole point of implicit bias training is to create better health outcomes for Black patients and others who might be the target of discrimination, but the opposite seems more likely. It fosters a climate of distrust and resentment that threatens to undermine the medical and moral progress I’ve seen over the decades.”
