Former DEI Director Dr. Tabia Lee warns many diversity, equity and inclusion programs on college campuses are being guided by 'toxic' ideology.
Should dermatologists care more about skin color and group identity than treating skin conditions? The question is tearing apart my profession.
"Diversity, equity, and inclusion," or DEI, is destroying my colleagues’ ability to have honest, open, respectful discussions. As medical professionals, we should do better, and our patients deserve better.
What’s happening in dermatology – a key medical specialty with over 11,000 specialist physicians nationwide – is the result of an attempt to fight antisemitism in the profession.
We should be focused on treating patients with care and compassion, not savaging each other over policy disagreements and group identity. (Adobe Stock)
Last month, I joined with over 80 dermatologists to ask the American Academy of Dermatology to replace its DEI initiative with something more unifying. In a formal resolution, we pointed out that DEI divides people by race, labeling them "oppressors" or "oppressed" based on their skin color.
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We further stated that since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7, DEI has been used to justify extremely hateful speech and even violence against Jews on the grounds that they’re oppressors.
The resolution was meant to be a starting point for a broader conversation among dermatologists at the Academy’s annual meeting from March 8 to 12. It is scheduled to be discussed by a key committee, with supporters and opponents each getting time to make their case before hopefully moving it forward, either in its original form or amended based on feedback.
Yet before that discussion could even start, some of our colleagues launched a campaign to drive us from the profession.
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On Feb. 16, a slew of pro-DEI dermatologists posted on social media the names of everyone who signed the resolution. One dermatologist tweeted, "we need our opposition amplified NOW." Another urged patients to "double check that your dermatologist is not on this list," while others have accused us of being racist and a threat to minority patients.
Pictures of my colleagues quickly spread across social media, in an obvious attempt to intimidate us. Others tagged my colleagues’ academic institutions and employers, in a clear-cut effort to get us punished.
In short, they doxed us. And the mob they whipped up set out to destroy us.
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Many of my peers have been "review-bombed" online, with activists and even other doctors posting one-star reviews of their practices. We aren’t talking about people who were treated by my fellow dermatologists; we’re talking about people who simply want to ruin my peers’ good reputations, depriving us of patients and ultimately a living.
Colleagues have also told me they’re being shunned in their offices. In the days ahead, I expect more of us to be punished for speaking out – tarred as racist even though we criticized racial division and antisemitism.
The campaign against us shows no signs of abating. Many of our colleagues seem quite willing to destroy long-standing friendships. It saddens me to see how even the most respectful criticism of DEI has set them on the warpath. They are utterly unwilling to talk about fighting antisemitism and the role that DEI has played in fomenting that ancient evil.
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Instead of engaging with their colleagues – including their Jewish colleagues – they’re calling us racist in public and calling for our professional destruction. They refuse to discuss how we can work together to treat everyone equally, regardless of what we look like, where we come from, or what we believe.
That was the point of the resolution – to call for our profession to promote diversity and inclusion in the truest, broadest, must humane sense. And, to put medical excellence first.
The ongoing campaign, with its doxing and intimidation, only proves the need to move in a better direction. Of course we should condemn the wrongs that have occurred throughout history and fight modern injustice wherever it exists. But attacking and intimidating each other is its own form of injustice.
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We should be focused on treating patients with care and compassion, not savaging each other over policy disagreements and group identity.
After all, we didn’t become dermatologists to fight over skin color and interest group power. We became dermatologists to treat skin conditions and help people lead better, healthier, happier lives.
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Dr. Kathleen Brown is a dermatologist in Kalispell, Montana, and a visiting fellow at Do No Harm.
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