I feel very blessed to have had such an amazing group of people agree to come and speak at our Free Speech in Medicine conference. What a privilege to talk to them, thereby rubbing shoulders with some great thinkers, movers and shakers.
Dr. Stanley Goldfarb is a brave, well-spoken and brilliant guy. He is a board-certified kidney specialist, and former Professor and Associate Dean for Curriculum at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He has been widely published in medical journals, in media such as The Wall Street Journal, and has written the book “Take Two Aspirin and Call Me by my Pronouns”.
Do you want to aim towards the Martin Luther King vision of what our society could be? Where only love can drive out hate, only light can drive out darkness? Where we are judged by the content of our character and not the colour of our skin? Or do you want Ibram X Kendi’s future, where the only cure for past discrimination is present discrimination, and the only cure for present discrimination is future discrimination. As Gandhi said, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.
Should we be teaching medical learners to treat people differently based on their race? To make assumptions about them based on their skin colour? Should medical schools or physicians be allowed to discriminate against “over-represented” groups? After all, it’s true that groups like Asians are over-represented at Harvard. And Nigerians are over-represented in higher education. Women are over-represented in medical schools in Canada for many years now. Should we not correct all of these “problems”, by force if necessary?
The difference between equity and equality is poorly understood. Equity means equal outcomes - everyone gets an identical slice of the pie. Equality means equal opportunity, where everyone gets an equal chance to make their own pie. Although perfectly equal opportunity is impossible to achieve other than in an imaginary utopia, is it not a north star we should aim towards? I believe one can summarize the purpose of Dr. Goldfarb’s initiative as trying to point us clearly in that direction.
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