Approximately 20 years ago, a doctor I know well told me that the people entering her field are now “bottom of the barrel.” Fast-forward two decades, and some are aiming to be top of the totem pole — as they’re taking an oath to “honor all Indigenous ways of healing historically marginalized by Western medicine” and fight “white supremacy, colonialism, gender binary, ableism and all forms of oppression.”
Worse still, the oath was apparently formulated by medical students themselves.
The pledge was made by incoming medical students at the University of Minnesota (UM) and “was led by Dr. Robert Englander, the associate dean for undergraduate education, at the school’s white coat ceremony,” reports the Daily Mail.
The oath “has been criticized by renowned critical race theory opponent Christopher Rufo,” who tweeted out a video of the ceremony on Tuesday, the paper also relates.
“He then wrote on Wednesday: ‘The most incredible thing about this clip is that the doctor almost certainly doesn’t believe in what he’s saying,’” the Mail continued.
“‘But he submits anyway — because the institutional powers now require otherwise intelligent people to falsify their own beliefs and repeat the left-wing copypasta.’”
Rebel News adds detail, writing, “The document first begins with a land acknowledgment requiring students to recognize that the school is located on Dakota land. ‘Today, many Indigenous people from throughout the state, including Dakota, and Ojibwe (ooh-jib-way), called the Twin Cities home; we also recognize this acknowledgment is not enough.’”
So, of course, students and faculty then vowed to give the Indians their property.
Actually, not really — that last line was fake news. But they did mouth some more politically correct platitudes. To wit: “We commit to uprooting the legacy and perpetuation of structural violence deeply embedded in the healthcare system,” Dr. Englander and the students recited, cult-like. The pledge then continued, as presented by Rebel News, thus:
We recognize inequities built by past and present traumas rooted in white supremacy, colonialism, the gender binary, ableism, and all forms of oppression,” it says. “As we enter this profession with opportunities for growth, we commit to promoting a culture of anti-racism, listening, and amplifying voices for positive change. We pledge to honor all Indigenous ways of healing that have been historically marginalized by Western medicine. Knowing that health is intimately connected to our environment, we commit to healing our planet and communities.
We vow to embrace our role as community members and strive to embody cultural humility.” The oath adds, “we promise to continue restoring trust in the medical system and fulfilling our responsibility as educators and advocates. We commit to collaborating with social, political, and additional systems to advance health equity.
Perhaps you half expect that Englander might’ve at this point said “Resistance is futile,” as everyone was absorbed into the collective. But the oath continued, with the rest (found here) being more mundane. A video of the relevant portion of it is below, courtesy of Rufo (scroll down for a follow-up tweet he also posted).
That Englander attended medical school at Yale is ironic, as my previous article was about 14 judges who’ve vowed not to hire that university’s graduates as law clerks because the institution has become a woke joke. Now there’s perhaps reason to view its medical school products with a jaundiced eye as well.
But if Englander really is suggesting that “shamanism and Western science are equally valid medical practices,” as Rufo puts it, then here are some ideas for him. The Iroquois, for example, “wore menacing masks to scare off evil spirits, which they attributed [sic] with poor health,” writes Health & Fitness History. “Rhythmic drums, rattles, and other music with ritualistic dances would be used in an attempt to exorcise demons,” the site continues. “Some tribes would engage in a ritualistic smoking of tobacco in an effort to cleanse themselves.”
So now we can rehabilitate tobacco use. Hey, it’s already being asserted that “fat pride” imperatives mean we can’t say being overweight is unhealthful. So why not?
What’s more, if Englander develops skin cancer, forget the dermatologist, Bob. Get a scary mask (not Fauci-approved) and some drums and rattles and dance the melanoma away.
While the UM pledge reflects tiresome über-woke cultural relativism, the reality is that not all cultures are equal. When the Europeans arrived in the New World, North American Indians had no written language, hadn’t invented the wheel, were living in the stone age, and had no science. This isn’t to impugn them; all our ancestors thus existed at one time.
Speaking of which, however, if it’s compassionate to respect “marginalized” medical practices of yore, why discriminate and exclude those of the ancestors of people who aren’t American Indians? So let’s hear it for bloodletting and trepanning as well.
While we need all this like a hole in the head, every “man I meet is my superior in some way, and in that I learn from him,” to quote Ralph Waldo Emerson. All cultures have something to offer, and if American Indians have an efficacious remedy, by all means, embrace it. But this decision should flow from science; credibility shouldn’t be assigned based on affirmative action orchestrated by Hippocratic Oath-rejecting hypocrites.
As for yours truly, the next time a Fauci tells me I need a Vaccine™, I’ll remind him that I have my menacing mask, rhythmic drums, rattles, foot-long tobacco pipe, and dancing shoes. So leave me alone, you white-supremacist body colonizer you.
