President Barack Obama’s nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights, Tom Perez, believes medical schools should drop standards for black applicants, because he contends they are more likely to work in “underserved” communities than white doctors.
Yes, that’s what he said.
Linda Chavez of the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) tackles the topic of Perez’s strange ideas published in a law journal in 2006. An excerpt from her latest column (emphasis added):
“[Perez] cited a handful of studies purported to show that minority doctors are more likely to provide medical care to under-served poor minority populations than white physicians.
“He then leapt to the conclusion that the best way to improve access to medical care for underserved populations was to insist that medical schools use race or ethnicity in choosing which students to admit.
“In effect, Perez appears to be arguing for a form of medical apartheid in which minority patients should be served by minority doctors under the presumption that both groups benefit from this practice. The argument is both insulting and dangerous.”
So Perez believes medical schools should produce lower quality doctors to serve poor people. If a conservative had suggested such a thing, he’d be called a racist for pushing less qualified doctors on poor minorities. But because Perez is a leftist, he gets a pass.
Chavez points to a study conducted by CEO on lowered standards for medical school admissions at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Blacks were admitted with much lower grades and scores than whites, Asians, or Hispanics.
Sadly, Tom Perez probably will be confirmed, barring any tax problems.
(Baltimore Sun photo by Glenn Fawcett / March 18, 2009)
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