lol. Nobody gets exceptions from USMLE 1,2, 3 or board exams which are used to set the minimum academic standards for the practice of medicine. Your claim is outrageously false and misleading.
Getting passed along through undergrad might be one thing, but this does not happen in medicine. You can claim that minorities might not be as highly scoring as their peers, but you cannot say they fail to meet minimum standards which have actually been rising over the years. And overall having diversity in medicine, especially psychiatry, is particularly important for patient care and outcomes.
Rapport is very important in psychiatry, so having people in practice who were less privileged and have more diverse life experiences will allow for more providers whom patients can more readily connect with. This is one reason why it's important to help underprivileged people rise to the occasion. Furthermore, if people feel like there's no opportunity for social mobility it will lead to more issues down the line.
But instead we're using DEI as a scapegoat for why non-minorities have such a hard life. Some of that attention should be turned upward.
Furthermore, what people forget is equity isn't just about race. lol
This liberal trope that matching people's demographics to their treating population is just garbage. It is racist in itself.
The notion that the only way to be culturally competent is to be of that culture - is just flawed. It overlooks the need to broaden one's understanding beyond core life exposures. We don't treat patients in a culture vacuum in most of America, and most of us will treat people who are different.
Chinese only supposed to treat Chinese expats?
Punjabis only supposed to treat Punjabis?
Nigerians only treat Nigerians?
Somalis only treat Somalis?
Anecdote warning - I too used to gobble up this liberal social trope of diversity value - and was talking with a former resident colleague of ethnicity XYZ.
'like wow. you must be highly sought after! you are living in a big pocket of population XYZ and one of the very few XYZ in that area. Well done!'
Person was like no. Just no. Apparently, population XYZ has their own issues about the various types of XYZ and wanted doctors of ABC or EFG or QRS ethnic groups. Took me a bit to wrap my head around this and how it conflicted with the liberal mantra - Diversity! Diversity! Diversity!
But the truth is, DEI is racist. Its garbage. And people want professionals to be that, professionals, and to do their job well, and competently. That's it. Being professional is the warm welcoming, blanket that is the Original Inclusive.
*while in residency I took some people of different ethnic religious groups under my wing to educate on American culture, the US healthcare system, etc. And conversely pressed them to share the details on their culture. Was a good win win. Made for great parties. and great potlucks.
