Stomach doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital were forced to attend a racially segregated diversity training that included lessons on "critical race theory," claimed black people are "systematically targeted for demise," and pressed white doctors to "tap into their repressed racial memories" to develop a white "race-consciousness," according to slides from the training obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Held in August 2022, the training was mandatory for the gastroenterology department and divided participants into three "racial caucuses"—a white caucus, a black caucus, and a "Non-Black POC Caucus"—to "minimize harm to our black learners and facilitator."
Each caucus completed separate "racial identity development exercises" based on the work of prominent diversity consultants, including White Fragility author Robin DiAngelo. The black caucus was asked how "you work against internalizing anti-Black messages," for example, while the "Non-Black POC" caucus was asked to consider "which of your actions are anti-Black" and "how Black people will always be more susceptible to structural racism than other non-Black people of color."
White doctors, for their part, were told to "divest" from "whiteness" and "unpack their racial stories" by drawing on "repressed racial memories." They were also asked to "commit to practicing racial storytelling with at least one other white person."
The training, which began with a land acknowledgment, spanned four separate workshops and was led by a child psychiatrist at Seattle Children's Hospital, Roberto Montenegro, who "uses a social justice lens to help children and youth surmount the trauma inflicted by systemic racism(s)," according to his online biography. Other facilitators included Ashley Jarrett, a hospital "learning consultant," and April Baker-Bell, an outside diversity trainer.
At the end of one session, the slides suggested that doctors "need to implement" systems to "prioritize" black patients. Seattle Children's Hospital did not respond to a request for comment about whether it was prioritizing certain patients based on race. Montenegro did not respond to a request for comment.
The training offers a window into how one of the top-ranked pediatric hospitals in the country has made racial identity—including white racial identity—a touchstone of its diversity efforts. From scholarships for "minoritized" medical students to a "microaggression reporting system," Seattle Children's has a panoply of programs that encourage doctors to view themselves, and their patients, through a race-conscious lens.
Residents "identify implicit bias and structural racism in clinical scenarios" as part of the hospital's "health equity rounds," case-based conferences that address "issues of equity, bias, and racism that play out in medical settings today." They can also join race-based affinity groups that, according to the hospital, provide "safe spaces to process sensitive resident experiences related to diversity, equity and inclusion."
"We build protected spaces for minoritized residents as they undergo training as physicians," the hospital's website says. "In doing so, we hope to build inclusivity while celebrating people's intersectional identities."
These efforts kicked into high gear with an "Anti-Racism Action Plan," launched in 2021, that called for "organization-wide training" on "equity, diversity, and inclusion." The August 2022 sessions were part of a pilot program that was designed to fulfill that mandate and has since expanded to both the hospital's rheumatology department and bioethics center.
All divisions will eventually complete similar trainings, according to the hospital, which says its approach will "dismantle racism with bottom-up, rather than top-down, pressure."
Seattle Children's did not respond to a request for comment about who would facilitate those trainings or whether the trainings would separate participants by race.
Once the province of graduate school seminars and human resources departments, racial caucusing is an increasingly common practice in health care settings. The University of California, San Francisco, medical school has used affinity groups to "supplement longitudinal antiracism education," according to a 2020 paper about the school's initiatives, which initially offered participants a choice of three groups: "Black or African American, all people of color, and White."
"In a space without White people," the paper said, "BIPOC participants can bring their whole selves, heal from racial trauma together, and identify strategies for addressing structural racism."
The University of California, Los Angeles, medical school likewise planned to divide students into three categories—white, black, and "NBPOC"—to engage in "collective healing and self care." UCLA canceled the exercise in January after Do No Harm, a medical advocacy group, filed a civil rights complaint against the school.
"These training sessions are simply ideological indoctrination sessions," said Stanley Goldfarb, the founder of Do No Harm and the father of Free Beacon chairman Michael Goldfarb. "There's no evidence that they will improve health care, but rather serve to further polarize patients and physicians and ultimately undermine the trust that all patients should have in their health care institutions."
At Seattle Children's Hospital, which is affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine, stomach doctors were encouraged to self-segregate even after the training ended. "BIPOC learners" should commit to "immersing" themselves "in racial/ethnic experiences and group settings," one slide says, while "white learners" should work with other white people to foster "racial identity formation."
During the third workshop, in a section called "Setting the Tone," facilitators presented doctors with a list of statements adapted from the official Black Lives Matter organization.
"We believe black stories," one statement read. "We do not question them."
If a story doesn't check out, the slides explain, that may be because "anti-Blackness" is "not always easily quantifiable by those outside of the Black community who have not shared the lived experience of anti-Blackness."
"We are working for a world where Black lives are no longer systematically targeted for demise," the statements read. "We affirm the lives of Black queer and trans folks, disabled folks, undocumented folks, folks with records, women, and all Black lives along the gender spectrum."