SILVER SPRING, MD – Today, the hands of time were once again turned backed by the Supreme Court of the United States. “The Court has yielded a devastating opinion ruling race-conscious admissions processes unconstitutional,” said Dr. Garfield Clunie, 123rd president of The National Medical Association, referring to the Court’s opinion released today on the Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina. “This is a major blow to this nation, including to the health of all Americans, especially those in underserved communities,” Clunie continued.
Affirmative action has never been a policy of placing unqualified applicants ahead of others, based solely on race or gender in the United States. Affirmative action was crafted and enacted to correct the effects of historic and systemic racial bias and discrimination, past and present. Further, these polices were legislated to ensure that public institutions, including hospitals, were more representative of the populations they serve.
“Diversity in medicine is crucial to the health of this nation. This country should be doing all in its power to be more inclusive in the halls of higher education, not less. Affirmative action policies were designed to address racial bias and inequity, major barriers to ensuring diversity in medicine. These obstacles negatively impact not only the medical profession, but most importantly, the patients that we serve,” further stated Dr. Clunie, “This ruling is a colossal step backwards that will reverberate for decades to come.”
The National Medical Association affirms the bold and righteous dissent by Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson who wrote, “Gulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens. They were created in the distant past but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles – the ‘self-evident’ truth that all of us are created equal.”
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“The NMA promotes the collective interests of physicians and patients of African Descent. We carry out this mission by serving as the collective voice of physicians of African Descent and a leading voice for parity in medicine, elimination of health disparities and promotion of optimal health. “
