A top doctor and board-certified anesthesiologist is warning of potential dangers in the workplace as employers appear to move toward hiring people based solely on their race and not on their qualifications.
Dr. Marilyn Singleton said she grew up during segregation and worked hard academically to attend a top-tier university and graduate from medical school, proving critics wrong who said Black people don’t belong in the field. However, she said in recent years, she has seen the definition of diversity changing, but not for the better.
"When I went to medical school, diversity meant groups of different people all over the country, different backgrounds and whatnot. All we wanted to do was get good grades and be the best doctor[s] that we possibly could and take the best care of patients," she said Tuesday on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
"Suddenly, we fast-forward now, and we don't even hear about getting good grades. All we hear about is, ‘Oh, a Black patient should have a Black doctor.’ Well, that is so wrong. A Black patient should have a good doctor. And that's what all patients want."
"If you get rolled into an emergency room, you don't want a patient having to look up at that doctor sideways and think, 'Hmm. Is this one of those evil White devils, or is this a good doctor who's going to take care of my stab wound to the abdomen?'" Singleton added. "This is so wrong, and it's being pushed on people."
Host Tucker Carlson questioned why other doctors don’t speak out about the potential harms of race-based hiring.
The visiting fellow from the medical organization Do No Harm responded, "Everybody's thinking the same thing, but nobody wants to say it out loud."
Singleton said only 47% of physicians are in private practice and the other 53% are employed by big health systems.
"They're afraid. They're afraid to lose their jobs. And it's kind of hard to blame them," she explained. "When you're in private practice, and you're taking care of your own patients for your own self, you know, you can say what you want. And your patients, when they love you, they love you, and they don't care what color you are. They're just glad that you give them good treatment."
Singleton lamented the hyperfocus on race is a step back for the country.
"Having so much focus on race and bringing back the kind of focus that we fought for so many years to be gone, to look at people as individuals and their talents, their personality, their compassion – and they're wiping it away," she said. "And it's just wrong. It's criminal."
