The University of North Carolina (UNC) made a move against woke culture on Thursday, banning controversial so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) requirements from the school’s hiring and promotion process.
The university’s Board of Governors reportedly voted Thursday to secure the ban, following pressure from Color Us United, a non-profit committed to speaking out “against those who want to divide America.”
UNC “shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement,” the resolution said, adding that an employee or applicant can’t “be solicited or required to describe his or her actions in support of, or in opposition to, such beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles.”
A petition from Color Us United directed toward the Dean of the UNC School of Medicine, Dr. Wesley Burks, slammed UNC for its “indulgence of wokeness and DEI in the North Carolina medical system.”
“It makes me feel like I am part of a radical social experiment, rather than a patient to be trusted and cared for,” the petition said. “As Dean of the Medical School, you have the power to put an end to wokeness in your hospital system. I humbly ask that you do the right thing and revoke the ‘Task Force to Integrate Social Justice.’”
“We also urge you to be transparent about the changes in standards to become a medical student,” it continued. “North Carolinians should know if UNC is enabling medical residents to become doctors — even if they do not pass important medical exams and successfully perform in Resident training.”
Color Us United president Kenny Xu told Fox News Digital that the group believes in a “race blind, meritocratic society with high standards.”
“When we saw wokeness and DEI infiltrating the medical profession, that’s when we became concerned because medicine is the one place where everybody knows, liberals, conservatives, independents, that you need the most qualified doctor to get the best outcome,” Xu said. “When diversity, equity and inclusion says, ‘No, you need doctors of a certain race’ or ‘No, we need to be teaching things from the lens of social justice rather than the biological practice of medicine,’ that’s when we got concerned.”
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DEI aims have become increasingly common in higher education across the country. The Daily Wire reported earlier this month that the State University of New York (SUNY) college system will force all incoming freshmen to take a course focused on “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice” — or they won’t graduate.
“This is nuts,” Professor Nicholas Giordano of SUNY’s Suffolk Community College, told the New York Post. “SUNY is one of the best university systems in the country. Why are they doing this? DEISJ is a cultural movement, not based on academics. Unfortunately, SUNY responded to the mob.”
Giordano claimed the DEISJ coursework views the United States as “inherently racist,” while “creating groups and pitting them against each other.” He added that the curriculum wants students “defined by the color of their skin.”
“This is a woke, left-wing agenda,” echoed Conservative Party of New York Chairman Jerry Kassar. “It’s disturbing. It’s dangerous. They’re treating everybody as having prejudice. It’s like a socialist, Communist state. It’s unbelievable. These ideas are best addressed at home.”
Hank Berrien contributed to this report.
Related: Muslim DEI Chief Of Left-Wing Group Accused Of Being White Instead Of ‘Person Of Color’: Report