Reinstatement on American College of Surgeons Communities
Reinstatement on American College of Surgeons Communities
The Issue
In April 2021, after thirty years as a Fellow in good standing in the American College of Surgeons (ACS), I was banned for life from the ACS Communities, the online discussion forum for ACS Fellows. In addition to this, I was banned from access to the membership directory of the ACS and from my own private messages.
Why was such an extreme action taken against me? It was because I objected to the characterization of the ACS as a systemically racist organization, of surgeons as implicitly racist, and of surgery itself as a racist discipline in which non-white patients do not fare as well as white patients when operated upon by white surgeons. In their own words, the ACS “recognized its responsibility to address the issue of structural racism within the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and within the profession of surgery.” What was the basis for such an incredible claim? The only evidence offered was the existence of disparities in representation of blacks in surgery, in the leadership of the ACS, and disparate outcomes in surgery. Structural racism was accepted without question as the cause of these sufficient to justify a radical restructuring of the ACS.
Soon after the George Floyd murder in June 2020, the ACS assembled a Task Force on Racism, which reported its recommendations in the Bulletin of the ACS in November 2020. Among its recommendations were adding antiracism to the values of the ACS. It added a sixth pillar, Diversity, to the pre-existing five (Advocacy and Health Policy, Communication, Education, Member Services, and Quality, Research, and Optimal Patient Care). A new Staff Office of Diversity was added with its own Executive Director and new leadership position of Clinical Director of Diversity. The Task Force recommended implementation of such initiatives as mandated courses for ACS leaders and staff on microaggressions, ally and active bystander, and implicit bias. In June 2021, the ACS hosted a leadership retreat for leaders of all of the surgical societies with invited speaker Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and advocate of, among other things, reverse discrimination as the answer to past discrimination.
My objection took the form of a post in the General Surgery Forum in April 2021 in which I objected to the characterization of the ACS as systemically racist and to the installation of critical race theory in the ACS under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. That post garnered nearly one thousand comments, most of which expressed the same concerns as I. I was invited to a Zoom call with the ACS leadership in March 2022 to discuss this. Shortly thereafter, the rules for the Communities were changed and all posts on DEI were relegated to a new Diversity Forum. I and other Fellows objected in that we felt DEI/CRT clearly had clinical implications per the ACS’s own stated concerns. Our posts to this effect were deleted by the General Secretary, Tyler Hughes.
In April 2022, I inquired of Tyler Hughes why I could not access the Communities and was informed that I had been permanently banned weeks earlier. The reasons given for my lifetime ban were my “continuously disrespectful language” on the Communities and persistent posting of non-clinical material on the clinical forums. By that I assume this refers to my posts objecting to this change, which were deleted. I asked for examples of my disrespectful language and improper posts and this request has never been granted.
I appealed to the Board of Regents, again asking for examples of my posts justifying this ban and was again refused. I demanded reinstatement and was informed by Executive Director Patricia Turner that my lifetime ban would stand. I was also assured that I had received “due process”. I appealed to Douglas Wood, the Head of the Central Judiciary Committee seeking a hearing and he informed me that my ban had not come before the Committee, therefore this did not qualify as a disciplinary action meriting a hearing! I pointed out the violations of the ACS Bylaws dealing with disciplinary matters in banning me in this fashion and received a single sentence response essentially refusing any further discussion on the subject.
This radical and unjustified action taken by the ACS leadership against a Fellow in good standing is more than just a violation of its own Bylaws. It is an unprecedented cancellation for reasons that are clearly ideological and have nothing to do with any misbehavior on my part. I have no way of knowing how many other Fellows have been dealt with in this fashion but I doubt I am the only one. I know of other Fellows who have been censored in the Communities.
Regardless of your opinion on the matter of DEI/CRT in the ACS, such stifling of discussion and debate, especially on a controversial issue of such importance goes against the tradition of free and open discussion that should be vigorously defended in a professional society such as ours. If I can be canceled in this illiberal fashion, anyone can.
There is a growing groundswell of pushback against DEI/CRT in this country because it is a toxic, divisive ideology that racializes literally every aspect of society and I fear that the ACS will someday find itself on the wrong side of this issue. The real irony is that the leadership believes the ACS to be structurally racist and I have been banned for life for arguing that it is not. I resent the characterization of my surgical colleagues as implicitly racist and strenuously object to the accusation that white surgeons treat black patients differently with worse outcomes. Not only is this wrong, I cannot imagine a more poisonous claim in destroying trust between a patient and their surgeon. Such an accusation demands objective, verifiable data from peer-reviewed studies. So far, there is none.
I have attached some links below in case you wish to see more details of my ban.
I am seeking full reinstatement of unfettered access to the ACS Communities, to the membership directory, and to my private messages. If you support my effort I would greatly appreciate your signature on this petition.
If you are a physician, MD or DO, please sign as such. If you are a Fellow of the ACS, please put the FACS after your MD/DO. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS
3,011
The Issue
In April 2021, after thirty years as a Fellow in good standing in the American College of Surgeons (ACS), I was banned for life from the ACS Communities, the online discussion forum for ACS Fellows. In addition to this, I was banned from access to the membership directory of the ACS and from my own private messages.
Why was such an extreme action taken against me? It was because I objected to the characterization of the ACS as a systemically racist organization, of surgeons as implicitly racist, and of surgery itself as a racist discipline in which non-white patients do not fare as well as white patients when operated upon by white surgeons. In their own words, the ACS “recognized its responsibility to address the issue of structural racism within the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and within the profession of surgery.” What was the basis for such an incredible claim? The only evidence offered was the existence of disparities in representation of blacks in surgery, in the leadership of the ACS, and disparate outcomes in surgery. Structural racism was accepted without question as the cause of these sufficient to justify a radical restructuring of the ACS.
Soon after the George Floyd murder in June 2020, the ACS assembled a Task Force on Racism, which reported its recommendations in the Bulletin of the ACS in November 2020. Among its recommendations were adding antiracism to the values of the ACS. It added a sixth pillar, Diversity, to the pre-existing five (Advocacy and Health Policy, Communication, Education, Member Services, and Quality, Research, and Optimal Patient Care). A new Staff Office of Diversity was added with its own Executive Director and new leadership position of Clinical Director of Diversity. The Task Force recommended implementation of such initiatives as mandated courses for ACS leaders and staff on microaggressions, ally and active bystander, and implicit bias. In June 2021, the ACS hosted a leadership retreat for leaders of all of the surgical societies with invited speaker Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and advocate of, among other things, reverse discrimination as the answer to past discrimination.
My objection took the form of a post in the General Surgery Forum in April 2021 in which I objected to the characterization of the ACS as systemically racist and to the installation of critical race theory in the ACS under the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion. That post garnered nearly one thousand comments, most of which expressed the same concerns as I. I was invited to a Zoom call with the ACS leadership in March 2022 to discuss this. Shortly thereafter, the rules for the Communities were changed and all posts on DEI were relegated to a new Diversity Forum. I and other Fellows objected in that we felt DEI/CRT clearly had clinical implications per the ACS’s own stated concerns. Our posts to this effect were deleted by the General Secretary, Tyler Hughes.
In April 2022, I inquired of Tyler Hughes why I could not access the Communities and was informed that I had been permanently banned weeks earlier. The reasons given for my lifetime ban were my “continuously disrespectful language” on the Communities and persistent posting of non-clinical material on the clinical forums. By that I assume this refers to my posts objecting to this change, which were deleted. I asked for examples of my disrespectful language and improper posts and this request has never been granted.
I appealed to the Board of Regents, again asking for examples of my posts justifying this ban and was again refused. I demanded reinstatement and was informed by Executive Director Patricia Turner that my lifetime ban would stand. I was also assured that I had received “due process”. I appealed to Douglas Wood, the Head of the Central Judiciary Committee seeking a hearing and he informed me that my ban had not come before the Committee, therefore this did not qualify as a disciplinary action meriting a hearing! I pointed out the violations of the ACS Bylaws dealing with disciplinary matters in banning me in this fashion and received a single sentence response essentially refusing any further discussion on the subject.
This radical and unjustified action taken by the ACS leadership against a Fellow in good standing is more than just a violation of its own Bylaws. It is an unprecedented cancellation for reasons that are clearly ideological and have nothing to do with any misbehavior on my part. I have no way of knowing how many other Fellows have been dealt with in this fashion but I doubt I am the only one. I know of other Fellows who have been censored in the Communities.
Regardless of your opinion on the matter of DEI/CRT in the ACS, such stifling of discussion and debate, especially on a controversial issue of such importance goes against the tradition of free and open discussion that should be vigorously defended in a professional society such as ours. If I can be canceled in this illiberal fashion, anyone can.
There is a growing groundswell of pushback against DEI/CRT in this country because it is a toxic, divisive ideology that racializes literally every aspect of society and I fear that the ACS will someday find itself on the wrong side of this issue. The real irony is that the leadership believes the ACS to be structurally racist and I have been banned for life for arguing that it is not. I resent the characterization of my surgical colleagues as implicitly racist and strenuously object to the accusation that white surgeons treat black patients differently with worse outcomes. Not only is this wrong, I cannot imagine a more poisonous claim in destroying trust between a patient and their surgeon. Such an accusation demands objective, verifiable data from peer-reviewed studies. So far, there is none.
I have attached some links below in case you wish to see more details of my ban.
I am seeking full reinstatement of unfettered access to the ACS Communities, to the membership directory, and to my private messages. If you support my effort I would greatly appreciate your signature on this petition.
If you are a physician, MD or DO, please sign as such. If you are a Fellow of the ACS, please put the FACS after your MD/DO. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Richard T. Bosshardt, MD, FACS
3,011
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Petition created on February 25, 2023