I am a medical faculty member at a major Midwestern medical school and am frequently accompanied by medical students and residents during hospital rounds. In recent years, I have noticed that fewer and fewer of them wear the traditional white coat. On that particular day, for example, I happened to be the only one in my team of six wearing one. So I asked them why. The response? Wearing white coats was discouraged by medical educators due to concerns about power inequalities between doctors and patients.

After my initial shock wore off, I realized that this line of thinking was familiar. It came from critical theory, a political school of thought developed by Marxist thinkers in early 20th century Germany. Critical theory views societal interactions – from the individual to group level – entirely through the lens of power dynamics, and when this theory was imported to America's shores, it morphed into critical race theory and ultimately into DEI.