doggie at the vetrinarian
© ShutterstockDEI ideology has even reached veterinarian schools, according to a website that tracks critical race theory and its variants.
Nothing is safe from diversity, equity and inclusion ideology — not even your dog.

DEI is one of the ways critical race theory is put into action. CRT maintains that seemingly neutral systems are just a ruse to maintain white supremacy.

DEI uses the same racial lens, focusing on "whiteness" as the core evil in society.

Its elaborate enforcement mechanisms include bias-response teams and anonymous complaint procedures: Students snitch on each other and on faculty, faculty snitch on each other and on staff, and everyone lives in fear of cancellation.

The academic DEI apparatus has a Maoist cultural revolutionary feel.

What happened on campus did not stay on campus.

CRT started on academia's fringes, but, in the DEI form, it has spread like wildfire, scorching campuses, corporations, government agencies — every institution in society.

After George Floyd's death, the hyper-focus on race became a national obsession, with an estimated $50 billion pledged to "racial justice" efforts.

At Cornell University, where one of us teaches law, Ibram X. Kendi's book "How to Be an Antiracist" was the recommended summer 2020 reading, promoting noxious and unlawful racial discrimination: In Kendi's words, "The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination."

We know how far and wide CRT programming has metastasized because at our CriticalRace.org website, we track CRT and its variants, such as DEI and "antiracism" programming.

Our interactive maps cover more than 500 colleges and universities, elite K-12 prep schools, military-service academies and medical schools.

Major media outlets have extensively covered our research, which was even highlighted in a congressional resolution.

It seemed that nothing shocks us anymore when it comes to CRT and its offshoots.

But then we researched the top-ranked veterinary schools after receiving a tip on critical race theory's spread into a particular school.

So we dug into the data, half-seriously at first, not expecting much. Our research covered the top 11 vet schools (two schools are tied for one of the top spots, hence the odd number).

We shouldn't have been surprised when we found DEI has not spared veterinary education.

But we were naïve, thinking love of animals was the last pure bastion of American decency.

Dogs are colorblind; surely veterinary medicine would be as well.

Lamentably, DEI has penetrated deeply into the training of veterinarians who will take care of your pets, based on claims that "the industry was exclusively for White people" and, as Cornell says, "building anti-racism in animal welfare" is needed.

White pet owners "not wanting a Black veterinarian treating their pet" is allegedly pervasive, per the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Legislation targeting pit bulls may reflect "biases towards persons of color," a University of Pennsylvania graduate thesis says; indeed, "implicit racial bias in the United States adversely affects the welfare" of the breed.

Though "biases" come into play whenever a vet makes "a judgment toward treatment" — or so insists a paper titled "Preparing veterinary hospitals for greatness through DEI initiatives."

Late in 2020, the American Veterinary Medical Association, with the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, created the Commission for a Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive Veterinary Profession to promote "the value of diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the veterinary profession" and encourage and help "veterinary medical associations and animal health companies to measure and improve diversity, equity, and inclusion."

Its recommendations include giving "guidance" to vet schools on "creating a brave space for DEI issues and discussions, implicit bias and microaggression training" — and, of course, "a permanent DEI position," along with incorporating "DEI content in the professional program."

Eight of the top 11 schools now have CRT/DEI curriculum or training; three have school-wide mandatory CRT training.

The staff and faculty training prognosis is much worse. Eight of the 11 schools have some sort of mandatory faculty and staff training. Six of the 11 integrate DEI into their search and hiring processes.

Last, but not least, a majority of the top 11 schools have bias-reporting tools that allow for the anonymous reporting of alleged DEI violations.

DEI is rapidly taking over not just academia in general but even the training of Fido's veterinarian.

DEI in veterinary schools is a somewhat comical microcosm of the larger DEI problem. But the damage to society from the hyper-focus on race is no laughing matter.

William A. Jacobson is a clinical professor of law at Cornell Law School and president and founder of the Legal Insurrection Foundation, where Kemberlee Kaye is editorial director, and managing editor of CriticalRace.org.