MaineHealth, a hospital system in Maine with over 20,000 employees, held an antiracist prayer service where a group of White people apologized for their” internalized racism” as White people, according to Fox News Digital.
The event was hosted by Ryan Polly, vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at MaineHealth.
Polly uses critical race theory ideology in his teachings and claims white people are “conditioned” to be racist and oppressive, acquiring ‘ignorance’ and ‘racist thoughts’ by belonging to a ‘life of whiteness.’
Fox News reports on the video, which has since been made private after requests for comment from MaineHealth.
For example, Polly said that White people acquire “ignorance,” “biases” and “racist thoughts” on the basis of their belonging to a “life of Whiteness.”
“This evening has been designed with White people in mind not to take the stage. We have plenty of places to take the stage,” he said, starting off the prayer. “We [need] to… begin the work to join the fight… We need to ensure we… do the work to challenge our ignorance, our biases and the racist thoughts that we’ve acquired through the life of Whiteness.”
In a portion of the prayer focused on “dismantling the system,” Polly encouraged the White people attending to feel uncomfortable with the messages.
“Let us develop the courage to dive [into] deeply experienced discomfort. Let’s sit with it… knowing that the answers come not from our own conscious thinking because that thinking is shaped by racist constructs. The answers lie deeper,” he said. “Let us leave with the tenacity to become anti-racist and continue the fight, even on the days when we could simply choose not to. Amen.”
An insider at MaineHealth told Fox News Digital ‘Polly has relentlessly pushed a DEI agenda at MaineHealth for the past two and a half years’ and called for Polly to be fired so the institution can ‘get back to the business of taking care of patients.’
