Johns Hopkins diversity head apologizes after newsletter names Christians as 'privileged' group
'White people,' 'English-speaking people,' 'males' also named in MLK announcement email
A diversity officer at one of the top-ranked hospitals in the nation has apologized after sending out a newsletter in which Christians were listed as a “privileged” group.
In the January edition of the monthly “Diversity Digest” newsletter, Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, the chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine (JHM) Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity, listed “Christians, white people, able-bodied people,” and “males” as examples of groups who enjoy “privilege,” which the email defined as “a set of unearned benefits" given to people who are in a specific social group.
Other groups of “privilege” listed in the email included “heterosexuals, “middle or owning class people,” “middle-aged people,” and “English-speaking people.”
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“Privilege operates on personal, interpersonal, cultural and institutional levels, and it provides advantages and favors to members of dominant groups at the expense of members of other groups,” the newsletter added.
Noting the annual JHM MLK Commemoration on Jan. 12, Golden highlighted the event’s scheduled keynote speaker, engineer and physician Mae Jemison.
“We look forward to working with you this year in the spirit of Dr. King and others to achieve our equity and inclusion goals,” she added.
The newsletter went viral after it was shared by conservative influencer End Wokeness, garnering more than 2 million views on X alone.
By Thursday afternoon, Golden released a statement shared on social media in which she apologized for the newsletter.
UPDATE: The Johns Hopkins DEI Office has retracted their "privilege list" after our post went viral and drew massive outrage https://t.co/DWirlJBpKgpic.twitter.com/j26FUKSp2w
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 11, 2024
In the retraction, Golden wrote: “The newsletter included a definition of the word 'privilege' which, upon reflection, I deeply regret. The intent of the newsletter is to inform and support an inclusive community at Hopkins, but the language of this definition clearly did not meet that goal.
“In fact, because it was overly simplistic and poorly worded, it had the opposite effect of being exclusionary and hurtful to members of our community. I retract and disavow the definition I shared, and I am sorry. I will work to ensure that future messages better reflect our organizational goals.”
It wasn’t clear whether any disciplinary action was taken against Golden following the email.
A JHM spokesperson confirmed the apology with CP Thursday: “The January edition of the monthly newsletter from the Johns Hopkins Medicine Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Health Equity used language that contradicts the values of Johns Hopkins as an institution.
"Dr. Sherita Golden, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Chief Diversity Officer, has sincerely acknowledged this mistake and retracted the language used in the message.”
It’s not the first time Golden — whose expertise is in cardiovascular disease and diabetes — has referred to controversial topics in her line of work.
Golden previously linked “structural racism” to “metabolic health disparities” in a 2021 paper, and co-authored a 2020 report which expressed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and called for “structural racism that undercuts advances in scientific innovation and health care [to] be eliminated.”
She was also featured in a 2022 article on the Hopkins Medicine website in which she voiced her support for “unconscious bias training.”
“Unconscious bias training is just scratching the surface,” Golden was quoted as saying. “It's the foundation for developing a broader anti-oppression training framework.”
Ian M. Giatti is a reporter for The Christian Post and the author of BACKWARDS DAD: a children's book for grownups. He can be reached at: [email protected].
