DEI Officer For Johns Hopkins Emails Staff And Labels Whites, Males, Christians, Cisgenders, And Middle Class As ‘Privileged’

OAN’s Brooke Mallory
6:27 PM – Friday, January 12, 2024

DEI chief officer for Johns Hopkins, Dr. Sherita Hill Golden, recently sent a “monthly diversity digest” email to staff with a letter informing the team just who is and who is not “privileged.”

Advertisement

At one point, Golden boldly asserted that “all males” are privileged, and she includes “White people,” those who are “Middle class,” and even “Middle-aged people” as members of the “privileged” category.

Golden goes on to label “cisgender people” as privileged too. Cisgender refers to those who identify with the sex and gender that they were born with. However, she did not stop there. “Christians,” “able-bodied people,” and “English-speaking people” were also on the list.

So, if you speak English, Dr. Golden considers you a privileged class and member of society, and you are not aware of your “unearned” benefits.

Essentially, Dr. Golden has placed those in the privileged categories if they were not born into a family of impoverished, non-English-speaking women of color who now identify as men, or vice versa.

“Privilege is characteristically invisible to people who have it,” Golden explained in the email.

“People in dominant groups often believe they have earned the privileges they enjoy or that everyone could have access to these privileges if only they worked to earn them.”

Many were shocked to find out that a renowned, respectable hospital such as Johns Hopkins would hire a DEI officer who exudes such bigotry.

However, the hospital did create the position of Chief Diversity Officer, and they still chose to install Golden to carry out the task of making those who were born with certain characteristics and traits feel guilty for the hand that they have been dealt. 

Golden was even praised in a LinkedIn post by The Center Club. The Center Club labels itself as “Baltimore’s premier venue for dining, business, social and family activities.”

The company praised Golden in the post and gave a description of her duties, while highlighting her in the “Women in Business 2023 Trailblazer Spotlight.”

Extensive medical research and essential operations are carried out by Johns Hopkins. The hospital’s capacity to do such tasks to the best of its abilities is compromised if someone is hired to do them based on their sexual orientation or skin tone.

A Johns Hopkins Medicine representative clarified in an email to The National Desk (TND) on Thursday that the statement did not align with the organization’s beliefs.

“The 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,” they said. “Dr. Sherita Golden, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Chief Diversity Officer, has sincerely acknowledged this mistake and retracted the language used in the message,” they said in an apology.