- Letter sent by Dr. Sherita Hill for the hospital’s ‘monthly diversity digest’
- Middle-aged, middle-class and able-bodied people also fit her description
- Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. among those who slammed the letter
Johns Hopkins Hospital has sparked outrage after its DEI chief sent out a letter labeling all white people, Christians, men and English-speakers as ‘privileged’.
The letter, posted on Twitter by End Wokeness, was written by Chief Diversity Officer Sherita Hill Golden, was part of the ‘monthly diversity digest’.
A furious hospital employee shared the memo with the Twitter account.
In it, Dr. Hill explains that ‘privilege’ is the ‘diversity word of the month’.
To explain who the phrase applies to, she offered a list. It reads: ‘Privilege is characteristically invisible to people who have it.
‘White people, able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, males Christians, middle or owning class people, middle-aged people and English-speaking people,’ all fit the bill, according to Golden.
‘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.
‘In fact, privileges are unearned and are granted to people in the dominant groups whether they want those privileges or not, and regardless of their stated intent.’
Among those to condemn the remarks was Elon Musk, who tweeted: ‘This must end!’
Donald Trump Jr. said: ‘The rot and racism in higher education goes so much further Harvard, MIT, and Penn (my alma mater) it has taken over virtually every institution and needs to end now.’
After the post went viral on Twitter, Golden issued an apology to staff this morning.
‘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.’
‘I retract and disavow the definition I shared and I am sorry.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a Johns Hopkins Medicine spokesperson said: ‘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.’
Other Twitter users slammed the letter too.
In response, conservative activists are trashing the institution online.
‘Johns Hopkins is throwing away their legacy of being a respected and honored institution over the DEI movement that history will list as the thing that brought down this venerable institution for promoting racism, and discrimination and too many phobias to mention,’ wrote one person.
‘I fall in every category here– so I must be the privilege world champion,’ joked another user.
‘I would love the word ‘privilege’ to just get sucked into a vortex, never to be seen or uttered again,’ said another.
This past October, Johns Hopkins made headlines when it renamed one of its programs, the Caroline Donovan Professorship in English Literature due to the Donovan’s family owning of slaves in the 19th century.
According to a 2020 announcement from the school, founder Johns Hopkins too was a slaveowner, despite being a Quaker, a group who were largely abolitionist.
‘Weighing the prime legacy of any name is a subjective and imprecise process, but in taking up this work, the university seeks to reconcile history with the values it strives to protect and uphold,’ Vice-chair of the university’s board of trustees Sarah O’Hagan said in a statement at the time.