A recent controversy has erupted over a "privilege" list issued by the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity (DEI) at Johns Hopkins Medicine.
The list, which was swiftly retracted following a public backlash, was initially released in a newsletter by Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Sherita H. Golden.
The newsletter, dated January 2024, was unearthed and shared by the @EndWokeness X account. It featured "privilege" as the "Diversity Word of the Month," accompanied by a series of descriptions deemed "privileged."
"Privilege is an unearned benefit given to people who are in a specific social group. 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 stated.
The document further elaborated, "In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one or more of these social identity groups: White people, able-bodied people, heterosexuals, cisgender people, males, Christians, middle or owning class people, middle-aged people, and English-speaking people."
The newsletter underscored that "Privilege is characteristically invisible to people who have it. 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."
Following the widespread dissemination of the newsletter, Dr. Golden issued a retraction on Thursday, expressing regret over the message's content. "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," Golden stated.
She added, "I retract and disavow the definition I shared, and I am sorry. I will work to ensure that future messages better reflect our organizational values."
Johns Hopkins Medicine confirmed the authenticity of both the original and retracted messages in a statement to Deseret News. "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 Medicines Chief Diversity Officer, has sincerely acknowledged this mistake and retracted the language used in the message," a spokesperson said.
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