Top hospital triggers backlash with diversity officer's 'privilege' list: 'Pisses me off'
After sparking outrage, Johns Hopkins Hospital chief diversity officer Sherita Golden issued an apology for a newsletter listing groups with "privilege." While acknowledging Golden's apology, former Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick J. Murphy condemned the letter and called out attempts to "divide" Americans on "Outnumbered" Friday.
JOHNS HOPKINS DEI OFFICE ISSUES ‘PRIVILEGE’ LIST IN COMPANY NEWSLETTER, APOLOGIZES AFTER BACKLASH
PATRICK J MURPHY: I'm glad Dr. Golden apologized. But it pisses me off, because I'm the kid that grew up in northeast Philadelphia in a row house. My dad was a Navy veteran, served 20 years as a cop in Philadelphia. My mom was a legal secretary. I went to community college. I joined the Army at 19. Our country is about opportunity...We are a nation of immigrants and we are hardworking people. So when you have people like Dr. Golden, who wants to divide us day after day, there is a reason why after World War II, 92% of kids in America were going to be better off than their parents. Today, it's 50%. You know why? Because people don't believe in the American dream. They think it's run by corporate America. They think people are dividing us. And it's happened on both sides. So we got to stop. We got to remember what's great about our country, because two years from now, it'll be our 250th anniversary. We better get back to our roots and appreciate what we're all about.
A "privilege" list from the Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity (DEI) caused a backlash that quickly resulted in a retraction on Thursday.
The @EndWokeness X account released an unearthed newsletter from Chief Diversity Officer Dr. Sherita H. Golden on the January 2024 issue of Monthly Diversity Digest. The message included "privilege" as the "Diversity Word of the Month" along with a series of descriptions considered "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 read.
It continued, "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."
Golden later apologized and expressed "deep regret" over the newsletter.