BALTIMORE – DECEMBER 2: Row houses stand in the Middle East neighborhood, three blocks north of Johns Hopkins University Medical School, December 2, 2003 in East Baltimore, Maryland. According to a local news media report, the city will soon evict about 250 families in the area and transform it into a biotechnology park that will create 8,000 jobs and 2,000 modern and renovated houses in ten years as a revitalization program of the area. Photo: Alex Wong (Getty Images)
Johns Hopkins Medicine’s chief diversity officer is out a few months after a newsletter on “privilege” landed her in the crosshairs of conservative media. Dr. Sherita Golden officially resigned from her position at the prestigious medical school on Monday.
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Golden is one of many Black professionals who’ve been pushed out of diversity, equity, and inclusion roles in recent months. (See: University of Florida laying off its entire DEI staff and shutting down its DEI office). Her case is also reminiscent of the massive conservative-led campaign to oust former Harvard President Claudine Gay — who, despite her extensive credentials, was repeatedly called a diversity hire by her detractors who heralded her ousting as a win against DEI.
The newsletter that led to Golden’s departure focused on explaining privilege. In the letter, she defined privilege as “a set of unearned benefits given to people who are in a specific social group.”
The next part is where she gets into trouble.
“In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one or more of these social groups,” wrote Golden, “White people, Able-bodied people, Heterosexuals, Cisgender people, Males, Christians, Middle or owning class people, Middle-aged people, English-speaking people.”
The newsletter was circulated by the X account “End Wokeness” with countless commenters taking offense at the idea that white men are privileged. Other commenters went even further, calling her “racist.”
Golden quickly apologized for her comments. “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,” she wrote in a follow-up email, obtained by The Baltimore Sun. “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.”
Students and staff also rallied around the medical professor by disseminating a massive petition arguing that the backlash against Golden was unfair. But clearly, the damage was already done. Roughly two months later, Golden left her position.
