Johns Hopkins Medicine walked back an internal email Thursday that accused straight white men of having unearned “privilege,” a spokesperson confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Johns Hopkins Medicine sent out an email in January saying that multiple groups of people, including Christians and males, have privileges that “favor members of dominant groups.” The email was walked back by a spokesperson who said the list “contradicts” Johns Hopkins’ “values,” and was also walked back in an email by the chief diversity officer of the organization, according to a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“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,” a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine told the DCNF. “Dr. Sherita Golden, Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Chief Diversity Officer, has sincerely acknowledged this mistake and retracted the language used in the message.”
Privilege was the school’s “Diversity Word of the Month,” according to an X post appearing to show the original email.
“Privilege is a set of unearned benefits 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 email reads.
“In the United States, privilege is granted to people who have membership in one or more of these social identity groups,” the email reads, listing white people, “able-bodied people,” heterosexuals, “cisgender people,” males, Christians, middle or “owning class people,” and English-speaking people as examples of privileged groups.
A Friday X post appears to show an email from Golden saying she regrets sending the message.
“The newsletter included a definition of the word ‘privilege’ which, upon reflection, I deeply regret,” the email reads. “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.”
Several prominent individuals derided the original email sent by Johns Hopkins.
Elon Musk wrote “This must end!” in a Thursday post on X.
Mercedes Schlapp, a conservative commentator, called the email “toxic” and “divisive” in a Thursday post on X.
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