Rep. Andy Harris, Former Johns Hopkins Doctor: The New Racism in Medicine | ATL:NOW

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who was a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist for nearly three decades, says the chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, Dr. Sherita Golden, should be fired.

Ms. Golden recently came under fire for declaring white people, Christians, men, heterosexuals, and English-speaking people to be “privileged” in a monthly “diversity digest” email to staff. She has since apologized for the statement.

“When you go to an emergency room with a problem, I hope they don’t have a box of ‘privileged’ categories that have to be checked off to see how you’re going to be triaged in that emergency room,” Rep. Harris says.

He argues that diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have completely flipped the traditional idea of a diversity officer, who simply ensured that there were no biases against certain groups. “Now there are people in this field who say that, yes, you should actually be biased against people,” Rep. Harris says.

We also discuss Rep. Harris’ criticism of the FDA’s plans to promote its chief scientist, Dr. Namandjé Bumpus, a DEI proponent, to “principal deputy commissioner” at the FDA.