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A28 u.s. news
Diasabra 4 December 2021
‘We just feel it’

Racism plagues U.S military academies

formed a special team in April visit earlier this year. But the
to advance progress on di- deadline to act on any recom-
versity, equity and inclusion mendations is still more than
across the entire department, two years away. The U.S.
including the academies. armed forces were segregated
until the mid-1950s, when an
West Point did not respond influx of fighters were need-
to repeated requests for com- ed for the Korean War. Now,
ment, beyond reiterating the the collected services applaud
importance of diversity to its themselves for 200 years as
admissions process and to “the greatest military force
preparing cadets for leader- in history,” attracting men
ship. and women who represent
all creeds, religions, races,
Following the murder of ethnicities and sexual orien-
George Floyd in 2020, which tations.
sparked protests around the
globe, a group of prominent At the academies, integration
West Point alums had re- happened much earlier, fol-
leased a 40-page letter urg- lowing the abolition of slav-
ing the academy to address ery. During Black History
“major failures” in combat- Month at West Point, honor
ting intolerance and racism. is paid to Henry O. Flipper,
“Though we are deeply dis- a formerly enslaved man who
turbed, we hold fast to the became the academy’s first
hope that our Alma Mater Black graduate in 1877. But
(AP) - Eight years after he address the racial slights that or being corrected for infrac- will take the necessary steps the West Point that Flipper
graduated from the U.S. some graduates of color say tions that were not actually to champion the values it es- attended was rife with preju-
Military Academy at West they faced daily. infractions,” he said. “It was pouses,” the letter said. dice: His white classmates
Point, Geoffrey Easterling a very deliberate choice to and professors refused to ac-
remains astonished by the In an Associated Press story dig and to push on certain An appendix offered anony- knowledge his presence.
Confederate history still earlier this year, current and individuals compared with mous testimonials gathered
memorialized on the sto- former enlistees and officers other cadets -- white cadets.” last year from West Point ca- Today, the academies are a
ried academy’s campus – in nearly every branch of the Xavier Bruce, who graduated dets about incidents they said growing pathway to officer
the six-foot-tall painting armed services described a from the Air Force Academy went unaddressed by school status for Black cadets, 2019
of Confederate Gen. Rob- deep-rooted culture of rac- in 1999 and rose to the rank officials. “I had a racist room- data from the Under Secre-
ert E. Lee in the library, ism and discrimination that of lieutenant colonel dur- mate that would call me the tary of Defense shows, with
the barracks dormitory stubbornly festers, despite re- ing his 24 years of duty, said n-word and spit on me,” one about 13% of Black active-
named for Lee and the peated efforts to eradicate it. that for him, it was the on- cadet wrote. “I told the 4th duty officers commissioned
Lee Gate on Lee Road. going slights directed at him Regimental Tactical Officer through the five institutions,
Less attention has been paid as a Black man, rather than about it, and they did noth- compared to 19% of white
As a Black student at the to the premiere institutions openly racist behavior, that ing.” active-duty officers.
Army academy, he remem- that produce a significant cut deep.
bers feeling “devastated” portion of the services’ of- Shelley acknowledges West Most students who enroll —
when a classmate pointed ficer corps – the academies “We just feel it, we feel the Point has become more ra- about 60-70% — are nomi-
out the slave also depicted of the U.S. Army, the U.S. energy behind it, and it just cially diverse, but said the nated by U.S. senators or
in the life-size Lee painting. Navy, the U.S. Air Force, the eats us away,” he said. academy has significant work representatives from their
“How did the only Black per- U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. to do to retain and support home states as part of a sys-
son who got on a wall in this Merchant Marine. Some students of color have students of color. In his class, tem created in the 1840s to
entire humongous school — spotlighted what they see as he estimated about 35 Black build a politically and geo-
how is it a slave?” he recalls Some graduates of color systemic racism and discrim- students graduated — “some graphically diverse officer
thinking. from the nation’s top military ination at the academies by crazy low number,” he said. corps. But today, the changed
schools who endured what creating Instagram accounts “And we started with a lot demographics of the U.S.
As a diversity admissions of- they described as a hostile en- — “ Black at West Point,” “ more.” mean the system gives dis-
ficer, he later traveled the vironment are left question- Black at USAFA ” and “ Black proportionate influence to
country recruiting students ing the military maxim that at USNA ” — to relate their In a sense, the tributes to Lee rural congressional districts
to West Point from under- all service members wearing personal experiences. that still dot the West Point that tend to be whiter, the AP
represented communities. the same uniform are equal. campus illustrate the acad- found.
“It was so hard to tell people “I was walking with a class- emy’s dichotomy: Cadets
like, ‘Yeah, you can trust the That includes Carlton Shel- mate and we were both speak- studying military history are Only 6% of nominations to
military,’ and then their kids ley II, who was recruited to ing Spanish when a white, taught that Confederate sol- the Army, Air Force and Na-
Google and go ‘Why is there play football for West Point male upperclassman turned diers were no heroes, yet the val academies made by the
a barracks named after Lee?’” from his Sarasota, Florida, around and said ‘Speak Eng- references to Lee — a West current members of Con-
he said. high school and entered the lish, this is America,’” a 2020 Point graduate who later be- gress went to Black candi-
The nation’s military acad- academy in 2009. On the Air Force Academy graduate came the academy’s superin- dates, even though 15% of
emies provide a key pipeline field, he described the team wrote in one post. tendent — remain. the population aged 18 to 24
into the leadership of the as “a brotherhood,” where is Black, according to a re-
armed services and, for the his skin color never impacted In response to the AP’s find- The latest annual defense port on the service academies
better part of the last decade, how he was treated. But off ings, a spokesman for the spending bill mandated that released in March by the
they have welcomed more the field, he said, he and oth- Department of Defense, Maj. the Defense Department Connecticut Veterans’ Legal
racially diverse students each er Black classmates too often Charlie Dietz, said the ser- survey all its military proper- Center. Eight percent of con-
year. But beyond blanket were treated like the stereo- vice academies make it a pol- ties for references or symbols gressional nominations went
anti-discrimination policies, type of the angry Black man icy to offer equal opportuni- that potentially commemo- to Hispanic students, though
these federally funded insti- – an experience that brought ties regardless of race, color, rate the Confederacy, includ- they make up 22% of young
tutions volunteer little about him to tears at the time. national origin, religion, sex, ing at West Point, which the adults, the report said.
how they screen for extrem- gender identity or sexual ori- commission overseeing the
ist or hateful behavior, or “I was repeatedly in trouble entation. He said the DOD work picked as its first site to