Race and sex will no longer be considered in military promotions and academy admissions as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth moves to weed out diversity and equity-based programs across the U.S. military.
“The [Defense Department] will strive to provide merit-based, color-blind, equal opportunities to service members but will not guarantee or strive for equal outcomes,” Hegseth wrote in a memo released Wednesday titled “Restoring America’s Fighting Force.”
According to the memo, the Defense Department will not take into account sex, race or ethnicity when considering troops for promotions or special duty. Additionally, no department component will establish sex-, race- or ethnicity-based goals for academic admissions, career fields or organizational composition. . . .
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And now they've replaced a Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who met all the established criteria (who also happened to be Black and willing on occasion, especially at his son's urging, to speak out about how that fact has affected his experiences) with one who does not meet the basic criteria (but who is a White man). I'm hardly surprised, but what they're promising and what they're actually delivering is at odds. It's almost as if when you narrow the pool of candidates to people who you think "look the part" you end up with fewer excellent candidates, and lower standards overall.
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