President Trump’s war on critical race theory is going very well—just ask the liberal outlets.
The New York Times declares: “Trump Attack on Diversity Training Has a Quick and Chilling Effect.” The Washington Post parrots: “Trump’s executive order hurts diversity in federal agencies.” CNN echoes: “Memo says federal employees could be punished for banned diversity trainings.”
The mainstream media is deeply upset that the president will not tolerate anti-American, anti-white, left-wing propaganda masquerading as government “training.” Government agencies, universities, and federal contractors are all racing to comply with Trump’s executive order, leaving many “professional diversity consultants” and other leftist grifters out of work.
This is a serious achievement, but much more work remains to topple the diversity cult embedded within our government, our businesses, and our universities. If Trump is able to gain a second term, he must make this a priority.
There’s no better evidence of this insanity than the commander of Air Force recruitment complaining that the service’s pilots are too dang white.
Major General Ed Thomas wrote in an October op-ed for Yahoo on why it’s a problem that 86 percent of Air Force pilots are white men. According to him and the rest of his service chiefs, diversity is a “war-fighting imperative.” He backs up his argument with the claim that we “risk losing ground to Russia and China, both of which are integrating potential game-changing technologies like artificial intelligence and hypersonic flight.” He says, without any hint of irony, that the solution to this problem is “improving our diversity.”
Notice he does not say we are losing our “diversity edge” to China or Russia, nor that these two countries are catching up to us thanks to racial quotas and white (or, in China’s case, Han) privilege training. They just seem to be finding the best people in their population to advance their military capabilities. America shouldn’t have this problem, as there are no institutional barriers to the best people becoming pilots, regardless of color, creed, or background.
Thomas doesn’t say that the Air Force’s current pilots are low quality or suffer from any deficiencies . . . well, besides being too white and too male. That fact alone proves the Air Force must institute radical changes.
Thomas insists that the service will not implement racial quotas to make itself less white and less male. It will just spend vast amounts of money on recruiting women and minorities and changing the service to make sure that they feel they “belong.”
While there is obviously nothing wrong with wanting more minorities and women to serve, the question is at what cost? Will the Air Force lower standards to meet this diversity mandate? Will senior leaders pressure instructors to pass under-qualified pilots to meet recruitment goals? These are questions that need to be asked. We want the best military in the world, not the most diverse.
Moreover, the military is not exactly an institution that lacks diversity. It basically looks like the country it serves, with 57 percent of servicemembers being white, 16 percent Hispanic, 16 percent black, 4 percent Asian, and 6 percent other/unknown. A Hispanic woman has the same exact shot at becoming a pilot as a white guy. The sole consideration should be whether the potential pilot is the best for the job, not whether she is the right sex or race.
The worst part about Thomas’s op-ed is how it contributes to the further demonization of “whiteness,” a trait it shares with critical race theory. CRT training tells whites they are morally inferior because of the color of their skin and they must atone for this sin with a commitment to “social justice.” Thomas doesn’t go quite that far, but he and the rest of his service command see so-called white overrepresentation as something inherently horrible—even though it’s a natural result of individual decisions to sign up and individual ability to meet strict requirements. No one demands the NBA do more to diversify because 74 percent of its players are black. The best basketball players make it to the league in the same way the most capable recruits become Air Force pilots.
Unfortunately, the military shares General Thomas’s diversity obsession and misplaced priorities. The now-dismissed Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced this summer his department would undergo a thorough diversity review. “My goal is to effect an enterprise-wide, organizational and cultural shift,” Esper said. He went on to deliver a comment more fitting for a sociology professor than a Trump-appointed official. “We are not immune to the forces of bias and prejudice—whether visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious,” he said, implying his department suffers from “systemic racism.” He also claimed diversity is the real strength of the American military—while also arguing it isn’t diverse enough.
Then-Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein endorsed the Black Lives Matter protests over the summer and said his branch would work to implement the movement’s spirit within itself. In 2019, Goldfein said diversity was a “warfighting imperative” and said it was an outrage black servicemembers have to use pink-colored band-aids. (It’s apparently a grave offense that the band-aids don’t match their skin color.)
While military leaders make statements that sound awfully like lessons learned from CRT training, the services are complying with Trump’s directive. White privilege trainings were canceled and the services are reviewing other materials to ensure compliance. The Pentagon, however, reportedly is not happy with Trump’s directive.
Shortly after the president signed his order banning critical race theory indoctrination from the military, the top brass hosted a town hall where they worshipped the virtues of diversity. “It’s not just diversity for diversity’s sake,” Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said. “It’s diversity to improve the system, improve the military, improve our problem-solving capabilities, and improve our warfighting readiness in order to protect and defend the Constitution.”
We trust our nation’s security to our brave men and women in uniform. We want the best possible soldiers, airmen, and sailors to keep us safe. We should never allow the cult of diversity to distract from that mission and force the military to change its standards.
President Trump should make it clear to the military that the race of its pilots isn’t important. What’s important is that they are the best possible pilots and they are properly trained to face any dangers ahead. That’s what matters to our national security.