Diversity Thursday

Annapolis Update

As everyone may have noticed, DivThu are few and far between recently. We have been savoring our temporary victories—until the DEI-related Executive Orders find their way into law the next (D) CINC could, and probably would, reverse them.

But just a little over three months ago in a Baltimore court, the fight against government-sponsored discrimination enabled by the service academy carve-out in the Harvard & UNC-CH SCOTUS case had a setback. If you need a refresher, just click here for my Substack at the time.

It is time for an update, but let’s review all the times over the last two decades—and longer—we were told that discrimination based on race, ethnicity, and sex was not taking place. That was all fakenews™, hyperbole, and lies. Yes, we all remember that.

The SCOTUS case above revealed that, yes, not only is the discrimination we denied taking place, it is a good thing and we should keep doing it. They literally became the Rob Henderson meme.

Well, let us savor this moment to enjoy the fruits of the new Pentagon leadership.

Via Brian White at RealClearDefense:

The U.S. Naval Academy will no longer consider race, ethnicity or sex as a factor for admission to the service institution, a response to an executive order by President Donald Trump, according to federal court documents made public Friday.

The change in policy was made in February by Vice Adm. Yvette Davids, the academy’s superintendent, in response to an executive order issued by President Donald Trump in January, according to a court filing by the U.S. Justice Department in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The president’s order on Jan. 27 said that “every element of the Armed Forces should operate free from any preference based on race or sex.” It also directed the secretary of defense to conduct an internal review with respect to all “activities designed to promote a race- or sex-based preferences system,” including reviews at the service academies.

“Under revised internal guidance issued by the Superintendent on Feb. 14, 2025, neither race, ethnicity, nor sex can be considered as a factor for admission at any point during the admissions process, including qualification and acceptance,” according to the court filing made public Friday.

Of course, this should just be the start. What needs to happen next is a Truth and Reconciliation Committee-like opening of the books to show exactly how discrimination was taking place. Numbers, metrics, graphs … all of it through the years.

The data is all there.

Don’t stop at students either—you have to include faculty hiring, especially the last few years when adherence to critical theory was part of the search and selection criteria. Ask hard questions about how auxiliary organizations like the NAAA were involved.

It happened. The paper and email trail is there.

At least everyone is out in the open now, not hiding behind word salad and a miasma of partial truths.

Edward Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, praised the academy’s decision.

“Students for Fair Admissions welcomes the announcement that the U.S. Naval Academy will end its unfair and illegal race-based admissions policies. Racial discrimination is wrong and racial classifications have no place at our nation’s military academies,” Blum said in a statement.

Maryland Rep. Sarah Elfreth, a Democrat who serves on the academy’s Board of Visitors, criticized the change, saying “this disastrous decision will have negative implications on our military’s recruitment and retention for decades to come.”

“A Navy and Marine Corps that reflect the diversity of our country is our strongest Navy and Marine Corps,” Elfreth said. “Diversity and inclusion allow our academies to not just reflect how our country looks but are critical to mission readiness and strong national security.”

Bravo Zulu to Blum and his team. They were instrumental in helping remove this blot from the honor of our Naval Academy.

The last paragraph in the article is just damning:

The academy argued in that case that its admissions process considers many factors, including grades, extracurricular activities, life experience and socioeconomic status, according to court testimony. Race often played no role in the process, but sometimes it came under consideration in a “limited fashion,” attorneys for the academy wrote in court papers.

Define, “often.”

Explain what triggered, “sometimes.”

Who determined when it came in to “consideration”, and under what authority directed by whom?

Describe, “limited.”

Metrics. Let’s see the metrics, the memos, the emails, the precepts.

Those engaged in this red in tooth and claw discrimination know what they were doing was wrong outside their cargo cult. They knew it was dirty and shameful. That is why they did all they could do to hide it from outside eyes, to obscure its actions, to even deny what everyone saw.

Such a shameful period.