Diversity Thursday
schrödinger's race
Today's DivThu is a twofer. Stick to the end, I'll leave you with a positive, upbeat feeling.
You signal to me what you care about by what you measure and inspect.
You tell me what you don't care about by what you ignore.
When someone in the Navy says they value "diversity" because they believe that "different ideas and perspectives create better organizations" it tells me one of two things:
1) They have no idea what the Navy actually does.
2) They are lying.
Now and then I find it useful to put things out there that demonstrate, especially (2) above, because hidden in plain sight is the official documentation that shows that when it comes to promotions, the Navy does not care about "diversity" of viewpoint, background, region, education source, academic credentials, or really anything but what they track; race, ethnicity and sex.
Below is the unrestricted line officer portion of the most recent CDR Selection Board.
There are three things I would like to draw to your attention, but I want you to first look at the summary, then look again, and tell me what the top-3 things you notice.
I'll tell you mine after the screenshot.
First of all, did you notice who does not exist, or at least the Navy either isn't interested in tracking or does not want tracked?
Men. That would be 520 or 93% of board eligible in zone.
Second there is a group that in the mind of the Navy doesn't exist, the Voldamort of racial groups where you dare-not-speak-its-name; "White/Caucasian." I'm not sure if that is insulting to people who self-identify as such or simply patronizing of everyone else.
I vote mostly for the later. The percentage of that 558 is 83%.
The Navy, like a puppy trying to hide by sticking its nose under the couch, is pretending like 83% simply is not there - so you can’t see that data either.
The third issue is a little more hidden - but a topic that gets all the right people upset - racial self-identification.
A great thing about 21st Century America is that each year more and more of our countrymen represent the hybrid vigor that is our great melting pot. If we have a young man or woman whose four grandparents are: 1) Pilipino; 2) Afro-Caribbean from Barbados; 3) Northern European; 4) Old Line Puerto Rican .... how exactly is that person going to identify themselves?
It should not matter, but if you believe what DON says - and you should - it does.
So, our system will encourage them to select something that gives them advantage. That is just human nature. It appears we no longer give people the option of "prefer not to," so they have to pick something.
What do we do to the mind of a person where we encourage them to, in essence, fudge or lie? That becomes a habit. If the Navy accepts it here, why not in other places like preventive maintenance, inspections, and CASREP reporting? What are the moral implications of asking a person to disown 3/4 of their heritage, as if these ancestors never existed.
...about one-in-four (24%) have felt annoyed because people have made assumptions about their racial background.
24%. What would that number be if an organization did not accept their multi-racial background and forced them to pick - or punished them through unequal treatment compared to if they selected an approved classification? There is a thin line between annoyance, disgust, and anger.
This is an issue the Navy needs to resolve sooner more than later. As opposed to leading the nation on race matters, the US Navy is stuck in the 1970s.
The share of multiracial babies has risen from 1% in 1970 to 10% in 2013.3 And with interracial marriages also on the rise, demographers expect this rapid growth to continue, if not quicken, in the decades to come.
What a great tribute to the generations of hard work to bring about racial equality and a great indicator of the future that is. Look at that number, 10%. By 2017 the number was 17%.
Back to the board results. Let's look just at in-zone. There were 558 eligible overall, with 96 who did not belong to the race-who-we-dare-not-speak-its-name. That is 17% too. Of that 17%, 14 of 96 were "Multiple Race Code" or 15%.
Of the 558 total, that 14 is only 3%. As everything here is self-identified, I am sure a genetic test would give us an even higher percentage. Between the self-identification problem and America becoming an even more splendid melting pot - you can see how problematic judging things by a "one drop rule" is.
It isn't just problematic, for me it is immoral, it should be unethical, and if we do things right, we should make it illegal.
No one is our republic should be given special treatment on the basis of race, creed, color, or national origin. Full stop.
Our Navy is better than this racialist game we are playing from reading lists to selection boards. Our country has worked too hard to act like that. Our people deserve better from their government who should see them as individuals, not just a member of competing sectarian factions clawing at each other for the spoils of a system that encourages the most base brain-stem tribalism.
For anyone who has lived overseas you know that regardless of your physical appearance, you are to them an "American."
That is the standard.
If you wan to read the full board summary for yourself, you can read it here that includes the restricted line stats.
Now for the positive stuff.
We are in a struggle to match our nation’s ideals, and in order to do that in our Navy we know that the uniformed leadership is too compromised to do this on their own. In both (R) and (D) administrations we have seen for a variety of reasons, the Diversity Bullies were given free run to grow their guild and feather their nest. The only way we will turn this around will be in Congress.
You will find few Representatives leading this fight better than Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI).
Relish the below from yesterday and let not your heart be troubled. Gird your loins for the fight. It is a good fight; the right fight.
As we have new readers every day, I'd like to review my position on this topic.
Here's the baseline: though there are individual exceptions of well meaning people who simply are wrong, the diversity advocates as they operate in the US Navy are purveyors of division, strife, and sectarianism who have no interest in "solving" any problem either existing or perceived.
First and foremost they are there to protect their position, increase the members of their guild in paid positions, and for many who are otherwise unemployable for any other job - feed their need for power and to satisfy a grievance they have turned in to a career.
This problem was decades long in the making. It grew out of a real challenge in second half of the 20th Century as the first post-Jim Crow generations grew in to adulthood (hey GenX!), yet as we find ourselves in the 3rd decade of the 21st Century and its relevancy vaporized, it has devolved in to a grift and a political tool. There is no real "there there" for them to attack, so they must create it.
Through its actions and millions of dollars each year, the US Navy and DOD support, along with much of the government, what is essentially a political movement welded to an industry based on divisive racialist theories.
In the over a decade and a half we have written on the topic here, we remain steadfast to the goals of Martin Luther King, Jr. where we must reach a point where we judge people by the content of their character, not something as useless as the color of their skin, where they were born, where they worship, etc.
The US military used to be at the front of working towards a color-blind environment and have had great success in it. We are now recruiting the third generation of post-Jim Crow Americans and the natural state of people is to not care about race, creed, color, or national origin. For those who derived a lot of political and economic power over the decades from racial strife, this worries them. They don't want to see this problem solved, no, that would be bad for their business and world view. They want to keep the crisis - and the monetary and sociopolitical power it brings - ongoing.
I do not believe time is on their side though. In their desperation they are actually showing the corruptness of their world view. This is good. They should do this more.
Like the worst racists of the first two-thirds of the 20th Century, they want race to be considered first in all things, including on selection boards. They will tell you that, in fact, being "color blind" is a bad thing.
It is good that this view is being flushed out. It cannot survive the fresh air and light among well meaning people with good intentions.
Modern Americans who desire a future where we are all what the rest of the world sees us, as Americans, will not find attractive a future where everyone is viewed with the eye of a 1920s member of the KKK.
Stand up. Speak up. Don't accept the low standards they want you and your Sailors to serve under.
I always find it interesting that it is mainly us white males who decry the evil of Diversity and Inclusion efforts. At a recent ANSO meeting (look it up) I sat with a group of Hispanic, Black and Female Officers and Enlisted, and the question for each to answer was “describe a barrier you had to overcome to succeed in the military” Each one had a compelling story of being mocked, ignored, harassed or disrespected by a peer or supervisor because of their gender, accent, or skin color. My turn came. My answer: “I came from a White, middle class, military family. My biggest issue was which open door to walk through”. Having commanded two ships and sat many a board, race and gender were never “factors” in selection to the next milestone. Performance was. The fact that race and gender are tracked after the fact is interesting, but irrelevant to your argument. I recommend sitting down with a minority officer (self identified or you pick) and discuss your article and it’s arguments. Get their opinion. I might be wrong. But keep writing!
Yes, this racist anti-male attitude is being flushed out. BUT - it is also becoming normalized, expected, and codified. And all out of sight of mainstream America. </sarc> What a surprise <\sarc>
Why on earth would anyone in that demographic today ever choose to join such an organization? Patriotism and family tradition stretch only so far. My son chose to become a firefighter - daily putting his life up for grabs like we did, but without this kind of crap. Maybe the start of a new family tradition.