Diversity Thursday
For members of the Front Porch, this is old news … but for a lot of people, they are just now getting in the fight. For the last couple of decades, those they relied on to defend the fundamentals of a fair society kept saying this hill or that hill was “not worth dying on” and surrendered without a fight, so the Cultural Marxist cadres have most of the high ground from the service academies to The Pentagon. We are not quite surrounded as of yet.
Today we’re going to cover the state of play in the domain of the Diversity Industry’s full integration into our military from the service academies all the way to those we want to be our next Generals just to demonstrate how tough the good fight will be.
This is the result of decades of a long march by the hyper-politicized left, soaked in grievance, externalized self-loathing leveraging an easily pliant military for fun and profit.
Some new to the game seem to want to blame President Biden or his administration for all this, but no - that doesn’t wash here. We’ve documented the growth of power in the diversity commissariat through both Republican and Democratic administrations. Well meaning but weak-spined “conservative” leaders who should have stood athwart the left’s line of advance didn’t. Indeed, many - especially in the Bush43 Administration, helped smooth the path. The time for courage in this area was never “ripe” so they decided it would be a fight for another day. A harder fight, but a fight someone else would have to suit up for.
Now it that time.
Behold now the fruit of the left’s hard work, and the harvest from decades of cowed and insecure “leadership’s” weakness in the face of bullies.
First, let’s go to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis. We know the truth on the ground at USNA is much worse, but let’s focus on this one snapshot of a department that was lost to sectarianism and division long ago.
Via The Daily Caller;
…HE 374, Topics In Gender & Sexuality in Literature…Students begin the class by performing a land acknowledgement,…The second class period involve study of “theories of gender” and learning about the Genderbread person, a visual made to show a difference between “gender identity,” “gender expression,” “anatomical sex,” “gender” and “sexual orientation.” On the third class period, students create a diversity statement and learn gender and sexuality vocabulary.
Another in-class activity scheduled for week 3 is reading pan-African and socialist civil rights activist W.E.B. DeBois’ “Double Consciousness.”
Of course, it is hyper-political with nothing to the right of Noam Chomsky, but from a department that asks for “Diversity Statements” when looking for faculty and other things to filter out any contrary perspective, not shocking.
The following is actually fun to read if you imagine some engineering major who had to take this course as it was the only one that met a requirement and fit the rest of his schedule.
The primary texts of the course were “The Reproduction of Mothering: Psychoanalysis and the Sociology of Gender” by Nancy Chodorow and “Sexual/Textual Politics: Feminist Literary Theory” by Toril Moi. Both books are critical of conservative ideas about sex and gender.
“Women’s mothering perpetuates itself through social-structurally induced psychological mechanisms. It is not an unmediated product of physiology. Women come to mother because they have been mothered by women,” Chodorow wrote, according to a summary.
Moi’s book imagines a world “beyond the opposition feminine/masculine, beyond homosexuality and heterosexuality,” a review shows.
“While you will be expected to understand both of these books and the theoretical positions they present, you are not expected to agree with them (although you might, and that’s okay too),” the instructor wrote in the syllabus.
Two papers due throughout the semester require students to apply concepts from the two books to other readings from the class. The final paper instructs students to describe their takeaways about gender and sexuality from the class.
Journal entries on the Tacit Racism reading are also required most Wednesdays, according to the syllabus.
Students are also required to respond to articles critiquing “The Passion” by Jeanette Winterson and “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic” by Alison Bechdel. “Fun Home” is a memoir about a girl coming to terms with her own lesbian sexuality,
In spring, the heart turns to…
The Spring 2023 course was divided into three main sections, starting with “an exploration of the masculine/feminine binary,” then moving to “a historical and contemporary discussion of the rejection and empowerment of specific sexualities” and finally the “utilization of Gender and Sexuality to enforce or deconstruct the othering of nonwestern culture,”
There is more fun on the way. In for a penny, in for a pound;
The Naval Academy sought a tenure-track assistant professor in Gender and Sexuality Studies to begin work in January 2024, the website shows.
“We welcome subspecialties in disability studies, film, and multiethnic or global Anglophone literature,” the job description stated.
A course description for the class available on the academy’s website advertises students will learn “advanced methods of analyzing literature and culture are taught through a set of focused readings of theories, histories, perspectives, and/or major figures in LGBTQ, women’s and/or gender studies,” including Audre Lorde, Sarah Ahmed, Gloria Anzaldua — who described herself as a “Chicana dyke-feminist” — and Kimberle Crenshaw, a Critical Race Theory scholar.
Well, now that we know what the Naval Academy wants our new Ensigns and Second Lieutenants to bring to the fleet, what does the US Air Force want in their Generals?
As you read this - and more is in the article - I want you to remember that all of this was known before Colonel Johnson went in front of the selection board for Brigadier General and was selected from a group of highly qualified men and women who were not selected.
All of it.
“I worked under Col. Jonsson when he was the wing commander at MacDill Air Force Base and witnessed many troubling things,” said a veteran Air Force officer, who asked for anonymity to speak openly without facing retribution. “When [President Joe] Biden was elected, he said elatedly in a meeting with all squadron commanders, ‘Now we can start doing diversity training again.’ He also forced the COVID vaccine and masking harder than any other commander I am aware of. At a time when no one in Florida was wearing masks off base, he routinely would keep the base in heightened state of Health Protection Condition.”
…
Shortly before becoming commander of the 6th Air Refueling Wing at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, Jonsson wrote an 825-word commentary published in the Air Force Times on July 1, 2020. In it, he recounted several examples of what he described as “white defensiveness” in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death the previous May 25 while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
“Dear white colonel, it is time to give a damn. Aim High,” Jonsson wrote, adding:
As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force. Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice. White colonels are no exception. We are largely blind to institutional racism, and we take offense to any suggestion that our system advantaged us at the expense of others.
Jonsson included an endorsement of critical race theory promoter Robin DiAngelo’s controversial book “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism.”
…
The Daily Signal recently obtained a Jan. 21, 2022, policy memorandum issued while Jonsson was at MacDill. Written by Col. Jonathan E. Burdick, who was commander of the 6th Operations Group until his retirement this year, the memo defined DEI and outlined expectations for the group. (Read the full memo at the end of this story.)
DEI should be “baked in,” Burdick told MacDill’s 6th Operations Group, “instead of being reactively audited on a periodic basis.”
“DE&I processes will be incorporated into our normal battle rhythm to help illuminate blind spots, recognize unintentional bias, and strive to bring unintentionally overlooked airmen back into the fold,” Burdick wrote.
In practice, Burdick said, DEI would shape decisions on military promotions and other advancement opportunities.
“Going forward, every nomination for selective professional development programs, training courses, awards, leadership opportunities, and jobs must incorporate an internal review to ensure that all eligible candidates are considered,” he wrote. “This review intends to ensure that all candidates are given fair and equal consideration, and bias and blind spots are mitigated.”
The DEI policy memo outlined plans to review and analyze the group’s commitment to diversity.
“Group leadership will compare its placement of diverse airmen in selective professional development programs and desired jobs with Air Force and United States population demographic data,” Burdick wrote.
The memo concludes with this endorsement: “DE&I must remain integral and consistent with our core values, overall readiness, mission accomplishment, and reflective of the nation we serve.”
…
The anonymous Defense Organizational Climate Survey, which evaluated Jonsson’s leadership at MacDill in January 2022, includes both a quantitative survey and substantive written comments.
An email from Jan. 10, 2022, included in the 139-page FOIA response to Heritage’s Oversight Project, says the purpose of the survey was to “get meaningful comments and share them up & down the chain of command.”
Although not all the comments were critical of Jonsson’s leadership, several subordinates cited his Air Force Times commentary as problematic or referenced DEI practices at MacDill. Their unedited responses, published Nov. 2 by The Daily Signal, were submitted anonymously.
“I trust [squadron and group] commanders, but not Col. Jonsson. He has bias in [equal opportunity] and [judge advocate] matters especially if someone is white,” one respondent stated. “He wants anyone white to feel ashamed.”
Survey respondents also said skin color was a factor in opportunities for promotion.
“Wing hiring practices are not based on [the] most qualified person, but focus solely on perception of diversity,” one comment stated.
Another added: “The core of promotion, advancement and opportunities
Senator Tuberville (R-AL) was on to something … perhaps?
When the U.S. Senate unanimously approved 425 military promotions earlier this month, one person was missing from the list: Col. Ben Jonsson, the Air Force officer who espoused controversial views on race and diversity.
The left’s long march through the DOD took decades of determination and support in both the Executive and Legislative Branch to embed itself so deep, and it will take the same methods to claw it out.
Good news, at least in Congress there is a critical mass that “gets it” and progress is being made. There are more people in the information space that are in the fight. Now that the commissars know their under a meaningful microscope, they will start to fight back. That is when it gets interesting.
My father was a friend of ADM Frank Kelso. I met him a few times and remember two things distinctly,
He was very personable and gave me a compelling sales pitch for why I should become a naval officer. I went in another direction, much to the surprise of my family (my grandfather was also a decorated UDT in WWII). Nevertheless, the Admiral put in a good word for me that changed my world (thank you, sir). Just six months ago, a young man, a friend of our family, asked me to write a recommendation for him so that he might be accepted to Navy OCS (specifically for nukes, apparently). This young man is brilliant and mentally tough, fully qualified for the endeavor. I told him I would gladly do so but he must first listen to what I had to say about that. To his credit, he really considered my words. The gist of it was that all current FOGOs made their rank under regimes that do not see their prime directive as breaking things and killing people when required. They use the military as a vehicle for implementing marxist principles, or just a jobs program. Command ability was not the reason they were promoted, political reliability was. Don't forget that, I said, because you will be taking orders from political errand boys, not warriors. When I turned in the background and recommendation I said to him "I need my navy to keep ruling the waves." and off he went.
It is deeply troubling to me that I should have to say that about our military and country in general. There are those who see the world as they want it to be and those that see it for what it is. I assume all of us on the porch ascribe to the latter.
The ‘06 USNA striper list (assigns highest ranking leadership positions within the Brigade) was recalled, redone, and re-issued 3 days later because the original version did not include sufficient “diversity” at the highest levels. This problem runs deeeeeeep and has had decades for its tendrils to latch in place.