Because the Trump administration seeks to purge the U.S. army of trans folks for no different purpose than how they establish, one can solely marvel if it has the identical power for purging the army of racists and bigots. (Spoiler alert: they don’t have that very same power and nobody who pays consideration would anticipate them to.
Two Navy SEALs primarily based in Virginia are presently dealing with disciplinary motion for creating and circulating racist memes that focused a Black sailor of their platoon. Based on the Related Press, the memes depicted the Black sailor as an enslaved individual. A army official who spoke to AP beneath the situation of anonymity mentioned the focused sailor reported the racist memes earlier this yr, however they started circulating in 2022. Together with the 2 Navy SEALs, a number of of their platoon and group leaders are dealing with disciplinary motion for, amongst different issues, management failures. In reality, the sailor was beforehand one of many SEAL Workforce 4 platoons, however his {qualifications} and SEAL trident have been revoked final yr, which he says solely occurred on account of racism, which is perhaps true, and likewise is perhaps the explanation his army credentials are set to be reinstated.
From AP:
Two officers mentioned that because of the investigation, which was carried out by Naval Particular Warfare Group 2, the sailor’s SEAL {qualifications} are being reinstated and he’ll get again pay. The group oversees SEAL Workforce 4 and the platoons that make up the group, situated at Joint Base Little Creek-Fort Story in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
The probe discovered that the platoon and SEAL Workforce 4 leaders didn’t adequately deal with the sailor’s issues about racist habits and that the choice to revoke his {qualifications} was flawed.
“This was a really surprising case of specific and repeated racist memes directed at our consumer in a platoon-wide textual content thread,” mentioned Timothy Parlatore, the sailor’s lawyer, referring to the memes shared over a Sign chat. “They modified his face in pictures to seem like a monkey and portrayed him as a chained slave on a slave ship, amongst others.”
So, was the revocation of the sailor’s SEAL standing retaliation for him complaining about racism within the first place? Nicely, that isn’t clear, however the two racist sailors are dealing with non-judicial punishment and punitive letters of their information, which AP notes “might be profession ending, or can lead to demotions or lack of pay.” The platoon and group leaders may also reportedly obtain letters of their information, amongst different disciplinary actions.
Naval Particular Warfare Command confirmed that there’s nonetheless an lively investigation into “severe allegations of unprofessional conduct inside one in all our instructions” and mentioned “accountability actions are ongoing.”
“We’re devoted to fostering a local weather of dignity and respect, and after conducting a radical and honest investigation, we’ll maintain anybody discovered accountable of misconduct accountable,” NSWC mentioned in an announcement.
That is nearly as good a time as any to remind people that Pete Hegseth — the Trump administration’s woefully underqualified ex-Fox Information host who serves because the nation’s secretary of protection regardless of his obvious incapacity to maintain confidential warfare plans out of public eye — has made it his mission to rid the army of all issues variety, fairness and inclusion. In fact, one shouldn’t maintain their breath hoping tales like this one will give him a change of coronary heart.
Extra from AP:
As of March 2021, a full 95% of all SEAL and combatant-craft crew officers have been white and simply 2% have been Black, in accordance with Naval Particular Warfare statistics supplied to the AP. The enlisted ranks have been solely barely extra various.
These quantity are starkly totally different from the general Navy inhabitants, the place about 40% of the enlisted pressure and 24% of its officers are non-white.
Based on the protection official, the sailor filed greater than a dozen particular complaints about racist habits and about half have been substantiated.
So, you understand, possibly much less variety merely shouldn’t be the reply.
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