The U.S. Army in particular and the Pentagon more generally has historically pushed a colorblind, all-inclusive force that allows qualified Americans to serve regardless of background, ethnicity, or any other determinant factor.
But according to documents obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, the U.S. Army’s elite West Point Academy in New York is teaching officer candidates critical race theory, to include addressing “whiteness.”
The network obtained the documents from government watchdog group Judicial Watch. Officials there said the organization was forced to file two Freedom of Information Act lawsuits in order to get the information requested.
“Our military is under attack – from within,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a press release. “These documents show racist, anti-American CRT propaganda is being used to try to radicalize our rising generation of Army leadership at West Point.”
Fox News further notes:
Fitton told Fox News Digital that the material was obtained as part of a request for documents related to the instruction of cadets.
Judicial Watch received over 600 pages of documents from the two lawsuits that were levied after the Department of Defense (DOD) did not comply with the legally-binding requests for documents.
The documents reveal that the Army officers-in-training are receiving lessons on CRT, which included lessons on addressing “whiteness” as well as the application of CRT when answering questions.
“In order to understand racial inequality and slavery, it is first necessary to address whiteness,” one slide claims.
The same slide goes on to say that “whiteness” is “a location of structural advantage, of race privilege,” is a “standpoint or place from which white people look at themselves and the rest of society,” and refers “to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed.”
“Do you think Affirmative Action creates an environment for ‘reverse discrimination?’” one question reads. “Use CRT to support your answer.”
“What is the difference between desegregation versus integration?” another question from a slide titled “Conundrums of Integration” asks. “How would you apply a tenant of CRT to this idea?”
Also, slides from an Army memo claim as well that white Americans “have primarily benefited from civil rights legislation,” that racism “is ordinary,” and that race itself is “socially constructed.” In another slide, “Queer Theory and Policy” are addressed.
Still another slide obtained by Judicial Watch titled “By The Numbers” features a graphic headlined “Modern Day Slavery in the USA” which is juxtaposed with claims that black Americans are “less likely than whites” to receive “recommended medical screening tests” or receive “a job promotion.” It also says that blacks are more likely than whites to be murdered, incarcerated, or live “below the poverty line.”
CRT has become a major source of contention in American society after being introduced in recent years and pushed by the Democrat left, including, unfortunately, in the armed forces.
Army General and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley sparked anger last year — mostly among Republicans — for defending the studying critical race theory in the U.S. military during a congressional hearing.
In July 2021, he told Rep. Matt Gaetz and other members of Congress in a House hearing that he finds it “offensive” the Pentagon is being accused of being “woke” for doing so.
“I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read,” Milley said. “And the United States Military Academy is a university. And it is important that we train and we understand – and I want to understand white rage. And I’m white.”
“I’ve read Mao Zedong, I’ve read Karl Marx, I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding?” he continued.
“Having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military – our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers – of being ‘woke’ because we’re studying some theories that are out there,” Milley continued.
