“Florida is where DEI goes to die.” That’s the vibe from Florida governor Ron DeSantis, and true to his word, it’s happening. In a major announcement that garnered headlines across the country back in March of 2024, the University of Florida announced that it is firing its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion personnel.
All of them.
The move came in response to state law, and as a result the university “closed the Office of the Chief Diversity Officer, eliminated DEI positions and administrative appointments, and halted DEI-focused contracts with outside vendors.” That is welcome news, especially to the University of Florida which saw the reduction of more than two dozen administrative positions related to DEI and a resulting savings of $5 million.
While this is a good start, there is more work to be done in order to dismantle the damage being done in the name of “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” This is specifically true in the military, which under the current administration has lurched strongly leftward. Although no one seems to want to talk about it publicly, DEI and related initiatives are one of the many reasons why the US military is currently in its worst recruiting slump in recent memory. In fact, recruiting has gotten so bad that the military decided to simply reduce its overall end strength because they knew they would never be able to make their recruiting goals in the current political climate.
The overwhelming majority of people in the military want equal opportunity based on merit. But DEI is inherently the opposite of that. In its usual manifestation, it is blatant racial, political, and sexual discrimination. It is divisive and counter to everything that the military stands for. The public face of DEI, Ibram X. Kendi, went so far as to claim that: “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.” Ummm… isn’t any time of race-based discrimination bad? It most definitely is, or at least it should be, in the US military. In fact, Kendi’s book, “How to be an Antiracist,” is endorsed by senior military leaders and even put on recommended reading lists.
Racism, including racism directed at white service members, should be universally condemned. But unfortunately, it’s not. To the contrary, the military has insisted on creating a bloated and expensive DEI bureaucracy, staffed with zealots for far-left causes. For example, in fiscal year 2024 the Pentagon requested $114 million dollars to support its DEI program.
But DEI has backfired in the military, to the point that Congress is considering a “severe roll back” of DEI inside the military, and with good reason. Special Operations Command had to fire their chief DEI officer for publicly comparing President Trump to Hitler. Even more significantly, the Pentagon had to dismantle the DEI program that oversaw its entire schools program due to its leader’s blatant anti-white racism. More recently, even the United States Military Academy at West Point had to defend itself against accusations of “wokeness,” which included standing up a Diversity and Inclusion academic minor and removing “Duty, Honor, Country” from its mission statement.
DEI in the military has proven to be divisive and ineffective. Even the New York Times is waking up to the fact that “antiracism was never the answer.” It is time for the military to lead the way for America once again by emulating Florida and eliminating divisive, expensive, and ineffective DEI programs and the highly racist “antiracist” sentiment within its ranks.
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Scott Faith is a veteran of a half-dozen combat deployments and has served in several different Special Operations units over the course of his Army career. Scott’s writing focuses largely on veterans’ issues, but he is also a strong proponent of Constitutional rights and has a deep interest in politics. He often allows other veterans who request anonymity to publish their work under his byline. Scott welcomes story ideas and feedback on his articles and can be reached at havokjournal@havokmedia.com.
As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.
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