CV NEWS FEED // Two days after Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-AL, ended his months-long protest of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) pro-abortion policy, another senator has embarked on a similar effort.
NewsNation reported that Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-MO, “is placing holds on five specific military officers whose promotions are before the chamber.”
“Schmitt has placed a hold on a handful of promotions relating to concerns that he has regarding those nominees’ stances or actions relating to divisive Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the military,” the senator’s press secretary told NewsNation:
Senator Schmitt has long been an advocate for eradicating these DEI programs, and hopes to resolve these issues to ensure that these divisive DEI program don’t continue to drive a wedge between military members and deepen the already existing recruiting crisis.
NewsNation indicated that the senator found a pro-DEI op-ed by Colonel Ben Jonsson to be “objectionable.” Jonsson is one of the officers whose promotions Schmitt is holding up. Previously, Jonsson’s pending promotion to brigadier general was being held up by Tuberville’s pro-life campaign.
“Dear white colonel,” Jonsson wrote in his July 2020 piece, which was published in the Air Force Times.
“As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force,” he wrote:
We are largely blind to institutional racism, and we take offense to any suggestion that our system advantaged us at the expense of others.
…
If we do not take the time to learn, to show humility, to address our blind spots around race, and to agree that we are not as objective as we think and our system is not as fair as we think, then our Air Force will not rise above George Floyd’s murder.
“Start by developing a game plan,” Jonsson concluded. “A good primer is to read or listen to the short book, ‘White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism’ by Robin DiAngelo.”
CatholicVote previously reported on the deeply controversial nature of “White Fragility.”
Critics across the political spectrum have panned the book, which is widely considered to misrepresent the reality of racial relations in the United States. Writing in the left-leaning Atlantic, African-American linguist John McWhorter called it a “racist tract.” Like Jonsson, DiAngelo is white.
