The DEI Purge Will Weaken Our Military -- Editorial

The Trump administration is doing everything it can to eradicate all vestiges of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from the Department of Defense, the federal government and the nation. As the former secretary of the Air Force, I can state with certainty to the white males running this administration that sexism and racism in the military and in the nation do still exist. Banning conversations about these problems is going to make them worse, not better. Pretending these problems don’t exist will drive talent away from the military and lower readiness. “DEI is dead” is the rallying cry. The orders at DOD are to end all DEI training or content, to remove Black History Month and all other official recognition of various groups from the calendar, to delete articles and pictures about groundbreaking achievements by women and minorities and to disband all affinity groups. The premise seems to be that there is nothing left to be done about disparities across various groups, inequitable treatment or any traces of sexism and racism. Any attempt to acknowledge, address or discuss race-related or gender-related subjects is seen as inherently divisive and discriminatory against white males. By any measure, the Trump administration is over-reacting and has gone much too far. When I became secretary in July 2021, the Department of the Air Force had been working for years, decades in fact, to address well-documented racial and gender disparities, to ensure that all personnel in the Air Force and Space Force were treated with respect and that everyone had the opportunity to serve to their full potential. Republican Secretary of Defense Mark Esper implemented DEI training programs and policies during the first Trump administration following the murder of George Floyd. The murder of Army Spec. Vanessa Guillen heightened attention on sexual assault and harassment, and by 2021 the effort to establish the Offices of Special Trial Counsel was well underway. All of this predated the Biden administration. In late 2020 and mid-2021, the Air Force Inspector General produced two extensive studies on racial and gender disparities in the Air Force and Space Force that had been initiated during the first Trump administration. The results were clear. In both the Air Force and Space Force, the demographics for the enlisted ranks were generally consistent with national diversity statistics , but the officer corps were not. Defense Department demographic data from 2023 shows Black people make up 23 percent of enlisted personnel but just 6 percent of officers. For Hispanics the numbers are 18 percent and 8 percent respectively. Among pilots in the Air Force the racial breakdown as of 2020 was similarly lopsided: 94 percent male and 88 percent white. The Department of the Air Force already had policies to ensure equal treatment, but these studies showed that we weren’t seeing equitable outcomes. We had the same military justice system for everyone, but some groups were seeing significantly higher rates of courts martial and administrative punishment, for the same offenses. We had promotion boards composed of leaders with a diverse mix of backgrounds and candidates no longer had pictures or any information on racial or ethnic identity in their files, but white male officers almost always had marginally better results in promotions or command selection than minority candidates, an outcome that could only be explained by root causes not easily addressed through direct policy changes. We never even considered using quotas to address these differences. We did work to try to understand the causes behind these disparities and address them. This was not an easy task, and we were never able to identify definitive answers. We concluded that subtle factors, not easily isolated, were preventing qualified candidates from achieving their full potential and that was hurting our readiness. These included variables in lives of airmen and guardians before they joined the services, such as the quality of the education they received and their family’s financial and social standing, as well as factors encountered during their time in service, such as unconscious bias. For example, for the same infraction were officers who were predominantly white males more likely to verbally counsel a white male but give a Black male a more formal punishment that would go into his record? We tried to address these factors through training, including programs designed to help airmen and guardians of all backgrounds understand people whose lives might have been very different from their own. Some may have viewed this as an attempt to make white males or white people in general feel guilty. That was never the intent. Empathy is a valuable asset in a leader, at any level. If you understand the people you are leading and appreciate their perspectives, you can lead more effectively. Our training, which consumed very little time , was designed to improve readiness and to ensure that everyone wearing a uniform could perform to their full potential and serve in an organization that valued and respected their contributions to the team. We encouraged conversations that would further these goals, not to make anyone uncomfortable or to feel guilty, but to create stronger teams and leaders. Today those conversations are banned by the Trump administration and Secretary Pete Hegseth as a matter of policy. The federal government and the Department of Defense are engaged in an unprecedented effort to purge all diversity-related content from the record. This campaign appears to be driven by the impression that the Biden administration did nothing but DEI programs and in so doing promoted under-qualified or unqualified people and denied our forces the training they need to be operationally effective. Neither is remotely correct. My priorities as Secretary of the Air Force were crystal clear and articulated at every opportunity: China, China, China. DEI training for specified numbers of hours was mandated in a law passed by Congress during the first Trump administration. No quotas for promotions or senior positions were ever put in place. And no standards were reduced to allow for the recruitment or promotion of unqualified people. The disparities our studies revealed were real and concerning. We worked to address them, but always in ways that were fair to all service members, intended to help everyone reach their full potential, and designed to improve the readiness of the force. I do believe that our limited DEI training, our policies, and our affinity groups, again all of which were initiated during the first Trump administration, had an overall positive effect on the force and on morale and readiness. Of course, revisiting the effectiveness of these steps, including how they affected white males, would be a reasonable action to take. It would be worthwhile to continue collecting data on the impact of the steps we took and to also assess the impact of any changes the Trump administration is making. Unfortunately, that is not the path the new secretary has taken. If the Trump administration merely ended all formal DEI training and initiatives, I wouldn’t be too concerned. They were, after all, never a significant part of what we did. What troubles me most is the attempt to stop all conversations about race and gender. Personal relationships and teams are strengthened by having difficult conversations, conversations that can sometimes make people uncomfortable. Avoiding, or worse banning, those conversations weakens both relationships and teams. Trust, mutual respect and shared values and goals are the foundations of strong teams. All are enhanced by open and candid conversations. Eliminating any discussion of race or gender will have three negative consequences. The Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth are sending a strong message that white males are in charge again and they don’t want to hear anything about gender or racial inequities. Intended or not, that is what is being heard. Conversations I have had with leaders at all levels of the military indicate this is already having a significant impact on the morale and well-being of a large fraction of the force. Second, this is going to have a very negative effect on recruiting and retention that will deny our military the benefit of some of the most capable people in the nation. By the end of the Biden administration, we had met or exceeded all of the Department of the Air Force’s recruiting goals; I would hate to see that trend reversed. People already serving will choose to leave, and those considering service in the military will find other career options. Finally, the changes being implemented will empower the small minority of people who do have conscious gender or racial bias to act on those views. There aren’t many of these people in our military, but I can say from personal experience that they do exist. If the Department of Defense and the nation are to move forward on gender and racial issues, we have to do it together. This means that white males like myself must join conversations that we may find uncomfortable and we must develop and display empathy for people unlike ourselves. That is called leadership. Conversations about race and gender are still going to happen no matter what policies are put in place to outlaw DEI training, ban certain words or eliminate affinity groups. Because of what the Trump administration and Secretary Hegseth are doing those conversations just won’t include white males. That is not going to make our military more united or stronger. It is going to make us weaker.

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