Top US general urges greater racial diversity in the military
WASHINGTON (AP) — The US military must widen opportunity and improve advancement for Black service members, who remain vastly underrepresented in some areas, including among Air Force pilots and in the most senior ranks, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.
Army Gen. Mark Milley told a Howard University ROTC commissioning ceremony that diversity is an important strength of the military but is still inadequate.
As an example of the failure to increase racial diversity, Milley said that when the current chief of staff of the Air Force, Gen. Charles Q. Brown, was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1984, only 2% of Air Force pilots were Black. Today, Milley said, the Air Force pilot population remains 2% Black.
Brown, who last summer became the first Black to serve as the chief of a military service, made headlines in June when he posted an emotional video in which he discussed the difficulties he has experienced as a Black member of the Air Force.
He said that as a young pilot he had to work extra hard in order to prove to white supervisors “that their expectations and perceptions of African-Americans were invalid.”
The military as a whole is about 20 percent Black, Milley said, yet only two of 41 fourstar generals are Black.
“Opportunity in our military must be reflective of the diverse talent in order for us to remain strong,” Milley said.
Racial issues have come under increased scrutiny in the military. Efforts by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to combat extremism in the ranks, for example, reflect in large part a concern about white supremacists.
Race gained added attention last year when President Donald Trump criticized the military for considering renaming Army bases that are named after Confederate officers who fought against the Union in the Civil War to preserve the institution of slavery.
Although the military was formally integrated in 1948, each of the services continues to deal with race and diversity problems.