Black female cadets point to change at West Point
WEST POINT, N.Y. — The cadets preparing to jubilantly toss their caps in the air at the U.S. Military Academy’s graduation ceremony Saturday include 34 black women, a record number that’s a sign of concerted efforts to diversify West Point’s Long Gray Line
West Point remains mostly white and mostly male. The 34 women comprise a thin slice of the roughly 1,000 cadets in the Class of 2019. Sometimes, they’re the only women of color in a classroom. Still, cadets said they’re proud to be part of a milestone at the historic academy after four years of testing their limits.
“I just showed myself and those who thought I couldn’t do it initially that yes, I can,” said senior cadet Stephanie Riley, of Jacksonville, Florida. “And not just, ‘Yes, I can.’ I can show other little girls that yes, you can come to West Point. Yes, you can do something that maybe the rest of your peers aren’t actually doing. And yes, you can be different from the rest of the group.”
Riley was among the black female cadets who recently posed for pregraduation photos in their gray uniforms, holding out ceremonial sabers. The pictures — part of a tradition for graduating cadets — were posted widely online and became a symbol of West Point’s increasing diversity.
“I was more excited to just take the picture because it means that we’re all graduating, and it was great to be there with a lot of my sisters who have been there for me in very tough times during summer training and during the academic year,” said senior cadet Gabrielle Young, from Hopkins, South Carolina. “I didn’t expect it to have the impact that it did around the country.”
While West Point challenges every cadet, experiences can be different for black females.
Riley said people would look to her for comment during classroom discussions about race or slavery. Young said she’s acutely aware of how she carries herself and how she’s perceived by different people.
“I feel like in some ways that I do have to prove myself a little bit more, prove that I belong here. And even a classmate told me, I think our freshman year, that I only got in because I was a black female,” said Young, one of the few in her class chosen for medical school.
West Point boosted efforts to recruit women and blacks after being told to diversify in 2013 by thenArmy Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno. The academy changed its marketing approach and opened a diversity office. Admissions officials increased outreach to metropolitan areas like New York City, Atlanta and Detroit.
The class graduating Saturday includes 223 women, the largest number since the first female cadets graduated in 1980. The 110 African Americans poised to graduate are an all-time high and double the number from 2013. The class includes the largest number of Latinos, 88.
“I don’t think I would trade this experience for anything in the world,” said Young, who will study to become a doctor. “I know that I’ve accomplished a lot, and I know that I’m prepared for whatever.”