Department of Defense: ‘Diversity is a Strategic Imperative’
The Department of Defense reaffirmed their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion practices in a recent Tweet stating, “Diversity is a strategic imperative critical to mission readiness and accomplishment.”
A recent Executive Order signed by President Biden discloses his administration’s plan to promote equity across all federal agencies.
“[Heads of agencies] shall, within 30 days of the date of this order, ensure that they have in place an Agency Equity Team within their respective agencies to coordinate the implementation of equity initiatives and ensure that their respective agencies are delivering equitable outcomes for the American people.”
Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government
Equity is often described as equality of outcome — a difficult ideal to achieve, even when policies are implemented that “level the playing field.” “Whereas equality means providing the same to all, equity means recognizing that we do not all start from the same place and must acknowledge and make adjustments to imbalances,” according to NACE.
The DOD is ahead of most agencies, having on its own already implemented equity and diversity standards for the United States military, including a consideration to ban the use of gendered terms such as, “yes sir,” and “yes ma’am.”
However, many don’t appreciate the Department of Defense’s hyper-focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion for military personnel. Twitter CEO Elon Musk was one such critic, responding to their Tweet, “Your strategic imperative is defending the United States.”
Others chimed in, including Mark Jeffery who said, “Entirely irrelevant to your mission. Defend America. That’s it.” Geoffrey Miller wrote, “Do you seriously think Russia or China will be more deterred by the U.S. military if our military promotes ‘diversity’ as a strategic priority?”
The military has made other advances toward progressive policy in recent years. Last year, two lawsuits filed by Judicial Watch revealed documents used to train cadets at West Point Academy using components of critical race theory. One training document states, “In order to understand racial inequality and slavery, it is first necessary to address whiteness.”
The Navy also released an instructional training video last year to direct sailors on the proper use of preferred pronouns. Mandatory, military-wide “extremist trainings” which focused on identifying and reporting “extreme” ideas and behaviors, were also implemented in 2021.
Many worry that far from increasing mission readiness, the laser focus on social issues takes resources away from physical training, technology innovation, and reconnoissance in the military.
