Shortly after Pete Hegseth was sworn in as Secretary of Defense, news reports indicated that videos would be pulled from US Air Force training programs after President Donald Trump nixed Diversity-Equity-Inclusion in the federal government.
The order puts a stop to DEI programs and initiatives in government organizations, including the Air Force, which has removed a part of their curriculum that discusses the Tuskegee Airmen in order to comply.The Air Force also removed training courses with videos of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
The move was unsettling and unnecessary, given that DEI was removed to protect all people from racism, not to remove any mention of minorities or women in Air Force history.
The move was excoriated on social media for the insipid political stunt that it was.
Everyone following the developments on social media quickly became aware of the term “malicious compliance”.
When a US Senator from Alabama became aware of the maneuver, the response escalated.
The bureaucrats who use this tactic rely on the old media to convey the narrative. Happily for us, the new media and its reporting and analysis focused intensely on this issue.
And, upon refection, the video is returning to its normal position in the training rotation.
The U.S. Air Force said on Sunday it will resume instruction of trainees using a video about the first Black airmen in the U.S. military, known as the Tuskegee Airmen, which has passed review to ensure compliance with President Donald Trump’s ban on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.Trump, who took office on Jan. 20, has prohibited DEI throughout the U.S. government and the U.S. military. New Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who was sworn in on Friday, has made eliminating DEI from the military a top priority.Reuters reported on Saturday that the video about the Tuskegee Airmen as well as another about civilian women pilots trained by the U.S. military during World War Two, known as “Women Air Force Service Pilots,” or WASPs, were not being taught in basic training at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland pending a review.
Finally, our new Secretary of Defense made the announcement the video was back in its usual rotation.
You can be sure whoever made the initial decision that these history videos needed to be pulled for assessment will explain the thought process to Hegseth in the near future.
Finally, here is a reminder about the special place in both history and President Trump’s heart held by the Tuskegee Airmen.
The Tuskegee Airmen were the first and only Black airmen to fly in World War II, during a time when the U.S. military was segregated and opportunities for Black troops were limited. They were exceptionally skilled pilots, who flew distinctive red-tailed P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang fighters over Europe, becoming known in the process as some of the best bomber escorts in the Army Air Forces. Their combat record was so successful that it helped prompt the newly formed Air Force, and eventually the entire military, to desegregate in the years following World War II.During his first administration, President Trump promoted one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Charles McGee, who was 100 at the time, to brigadier general and honored him as a guest during the 2020 State of the Union. Hours earlier, Trump pinned a brigadier general star on McGee’s right shoulder in an Oval Office ceremony. McGee passed away nearly two years later.“After more than 130 combat missions in World War II, [McGee] came back to a country still struggling for civil rights and went on to serve America in Korea and Vietnam,” Trump said in the 2020 speech. “General McGee, our nation salutes you.”
In conclusion, these stunts might have worked under Trump 1.0. The mainstream media still had power enough to drive and promote narratives.
Welcome to Trump 2.0: “Malicious compliance” disintegrates when exposed to the power of a fully operational new media platform.
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