And yet, the U.S. military provides a happy home for right-wing nutjobs - white supremacists, militia loons, and so on.
They must be terrorist fist jabs.
Seriously? If white cadets had raised their fists, there would be no hint of an investigation. Nada. Despite the white-feared black raised fist in history, there is no indication that this is a “partisan political activity”.
It is pretty sad when a fist pump or raised swords by cadets is considered partisan and political.
Who could have guessed that these women would find themselves subjected to heightened scrutiny, their every action and gesture placed under an electron microscope for the most fleeting, molecular trace of conduct that white racists can call racist?
I agree that the military should be a place free of political activity. As someone who was in for many years, I know that, unfortunately, it is not. I don’t know if this group of women were acting with political intent, if they where then there should be some sort of sanction. I just wish that people where as quick to demand accountability from officers and enlisted when they express political beliefs on the right.
While I’m at it, I also miss the days when men who served in the special forces where humble about their actions, and weren’t so quick to turn their service into book and movie deals. Now get the hell off my lawn!
I do not know anything about what they were thinking but posters should really back off and let the school its job.
It’ not a good thing to have done–I hardly think it’s a big deal, but it’s a politically charged act and the military has strict rules about it
Glad to see so many african american women serving as officers
This is fucking stupid. A raised fist is symbol of solidarity. You can investigate it all you want, but there are many, many, many different ways this can be interpreted by the people raising their fists and by those who observe the act. Good luck proving anything other than providing further evidence that this is indeed an extremely racist country.
Religious fundies and Dominionists, too. From what I’ve read you keep your mouth shut at the Air Force Academy if you think otherwise. Pretty disturbing.
If it was Trump and his KKK and skin head followers saluting Hitler and Putin - the establishment would say political correctness is infringing on our individual ritghts and freedoms.
The Republicans will own the next civil war and the break up of America! The revolution is coming thanks to white right wing bigotry!
This a wedding as indicated by the bride and the groom coming out of a church, and fellow officers have often celebrated a comrade and his lady in such a manner.
I trust the Klan to know…can we have the Donald call 'em up and ask?
The Air Force is unique in that respect. The Army in particular gets a major bug up its ass whenever it finds out it has active Klansman or the like in the ranks.
The good folk at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are quite good about standing up to the fundamentalists who think military service is for compelling other members to a particular faith.
And broadcast Rush Limbaugh on AFCN every day, all over the world.
Shirker Rush on AFN? Things have really changed, we had Chris Noel.
Well, as long as the craziness is confined to the people who run the Nuclear Deterrence Operations aspect of the military I guess I won’t worry too much. : )
Well, if your job is to enable political leadership to convince unfriendly nuclear powers that you’ll incinerate their countries and irradiate the shit out of everyone with the misfortune to live downwind if they launch against us, you can see how a certain penchant for zealotry and apocalyptic thinking would be helpful.
Well, you can’t ask a Hamlet type to incinerate cities when asked to for a living. Did you happen to have seen a segment on the people who staffed the nuclear missile silos that was on (I think) 60 Minutes in (I think) the mid- or early Eighties? (Took a quick google but didn’t find it.) They asked this one fresh-faced kid who’d have been one of the ones turning the launch keys if he ever thought about how millions of people would die because of his actions if it ever came to that. He said some stuff about how it’s a huge responsibility and finished strong by saying of this responsibility “That’s what I’d call real job satisfaction.” Basically he answered “No” and added a lot of extra syllables, and it was obvious that The Big Questions were not an important part of the training. It couldn’t be, really. They don’t call it MAD for no reason.
Were any of these cadets even alive when the raised fist was a Black Power thing? I’m guessing it was something they saw in 300 or Top Gun.