A troubling notion has gripped some Black current and former service members: The U.S. military — long seen as a pathway to opportunity in Black communities — seems to be drifting backward, toward a more segregated time.
“[Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth] came into office promising to turn the military into a color-blind meritocracy — it is neither color-blind nor a meritocracy,” Theodore Johnson, a former U.S. Navy commander, told Capital B. “In fact, it is demonstrably less of both, as recent firings and denied promotions attest to.”
These actions, he and others maintain, continue a pattern of targeting Black contributions to the military, and raise fresh concerns about the future of diversity in the ranks. Black Americans make up some 17% of active-duty military personnel, compared with 14% of the U.S. population.
The highest levels of military leadership, Johnson added, “appear more like country-club nepotism” than selection of the best woman or man for the job regardless of race or ethnicity. He was referring to NBC News’ recent reporting that Hegseth has “taken steps” to block or stall the promotions of at least a dozen Black and female senior officers across the four branches of the military.
In response to this reporting, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-New York, who sits on the committee with legislative oversight of the Pentagon, has called for more information about the claims that have been made about Hegseth.
The New York Times also has reported that Hegseth blocked two Black and two female officers from being promoted to one-star generals. This move has prompted some to ask whether he has the legal authority to take such action. The revised slate, which is being reviewed by the White House and will then go to the Senate for approval, is made up mostly of white men.
In a statement, members of the Democratic Women’s Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus called the decision “outrageous and wrong,” saying that the officers had “decades of exemplary service” and warning that the move reflects a broader effort to undermine women and people of color in the military.
Sean Parnell, the U.S. Department of Defense’s chief spokesperson, told Capital B in a statement that this reporting is “fake news from anonymous sources who have no idea what they’re talking about, and are far removed from actual decision-makers within the Pentagon.” He added that, under Hegseth, “military promotions are given to those who have earned them. Meritocracy, which reigns in this Department, is apolitical and unbiased.”
The controversy over promotions arrives as tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalate. President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” if Iran didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz. A two-week ceasefire in the war, which Black Americans overwhelmingly oppose, was called 90 minutes before the deadline.
“This president is unfit, unwell, and unhinged,” Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP, said on Tuesday, when the civil rights group for the first time in its history urged using the 25th Amendment to remove a president from office. “The rhetoric and behavior we are witnessing from Trump isn’t just alarming, it’s dangerous.”
‘Just par for the course now’
A former Army lieutenant colonel, who spoke with Capital B on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation because he conducts work with the Defense Department, said that these latest developments regarding Hegseth come as no surprise to him.
“What’s most shocking about the whole thing is that what was formerly the quiet part is now [being done] out loud and unashamedly,” he said. “A year and a half ago, we saw a number of capricious firings and early retirements, and [Hegseth’s most recent move] is in line with all of that. This is just par for the course now.”
The Trump administration over the past year has frequently sparked controversy around its treatment of Black officers and recruitment strategies designed to bring in more minority service members, fueling fears that military diversity may erode in the years ahead.
Hegseth last September unveiled 10 new directives intended to pivot the military’s culture away from what he called “woke garbage” and toward a “warrior ethos.”
Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s chief of staff, told Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll last summer that Trump wouldn’t want to stand next to a Black woman officer at events, according to the New York Times. The exchange is said to have occurred after Driscoll selected Maj. Gen. Antoinette R. Gant, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, to take command of the Military District of Washington. (Buria has denied this account as “completely false.”)
And, without warning, Trump last February fired Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Concern extends beyond personnel decisions. The administration has also attempted to scrub Black military history from federal websites, at the same time that it has sought to reinstall Confederate memorials.
This environment, the former Army lieutenant colonel said, leaves him deeply uneasy about the message being broadcast not only within the ranks but also to the next generation. Questions of who is valued and who isn’t no longer appear so ambiguous.
“I’m a father, and my kid — for better or worse — wants to follow in my footsteps,” he said, before adding that he would counsel against joining because the military isn’t what it used to be. “When this administration came to town and started getting rid of all the ‘woke’ things, you saw a number of incredibly talented officers, who did exactly what the service told them to do, being discounted solely because of how they look.”
He said that he has also heard stories of cream-of-the-crop Black students walking away from West Point and other service academies, unwilling to step into the career that increasingly seems to be waiting for them.
This growing sense of alarm has been echoed in other conversations with Black former service members.
“We have this saying: We don’t see color — we see Army green. I really believed that. I felt that, because the military used to be a hotbed of white nationalism,” Tavorise Marks, who served in the Army for 15 years, told Capital B in December. “But I think that we’re going back in that direction now.”
He also noted that at his barbershop, which is across the street from the Fort Lee/Fort Gregg-Adams Army base, about 30 miles from the Virginia capital of Richmond, he has heard Black soldiers mull over whether to retire in the next year or just decide not to reenlist.
Many, he and others say, have reached the same conclusion: They don’t see a future for themselves in the military — at least not in the current political climate.
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