Bruce Fleming, The Capital (Annapolis), June 14, 2009
The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.
The Naval Academy superintendent, Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, echoed him. Everyone understands that “diversity” here means nonwhite skins.
{snip}
The stunning revelation last week was that the Naval Academy had an incoming class that was “more diverse” than ever before: 35 percent minority.
Sounds good, only this comes with a huge price tag. It’s taxpayers who bankroll the military. Yet nobody has asked us if we’re willing to pay this price. Instead we’re being told there is no price to pay at all. {snip}
A “diverse” class does not mean the Naval Academy recruits violinists, or older students (they can’t be 23 on Induction Day), or gay people (who are thrown out) or foreign students (other than the dozen or so sent by client governments).
It means applicants checked a box on their application that says they are Hispanic, African American, Native American, and now, since my time on the Admissions Board of the Academy, where I’ve taught for 22 years, Asians.
Midshipmen are admitted by two tracks. White applicants out of high school who are not also athletic recruits typically need grades of A and B and minimum SAT scores of 600 on each part for the Board to vote them “qualified.” Athletics and leadership also count.
A vote of “qualified” for a white applicant doesn’t mean s/he’s coming, only that he or she can compete to win the “slate” of up to 10 nominations that (most typically) a Congress(wo)man draws up. That means that nine “qualified” white applicants are rejected. SAT scores below 600 or C grades almost always produce a vote of “not qualified” for white applicants.
Not so for an applicant who self-identifies as one of the minorities who are our “number one priority.” For them, another set of rules apply. Their cases are briefed separately to the board, and SAT scores to the mid-500s with quite a few Cs in classes (and no visible athletics or leadership) typically produce a vote of “qualified” for them, with direct admission to Annapolis. They’re in, and are given a pro forma nomination to make it legit.
Minority applicants with scores and grades down to the 300s with Cs and Ds (and no particular leadership or athletics) also come, though after a remedial year at our taxpayer-supported remedial school, the Naval Academy Preparatory School.
{snip}
Once at Annapolis, “diverse” midshipmen are over-represented in our pre-college classes, in lower-track courses, in mandatory tutoring programs and less challenging majors. Many struggle to master basic concepts. (I teach some of these courses.)
{snip} Despite being dragged toward the finish line, minorities graduate at about a 10 percent lower rate than the whole class, which of course includes them (so the real split is greater).
{snip}
Original article
(Posted on June 15, 2009)
Comments
The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.
I thought the purpose of a Navy was being good at oceanic warfare, and I thought the purpose of a Naval Academy was the preparation and grooming of Naval officers.
When did they become workfare for minorities?
Whenever it becomes a priority to recruit/hire people of a specific race, the end result will be that recruits of that race will be lower quality than other recruits on average. In this case, it would be an accurate to say that the best navel academy recruits are the white ones - since only the cream of the crop get in if they are white.
Where I work, there is a “goal” to hire a certain number of blacks. Consequently, black employees are, overall, inferior. They are far more likely to be disciplined or terminated. Just last week they fired one - but they hired another at about the same time. If leftists are actually concerned about “racism” and negative stereotypes about blacks and Hispanics, the last thing they should want would be “goals” and quotas.
Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy
Not training future Naval officers??????
And why does the Naval Academy have a remedial school? Don’t these people end up in charge of Nuclear Powered Carriers and Submarines? OY!
For those who think a diverse Naval Academy is a good idea, I would recommend a study of the Naval Academy of the Austro_Hungarian Empire. In fact, for those who think a vast program of diversity is good for any organization needing disipline I would recommend a general study of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was in general, a sqaubbling, confused, entity of intransigent subjects.
This is NOT how to win wars! For crying out loud. The Fall of Rome comes to mind.And they will be the ones to open fire on American citizens if ordered to do so. Remember that!
The federal obsession with “diversity” at all costs is akin to a diagnosable mental disorder.
The same was true of the Air Force Academy in the 1980’s.
It’s probably even worse today at all the Academies than what I saw during the 1980’s.
We will only learn this lesson when we lose a war.
Our enemies don’t hire and promote on Affirmative Action.
Well, it sounds like they have a winning formula at the Naval Academy. You can’t argue with a guy named “Roughead”.
I can’t wait to see one of the “Diversity” Midshipmen command his Ship onto a sand bar, or into the rocks of a coast.
I have several friends that Graduated the Merchant Marine Academy, which was also a difficult program. They all received Degrees in Engineering.
I am curious to know how any of these Minority Idiots are expected to pass their Math, and Enginering exams, and lead a Crew, when they never had leadership experience?
GOD help the Navy.
“The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.”
I’ve been expecting this for quite some time now. The standards, of course, will be dumbed down, and other manipulations will have to be made, but in the end it will be like the rest of third world America. How apropos. We will have a second rate military, along with everything else, as we degenerate further downward.
Look next for the special ops units like the Green Berets, Delta Force, Long Range Recon Patrol, the Navy Seals, etc., all forced to include non-whites in its ranks.
I’ve written it many times, and I’ll repeat it here once again: Our next big cataclysmic disaster will be our military when it loses a big battle it should easily have won or it will slowly be driven out of an area it should have taken easily.
This Roughead thinks his present concentration on pleasing his politically correct higher ups is enhancing his career.
What a wonderful reward he would receive if he were in charge when the military broke completely along lines of race and ethnicity as Tom Chittum, in his book Civil War II, has forecast.
If you’re reading this, Tom, it looks like you’re some kind of oracle of sorts, because most of what you wrote about in 1996 has come true, with the rest of the overall situation looking as if it’s heading exactly in the direction you told us it would.
This is nothing new, heres my rant. Back in the late 80’s I attended AOCS at NAS Pensacola. I had two black roomates at one point, one night they were talking about AOCS PREP. I asked what it was. It was an abbreviated AOCS, 6 weeks long IIRR (AOCS was 14 weeks), focusing on the academics of the program mostly. It was strictly for minorities and mandatory before going to AOCS. Essentially they were instructed in the same course work and given the exact same tests that would be had in AOCS itself. The rub of this is that the rest of us non-minority types went into the program cold, with no prior knowledge of the academics, testing etc.
There was a big push on at the time to try and make the officer ranks, especially in aviation, proportional to the population. In otherwards, minorities comprised at the time, about 1% of officer aviation slots, they wanted 14%.
I could go on about recruiting, and tell about turning away insanely qualified whites, come back next year. Because all our slots for non minorities were filled. While giving slots to minorities for the same program who barely qualified in the same day.
As far as the training pipeline, if you were a non-minority, dont have a bad test score or bad training flight. Most of the time thats all it took to wash you out of the program. If you were a minority, you would almost have to commit murder to wash out. I could give alot of examples here that i personally witnessed, but my rant is done.
Was the court of Louis the 16th any more reckless in its disregard for the utility of common sense? What is predictable—though, one prays, avoidable—for this country (whose Constitution we revere) makes one tremble.
This guy teaches at the academy, and had the ‘nads to write this? Wow. I am impressed!
This is good. The military knows, from many years of testing enlistees, what the score is on the races. This is forcing the issue. Are you really going to pretend that Shanika and Pedro are fit to command ships?
This is just more of the same. The White guy is getting it in the neck again. However, in the Navy, it’s almost impossible to push these type of low acheivers up beyond a rating of Lt.JG or Lt. In the end, they’d be really hard pressed to make Lt.CMDR.
I wonder what the plan is when one some of these minorities think they want to be fliers, as some of them most certainly will? Are the admirals going to really let them land and take off from carriers at night? Doesn’t the safety of the crew stand for anything anymore?
Tom Iron…
“The Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that “diversity is the number one priority” at the Naval Academy.”
After googling Mr Roughead, it is apparent he has been cursed with one of those dreaded skins that whites are born with. And his number one priority is to increase “diversity” at the Naval Academy? This is accomplished by bypassing whites who are more qualified than the minorities who are admitted.
I have a few questions for Mr roughead, in case someone emails him this thread, like me, and he actually reads it.
Mr Roughead, did the navy have an affirmative action program like this one, when you were admitted into the Naval Academy? If they didnt, and we know they didnt, why would you now ask qualified whites to step aside in favor of less qualified minorities when you werent asked to do the same? Do you think admitting less qualified candidates will help improve the navy? Have you ever heard of any entity, buisness, organization, etc, who improved themselves by bypassing the best man for the job in favor of those less qualified? Do you think that American taxpayers, who pay your salary, support your blatant discrimination based solely on race? Do you think the American people deserve the best military possible or should they be foced by people like you to settle for something less? Shouldnt the stated goal of the Academy be to graduate the best class possible, instead of “diversity is the number one priority”??
One last thing Mr Roughead in case you werent aware of it. IF you stepped down, or your superiors decided to replace you, a minority could fill your position. This would help accomplish your stated goal of increasing diversity at the Academy. Or are you all for diversity unless it is your white skin that is sacrificed?
Bruce Fleming, the author of this article, has taught at the Naval Academy for 22 years, but thinks “s/he”, “(wo)men”, and “he or she” are actually words. He also notes that Asians are now on the list of diverse applicants. Did it ever occur to him that if Asian scores were not included among black and mestizo scores the Academy would half to explain why their minority test scores hover around the retarded range?
The service academies have been admitting women since the mid-seventies. Women are categorically unqualified to be in the military. Why not, then, admit unqualified dysfunctional races and even perverts?
Many years ago, when Bush II was president, comments about Bush’s stupidity were common. I pointed out to these pundits that to enter Officers Candidate training requires an IQ of at least 115, no matter how much political pull the guy has. The U.S. military has found that the duties of an officer require this much intelligence. More than IQ is, of course, required, but if the applicant has less than 115, there is no point in further evaluation.
Apparently, Liberals believe that military Diversity is more important than military competence.
Even the gods can’t help the stupid. (Schiller, my translation)
Shouldn’t the Academy be looking for the best and the brightest for our future leaders in the Navy? Are we going to have affirmative action leaders? There should only be one standard used to qualify ALL applicants. American admirals played a very important role in WWII. They obviously were the best and the brightest not ‘D’ students promoted because of affirmative action. Here are a few who helped win WWII:
Affirmative Action always seems to present a slippery slope. People are hired because of affirmative action and then want to be promoted also based on affirmative action. The New Haven firefighter case is the prime exemple. None of the black AA firefighters passed the promotional test so the test was thrown out based on “diversity.” . That case is currently before the Supreme Court.
AN WHO THINKS AMERICA IS STILL A NATION?
It does not matter where the BLACKs and TANs come from just send them to Annapolis. Pull BLACKS off of death row, off the street, the gutter, homeless shelters where ever they are and tell them their government wants to tell WHITE guys what to do on boats. Who cares anymore what they know, its now all in the skin color. America got what it deserves in an OBAMA.
I can’t wait to see one of the “Diversity” Midshipmen command his Ship onto a sand bar, or into the rocks of a coast.
Worse scenario…Don’t nuke ship commanders have launch codes for their various and sundry weapons? The muslims have an agenda, and they are patient, meaning patient enough to wait for an Academy graduate to get into a position of REAL power.
Women are categorically unqualified to be in the military.
I might be inclined to agree with you as far as women in ground combat is concerned, but I have seen, and flown with, some damn fine female Marine helo pilots.
This is good news cuz America gots to go. So weaken away.
This article does not surprise me. Recently, on a flight from LAX to Dulles I saw a group of about nine black, female middies. There were no other middies on the flight so I wonder if the Naval Academy provides special training / events for its minority groups. Based on my casual observation, most of these middies appeared they would be challenged driving a car in rush hour traffic much less commanding a function on a warship.
We are now faced with the reality that one of the last bastions of conservatism in the US Government, the military, is being undermined by the left as well. These policies are being implemented from the highest levels of the government. The salient question is, on whose behalf???
I bet Bruce Fleming is in deep trouble now. He told the truth, and that is the worst thing you can do in when you’re up against the forces of multiculturalism. I’m sure the knives are being sharpened as I write this.
When everyone is done bitching, ask the question: Are these light and transient causes?
Good God, is here any profession left that is considered too important or sacred to lower the standard to just to satisfy some demographic quota? And for what, diversity? As serious as our national defense is, shouldn’t the standard be as high as possible?
What about the subordinates that will have to experience the most certain arrogance of some minority officers graduating from the academy. The illiteracy, incompetence, the attitude, the stone cold stupidity…What a moral booster!
I’ve already seen it. Young white bright military personnel having to solute some fat Black woman with very little command over the English language full of herself and contempt for Whites.
The world’s on fire and all the Average White wants to know is what’s up with Britney:) Excellence over diversity at all times!
The incoming class has 35% minority. I wonder what it will have on graduation day?
The navy is the shield of the republic. This taxpayer demands that only the best qualify regardless of color.
When Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in June, 1941 Stalin was paralyzed with inaction, as the Red Army was struck with fear, and confusion.
Stalin had begun purges of the professional Officer Corps., in the 1930s, due to his paranoia of a Coup, or Counter Revolution, by loyal White, Czarist Officers, against the Communist Government.
Consequently, when Germany attacked the Soviets in a Blitzkrieg strike, during Operation Barbarosa, the Red Army had suffered catastrophic losses of men, equipment, and land due to the lack of expert Military Training, and experience, under the guidance of competant Senior Officers.
Stalin had done what seems to be happening here, in this case. He put Party Commisars in charge of the Army, which almost led to its total defeat, and surrender of the Soviet Union to Germany.
Likewise, the Liberal Party, and Obama, are putting those hopelessly unqualified in positions of commanding men in combat, as well as in charge of multi-million dollar, or billion dollar equipment, simply to satisfy their Party Ideology of “Diversity”.
This is a recipe for certain disaster, and you don’t need to be an Historian, or current, or former Military person, to come to that conclusion.
When asians,hispanics,muslims and africans are a majority in the US military, it will be over for Native Born White Americans.
So now the US Naval academy will be given a racial preference to eighteen year chinese “American” youth-male and female -whose parents are off the boat from China.
The new mission of the US military is the race replacement of Native Born White Americans.
War is a racket that makes the greedy cheating class in America quite wealthy. In terms… of what they actually do, the admirals and generals are the
If you voted Republican, you vote for the death of Native Born White America.
TO COMMENTER NUMBER 20,
I could not agree with you more. America is getting what she deserves. The Greatest Country to Ever Exist is now run by the worst of the worst, starting with our congress, and senate. White Americans have not just allowed, they have served up ON A SILVER PLATTER everything their forefathers built. to people who can’t even read or write. Will this change? I really don’t know, it might be too late?
Diversity means lowered standards.
Back in the 1980’s, if you saw the students of the Navy Nuclear Power School standing in formation on the circle at NTC Orlando, Florida, virtually everyone was a white male (they didn’t allow females then - for good reason). You might see one or two blacks and one or two asians from time to time, but in general it was 98 - 99% white male. The failure rates were pretty high; but as with the SEALS, they needed people who could run nuclear power plants in a competent manner. From an academic point, it is the toughest school in the Navy. Even the dumbest guy there is still in the top 10% of ASVAB scores.
An officer going to this school will go directly into the “power” section of the school for six months. Then he/she will go to prototype school for another six months then on to their assigned carrier or submarine. For an enlisted person, they must first complete one of three “A” schools that last anywhere from 14 - 24 weeks. Then power and prototype schools. While they learn a lot of the same material, there are two distinct tracks for officers and enlisted. The enlisted school is much more hands on and is the equivalent of an associates degree in Nuclear engineering. The officers program is the equivalent of a Masters degree.
Now, if you were to set foot on board the Charleston Naval Weapons Station, it is much more diverse crowd. The Navy moved the school there in 1996. It is still predominantly white male, but I’m sure there has been no small amount of pressure to get more minorities and women into the program. The failure rates aren’t to the level that they were in the 1980’s and there is a lot more hand holding to push people through the pipeline. I’ve not seen a problem with asian minorities per se, they seem to hold their own. While the (white) women can generally do the academic work, there are high rates of pregnancy. If one is pregnant, that person cannot attend prototype school until junior is born. Then you have the problems of child care because you work rotating 12 hour shifts in prototype school. The problems of pregnancy are compounded once you are out at sea. Twenty years ago, if it was discovered that you are pregnant, you were put off the ship at the next port and flown home. Now, they have to retain you until the 20th week. You can’t work in the power plant, so there are a bunch of pregnant women in admin or “make work” jobs. If an man intentionally breaks his leg, he can be charged with dereliction of duty. A woman who becomes pregnant is given the royal treatment. While it may be cruel and unfair, I wouldn’t be upset if they returned to the era of automatic discharges for pregnant women. Unfortunately, the feminists won’t allow this anymore.
As for the blacks, there are some that pass, but there are a lot who don’t belong there. I have seen (black) Naval Academy graduates who were obviously AA admits that got there heads handed to them at the school. On board a submarine, the only officer who is not nuclear qualified is the supply officer. At the Nuclear power plant or in an air traffic control tower, what do you want, excellence or diversity? If a minority can do the job, outstanding, let him do it. But don’t sandbag the people in operations with those who do not pack the gear to succeed.
I commend Mr. Fleming for having the stones to write the obvious and foretell of the mess we are facing by promoting unqualified people all for the sake of some liberal utopian dream.
Neither nature nor enemy foreign powers care about or are impressed by diversity, multiculturalism or affirmative action.
This is just further confirmation of my belief that no sane young white man should pursue a career in the military. The Chief of Naval Operations has just come out and said whites are not wanted. His honesty should be appreciated, rather than condemned.
Who cares if we lose a few wars as a result; all of our fights are “away games” anyway. Did our loss in Vietnam result in the North Vietnamese army driving tanks down the Washington DC Beltway? Of course not, though that would not be an unwelcome development, given the government antics we have suffered over the last several decades.
It’s really a shame to weaken our armed forces by trying to adhere to a failed and flawed “diversity” agenda. The rules are bent to allow sub-standard candidates in. My prediction: A less ready and less intelligent fighting force. Endgame scenario: we lose but we’re “diverse” by jiminy! A fools gambit, sure to not pay off in the future. Air Force vet here by the way, 78’-82’. No nuclear incidents on my watch but some tense times indeed.
Do we really want someone with an IQ below 85 protecting our country? Military battles are fought high tech equipment today and require a higher level of intelligence than ever before. The US Naval Academy is not the place to try out “diversity, multiculturalism or affirmative action” programs. The Academy needs to set the bar high for every recruit coming in. If it means no Blacks or Hispanics make the cut, so be it.
Regarding Bobby’s dismissal of the Imperial & Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy, it performed heroic service for the Empire. See the US Naval Institute book by the same name for the facts; author Anthony Sokol. It defeated the Danes and the Italians before 1900, who both had superior ships. In WWI, it gave the Allies quite a time in the Med. and fought in China. Remember Von Trapp in The Sound of Music? Austrian submariner. It also explored the Arctic. German was the language used in the Navy.
This is good news. The more the imperial army is filled with incompetent minorities the better it is for us. Some of you are complaining that “we” will lose a war with all these brown incompetents. You fail to realize that it is not your country anymore and that you are behind enemy lines. The govt. and its military is nor your friend or protector. You should hope and pray that it is destroyed, just like the Republican party some of you conservative types foolishy believe just needs to be reformed, but it doesn’t need reforming it needs to be destroyed. Once that false hope and fake alternative is dead and out of the way then maybe a large number of Whites will see the light and wake up to the horror we are up against.
#38 Mike, what you say about the navy of the Austro_Hungarian Empire is entirely true. Nevertheless, there was constant tension because of the many different cultures. The German language did have a somewhat unifying effect.
I retired from the Navy because I got fed up with carrying water for these equal opportunity hand out losers, most are barely literate. Since becoming CNO Roughead has done little or nothing except push diversity, Iv’e worked for the man, he is an idiot.
“I can’t wait to see one of the “Diversity” Midshipmen command his Ship onto a sand bar, or into the rocks of a coast.”
Jeesh! What’s the big deal? If we have an affirmative President what’s wrong with a few AA nuclear attack submarine captains?
After spending 21 years in the Navy, I think I have a right to express an opinion on the subject of multiculturalism in the Navy. I worked with a number of black officers, and I can absolutely state that they are, entirely, human.
One of them was perhaps the smartest, hardest working man I ever worked with. Last I heard, he’d been deep-selected for CDR. Another was entirely average. Another was an idiot. Just like white officers, in fact, and in pretty much the same proportions. Granted, these were guys (this was back in the days before women aviators) who hadn’t gotten any “multicultural” preferences, so they had “earned” their way; but I simply do not believe that the Navy’s officer corps was ever, or needs to be, some elite group of supermen.
With the dummying down of the Navy the chinese now circle our subs, snag our sonar, and make a mockery of our war games. We no longer are the super power. We are affirmative action Navy.
My neighbor’s boy jumped through hoops to make the cut last year. He was straight A’s, scored over 700 on each part of the SAT, and even worked for our Congresswoman to get an appointment to the Naval Academy. He has been complaining about this all year. And wonders what the US Navy will be like in 20 years when these half-wits assume command of it.
Civilisations are not conquered, they commit suicide.
Bruce Fleming is a tenured Academy professor (he can’t be canned for speaking up, unless the laws governing tenure are changed) and this isn’t the first time he’s written about this subject. On another note, I tend to agree with 39. There’s too much damage done already to our own country by our dimwitted, world-policing two-party duopoly without worrying about “defending ourselves” by going around the world destroying countries that didn’t attack us. If the Republican party leaders had concentrated on the interests of its mostly white base, instead of stupidly kissing minority interest groups (e.g. Dubya with hispanics) in the hopes of picking up some diversity votes, it wouldn’t be in such a mess. This is what happens when blindly follows the advice of fake conservatives like Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, Lindsey Graham, Colin Powell, et al. I sure didn’t accept their idiotic PC prescriptions for winning elections. When you sow weeds, don’t be surprised when you reap the results.
48 Anon: “Conservative” Fred Barnes was for many years a Senior Editor at The New Republic, the magazines that liberals have read for years to find out what they should think.
That fellow who commented in #44 is entitled to an opinion, but he doesn’t have the right to flat-out lie. An “opinion” isn’t a fabrication, but is suposed to based on an honest observation of facts.
The fact is that our military has been gaming selection programs to give minorities an edge ever since Truman began to integrate the military. However, today with the leadership openly pledging to achieve “proportional representation” we have reached a new low.
I have never met a minority or female officer whom I trusted to make the right decisions in battle. I would NEVER let my sons serve under one of these, affirmative action, quota officers or NCOs.
Clear thinking citizens must speak out against this false premise of, proportional representation, and instead demand that we move forward to a MERIT based society. Even Blacks should loudly support MERIT based hiring and selection, since they could then be duly honored if they genuinely achieved positions of leadership.
Unfortunately, most minorities don’t care about the long term loss of confidence in our military, or the destruction of the international reputation of our forces. To them, it is just a game where they try to get ever greater concessions from Whitey.
I applied for admission to a service academy in the mid 80’s and was wait-listed until the very last day of eligibility. Prior to completing my application, I met with an officer who told me in no uncertain terms what my chances were for admission among males. White males - 1 in 20; Hispanic males - 1 in 5; black males - 1 in 3. So, the Navy’s “number one policy” is, in fact, a 20 plus year plan that is apparently unsatisfied.
