by JAKE SMITH at dailycaller.com
A number of the Pentagon’s military nominees currently blocked by Republican Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville are full-throated advocates for “diversity” initiatives and other parts of the Biden administration’s agenda to reform the military, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of reports and Pentagon materials.
Tuberville has successfully stonewalled over 300 military nominations in the Senate since February in protest of the Pentagon’s policy that funds female service members’ out-of-state travel to seek an abortion. Many of these high-level nominees have vocally supported the Biden administration’s left-wing agenda, such as supporting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
For example, Air Force Col. Benjamin R. Jonsson, who was selected for the Brigadier General position in January, wrote an op-ed to “white colonels” in 2020 after the death of George Floyd and called on them to address “racial disparity” within Air Force ranks.“
In a meeting with other white colonels, I drew attention to the reality that racial tension remains an important issue to address,” Jonsson wrote. “As white colonels, you and I are the biggest barriers to change if we do not personally address racial injustice in our Air Force. Defensiveness is a predictable response by white people to any discussion of racial injustice.”
“If we do not take the time to learn, to show humility, to address our blind spots around race, and to agree that we are not as objective as we think and our system is not as fair as we think, then our Air Force will not rise above George Floyd’s murder,” he wrote in the op-ed.
Jonsson then recommended that “white colonels” read “White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism” by Robin DiAngelo, and wrote that it is time to “give a damn” about racial issues.
“Col. Jonsson builds a self-fulfilling prophecy for institutional racism when he addresses certain segments of the officer corps based on the color of their skin… this op-ed is disqualifying for his promotion,” William Thibeau, Director of the American Military Project at the Center for the American Way of Life and an Army Ranger veteran, told the DCNF. “When I was in the Army, we would joke that every servicemember bleeds ‘red, white, and blue.’ Officers like Col. Jonsson are nonetheless desperate to convince us of our racial differences.”
Jonsson also said in 2021 that discussions over racial issues were necessary at the highest levels to rid the Air Force of its “own unconscious bias” while he was commander of the 6th Air Refueling Wing of MacDill Air Force Base, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
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