Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.
Rep. Eli Crane used the derogatory phrase in describing his proposed amendment to a military bill. Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty asked that his words be stricken from the record.
Word choices aside, the more telling quote is this, "You can keep playing around these games with diversity, equity and inclusion. But there are some real threats out there. And if we keep messing around and we keep lowering our standards..."
For those that can't read between the lines, POCs, LGBTQIA+, women, and anyone else that's not a white male, are "lowering...standards".
Let's sit down and read the actual amendment instead of taking out of context a section of some news quote which is likeky already out of context by said news before you shortened it.
An Amendment To Be Offered by Representative Crane of Arizona or
His Designee, Debatable for 10 Minutes
At the end of subtitle G of title X, insert the following:
SEC. 5__. PROTECTION OF IDEOLOGICAL FREEDOM.
Section 2001 of title 10, United States Code, is amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
(c) Protection of Ideological Freedom.--(1) No employee of
the Department of Defense or of a military department,
including any member of the armed forces, may compel, teach,
instruct, or train any member of the armed forces, whether
serving on active duty, serving in a reserve component,
attending a military service academy, or attending a course
conducted by a military department pursuant to a Reserve
Officer Corps Training program, to believe any of the
politically-based concepts referred to in paragraph (4).
(2) No employee of the Department of Defense or of a
military department, including any member of the armed forces
may be compelled to declare a belief in, or adherence to, or
participate in training or education of any kind that promotes
any of the politically-based concepts referred to in paragraph
(4) a condition of recruitment, retention, promotion, transfer,
assignment, or other favorable personnel action.
(3) The Department of Defense and the military departments
may not promote race-based or ideological concepts that promote
the differential treatment of any individual or groups of
individuals based on race, color, sex, or national origin,
including any of politically-based concepts referred to in
paragraph (4).
(4) A politically-based concept referred to in this
paragraph is any of the following:
(A) Members of one race, color, sex, or national
origin are morally superior to members of another race,
color, sex, or national origin.
(B) An individual, by virtue of his or her race,
color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist,
sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or
unconsciously.
(C) An individual's moral character or status as
either privileged or oppressed is necessarily
determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national
origin.
(D) Members of one race, color, sex, or national
origin cannot and should not attempt to treat others
without respect to race, color, sex, or national
origin.
(E) An individual, by virtue of his or her race,
color, sex, or national origin, bears responsibility
for, or should be discriminated against or receive
adverse treatment because of, actions committed in the
past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or
national origin.
(F) An individual, by virtue of his or her race,
color, sex, or national origin, should be discriminated
against or receive adverse treatment to achieve
diversity, equity, or inclusion.
(G) An individual should feel discomfort, guilt,
anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on
account of his or her race, color, sex, or national
origin.
(H) Such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work,
fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial
colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by
members of a particular race, color, sex, or national
origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex,
or national origin.
(5) Nothing in this subsection shall be construed as
compelling any individual to believe or refrain from believing
in any politically-based concept referred to in paragraph (4)
in their private and personal capacity.''.
Or you know, he's talking about actually lowering the standards which is the policy being discussed. Whether or not you think it's worth lowering admittance standards to allow more women, LGBT, POCs to join and improve diversity, at least be honest with what's being argued.
There's been ongoing debate on lowering standards, mostly for allowing more women into combat roles. While barring these groups entirely from certain roles is obviously wrong, changing and lowering requirements doesn't seem right either.
No one is lowering standards. Affirmative action means that when all other things are equal, prefer the candidate who is underrepresented in the field.
How often do they get two candidates that are exactly equal? If they're giving a benefit to people underrepresented, it needs to be worth something.
And we've been constantly lowering standards, unrelated to affirmative action. There was a time when being a high-school graduate meant something. Now it's easy to get through college, and completely necessary because if you don't people will assume you're the sort of person who can't even get through college.
This is not about affirmative action. There are efforts to lower standards, separate from affirmative action. Maybe not for LGBT or POC but women are held to different physical standards in the military.
Women have been allowed in combat positions since around 2015. It's been a slow integration and there's very few, because of the exact point I made that the physical standards and training are very difficult for most women.
And that is more or less what is going on. Recruitment numbers are down across the board between people not wanting to be sexually assaulted and commit crimes against humanity coupled with a general understanding that recruiters are lying sacks of shit who just need you to sign the binding contract.
Women were an easy target between general misogyny among conservatives and "Well, they are women so they are weaker". And the long game is "okay, only people in combat roles need this level of physical fitness. Just like only people who aren't on the front line need to know how to read". And that is going to spread to men because "women forced us to lower our standards" all while giving the military a way to even recruit the people who are dumb enough to sign the paperwork.
It's not necessarily a bad idea to lower their standards in general, but it seems unfair to reject a man on the basis that he's too weak when they would have accepted a woman that's just as strong. If strength matters, then only the few women who are strong enough should be let in. If it doesn't matter, then men shouldn't be rejected for not being strong enough.
My guy, the military is nothing but a bunch of people running around in body armor shooting people. The physical requirements for all genders are anachronistic at best.