Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, the superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, delivered a stirring message to cadets and cadet candidates after racial slurs were discovered at the Air Force Academy Preparatory School earlier this week: “If you can’t treat someone with dignity and respect, then you need to get out.”
Silveria convened a meeting of Air Force Academy cadets, Air Force Academy Preparatory School cadet candidates, faculty, staff, and Air Force Academy leadership Thursday to deliver the message, and encouraged those in attendance to take out their cell phones to record his words.
“If you can’t treat someone with dignity and respect, then you need to get out,” he said. “If you can’t treat someone from another gender, whether that’s another man or woman, then you need to get out. If you demean someone in any way, then you need to get out, and if you can’t treat someone from another race or a different color skin with dignity and respect, then you need to get out.”
On Monday, racial slurs written on five black Air Force Academy cadet candidates’ dorm message boards were discovered, according to the Air Force Times.
The words “go home n****r” were written on a white board outside one black cadet candidates’ room. The cadet candidates’ mother posted a photo of the message on Facebook.
The Air Force Academy is investigating the incident.
In his five-minute-long speech to cadets and cadet candidates, Silveria urged them to respond to instances of racism with a “better idea,” and said the Air Force Academy would be “tone deaf” not to fight back against these sorts of incidents in light of other events. He noted last month’s violence in Charlottesville, Va., as well as the shooting of a young black man in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014, and the more recent national anthem protests in the NFL.
“I also have a better idea, and it’s about our diversity, and it’s the power of diversity, the power of the 4,000 of you, and all the people that are on the staff tower and lining the glass, the power of us as a diverse group,” Silveria said. “The power that we come from all walks of life, that we come from all parts of this country, that we come from all races, we come from all backgrounds, gender, all makeup, all upbringing. The power of that diversity comes together and makes us that much more powerful. That’s a much better idea than small thinking and horrible ideas.”
