Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin insisted Wednesday that the Pentagon does not embrace critical race theory, reiterating comments he made during a recent congressional hearing as Republican lawmakers grilled him about the “divisive” philosophy.
Austin acknowledged that some students at military institutions have been required to study material on the theory but claimed that it isn’t something the Defense Department espouses.
“You’ve heard me say that critical race theory is not something that this department teaches, professes, embraces. You’ve also heard a couple of people at academic institutions say that they have required this to be reading for their students in specific courses,” Austin said during a Wednesday press conference with Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley. “But because that is the case does not mean that this department embraces this theory.”
House Republicans previously questioned Austin about critical race theory in a June 23 Armed Services Committee hearing, where Milley was also present, after reports revealed that it and adjacent concepts such as “systemic racism” and “white rage” have been part of course curricula at the U.S. Military Academy.
“This type of teaching, that is rooted in Marxism, that classifies people along class lines, an entire race of people as oppressor and oppressed. I cannot think of anything more divisive and more destructive to unit morale,” said Florida Rep. Michael Waltz, who is himself a former Green Beret.
“This is not something that the United States military is embracing and pushing and causing people to subscribe to,” Austin replied. “Now, whether or not this was some sort of critical examination of different theories, I don’t know.”
Austin pushed further Wednesday, saying he doesn’t want officials to get “distracted with the critical race conversation.”
“This department will be diverse, it will be inclusive, and we’re going to look like the country that we support and defend. Our leadership will look like what’s in the ranks of our military,” he said.
“We’re not going to spend too much time debating the merits of this theory or any other theory. We’re going to stay focused on making sure that we create the right force to defend this country and promote our values,” Austin continued.
Milley was also asked to follow up his June 23 testimony with a definition and explanation about the importance of teaching about white rage. Milley said during the hearing that he sought to understand the concept, prompting significant blowback from some Republicans and conservative commentators.
“I’m not going to address specifically white rage or black rage, or Asian rage, or Irish rage, or English rage, or German rage, or any other rage,” Milley said Wednesday, adding later, “I do think it’s important that we as a professional military not only understand foreign countries and foreign cultures and foreign societies. That’s important that we do that, but we also need to understand our own society and understand the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and the society they’re coming from.”
Critical race theory, which holds that the U.S. is inherently racist and that skin color is used to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, continues to divide lawmakers, academics, and parents of public school children. Republican Sen. Mike Lee asserted in a recent op-ed that it threatens to take the country “backward in time,” and Republican Sen. Tom Cotton has been a vocal opponent of its use at military institutions.
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Others dismiss the Right’s concerns, with one of the theory’s founding scholars, University of Alabama law professor Richard Delgado, calling it a Republican “boogeyman.”
“It’s a name for everything they love to hate,” Delgado said in June. “It makes them feel things are slipping away and not in control anymore, that the country is changing.”
