In the most awkward demonstration yet of the critical race theory controversy, the nation’s two top military chiefs, one white and one black, clashed on Wednesday over the importance of teaching the theory of “white rage.”
At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon budget, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who is black, stepped away from critical race theory when asked about its teaching at West Point, the U.S. military academy.
“This is not something that the United States military is embracing and pushing and causing people to subscribe to,” Austin said.
Our enemy’s bullets don’t care about the color of our skin, just the flag on our shoulder.
Critical Race Theory is incredibly dangerous and destructive to morale and unity — and SHOULD NOT be taught to our military’s future leaders. Period. https://t.co/i3ILkcyh1e
— Rep. Mike Waltz (@michaelgwaltz) June 23, 2021
But Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who is white, gave an impassioned endorsement and even compared it to learning about Marxism.
“I want to understand white rage, and I’m white. And I want to understand it,” he said. “It is important that the leaders, now and in the future, do understand it. I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?”
Gen. Mark Milley responds to Rep. Matt Gaetz on Extremism & Critical Race Theory: “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being ‘woke’ or something else.” pic.twitter.com/P1x6vg9FUr
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 23, 2021
A congressional official watching the whiplash on critical race theory said, “It’s very confusing.”
Milley’s comments went viral first, especially because he made the point that the military is not trying to hide from the issue and hasn’t become “woke” on it.
“I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned and noncommissioned officers, of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there,” he said.
Austin’s comments were to Florida Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, who said that critical race theory and “white rage” are being taught at West Point.
He referenced a course taught by guest lecturer Carol Anderson of Emory University titled “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage.” She has referred to former President Donald Trump, Republicans, and their issues platform as nationalist.
And he’s a white nationalist. The GOP’s platform is, therefore, white nationalism. The destruction of the sinews of democracy and the American people–California and Puerto Rico abandoned, COVID-19, HR 1 and 4 + HEROES ACT blocked by McConnell, no impeachment–part of the plan. https://t.co/BBo2y47B9m
— Carol Anderson (@ProfCAnderson) August 25, 2020
“I would encourage you, I would demand that you get to the bottom of what is going on in the force and further for what it means for civilian oversight of the military when our future military leaders are being taught that the Constitution and the fundamental civilian institutions of this country are endemically racist, misogynist, and colonialist, and therefore, it is their duty to resist them,” Waltz said.
He added that West Point should not be teaching “understanding whiteness and white rage.”
Austin added, “As you have described it, it certainly sounds like that’s something that should not occur,” though he said he wants to know the “specifics” of the course, for which Waltz had a brochure.
