Get out!: Lt General rains hell on Air Force Academy after racist messages were left...

[babylonsister]

‘Get out!’: Lt General rains hell on Air Force Academy after racist messages were left on black cadets’ rooms
Elizabeth Preza
28 Sep 2017 at 18:50 ET


Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria, superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), addressed cadets on Thursday in a powerful speech about treating one another with “dignity and respect” after racial slurs were written outside five black Air Force cadet candidates’ dorm rooms.

One message—which was posted on Facebook by a young cadet candidate’s mom—read, “go home n**ger.”

“There is absolutely no place in our Air Force for racism,” Silveria told the Air Force Times, adding, “I‘ve said it before: the area of dignity and respect is my red line. Let me be clear, it won’t be crossed without significant repercussions.”

An clear he was. In a speech Silveria gave to Air Force cadets Thursday, the general addressed the incident head-on; during the roughly 5-minute lecture, the superintendent resoundingly denounced racism, and demonstrated the kind of moral clarity one would expect from a leader.

“If you’re outraged by those words, then you’re in the right place,” Silveria said of the racist graffiti. ”That kind of behavior has no place at the prep school, it has no place at USAFA and it has no place in the United States Air Force.”

“You should be outraged not only as an airman, but as a human being,” he added.

more...

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/09/get-out-lt-general-rains-hell-on-air-force-academy-after-racist-messages-were-left-on-black-cadets-rooms/

[gopiscrap]

1. there's no place for that shit, specialy in the military

[malaise]

2. Get thee to the greatest page

Bravo Lt General

[keithbvadu2]

3. A sign of right wing super duper evangelical Christianity (the messages, not his speech)

A sign of right wing super duper evangelical Christianity (the messages, not his speech)

[whathehell]

27. Huh?.. Racism is of no particular religion..

I don't know where you're getting that.

[keithbvadu2]

29. The Academy is known for its extreme Christianity.

[whathehell]

43. I know

and that would turn me off in a NY minute, but I don't see that as a source of racism.

[keithbvadu2]

44. The perps seemed to think it the thing to do with all that super duper Christianity.

The perps seemed to think it the thing to do with all that super duper Christianity.

Not necessarily a 'source' but a feeling by them that racism is ok.

[whathehell]

47. Sounds like your perception..

but one must be careful about making accusations on such a subjective basis. Anyone can have a "feeling" about anything.

[Hortensis]

31. +100, but it overlaps hugely with some types of religion, such as fundamentalist anything.

Has to do with the personalities of the believers themselves. People around the planet, those who have choice of course, attend churches that tell them what they want to hear.

Interestingly, polls have shown that the people of Colorado Springs, in spite of the influx of right-wing Christian extremism, are overall less religious than most cities. Whether CS, with the Air Force Academy, is the hotbed of Christian dominionism plotting it's made out to be would require knowing what progress those groups have made, and their leaders aren't saying.

[uponit7771]

32. Air force known for white evangelical institution

[TexasProgresive]

4. Thank you, General.

[brush]

10. Now that's a leader.

There's no hope for trump though.

[TomCADem]

12. Ditto. None of this, "There many sides, many sides..."

nt

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

5. Good for him

Think Drumpf would have the cajones to say the same?

[Leith]

17. I Don't Think He Has Cajones At All

He's more of a fat Ken doll.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

18. Careful

You're going to get reported for body shaming.

[Leith]

19. Okay

I'm sorry, Ken.

[keithbvadu2]

45. Good one!

[Kaleva]

6. Trump would have said there are many sides to this.

And several of the people who wrote those messages are good folks.

[mountain grammy]

7. The Dotard Commander in Chief would disagree..

He would say, many sides do it.

[onetexan]

8. Glad the general is being tough with these students @AFA

it needs to be nipped in the bud.

[CanonRay]

9. Notice that none of the perps have come forward

As the honor code requires. Bet they turn out to be Evangelicals. Fucking cowards.

[gratuitous]

13. That occurred to me

What I know about the military and about military academies could be engraved on the head of a pin with room to spare. But don't the service academies have a strict honor code that requires the person who did this to come forward voluntarily? After the General's dressing down, none of these gutless racists had the nerve to step forward. They better hope none of their comrades turn them in.

[SeattleVet]

16. Yes, they do.

And it would require the person that did it to step forward, and also anyone that knew about who did it to speak up.

When I was in the USAF there was a sort of hierarchy of respect among us enlisted for the officers. At that time, being an Academy graduate actually meant something, and they received a lot more respect as a butterbars 2nd lieutenant than someone that got a commission right out of college. (The most respected were those that had risen up through the enlisted ranks prior to getting a degree and commission, with the Academy grads behind them, then the frat boys.)

With the complete takeover of the Academy by the evangelicals, the level of respect that used to be exhibited has fallen.

[gratuitous]

23. Helpful, thanks

I appreciate the information from someone who's been there.

[Plucketeer]

33. As an Air Force vet

I'm angered and embarrassed that my branch of the service is being permeated with the influence of the Evangelicals!

[Major Nikon]

14. I wouldn't expect anyone who did this to have any honor

As an officer, it's a bit more difficult to hide those kinds of character flaws over the course of an entire career. Eventually they will slip up and find themselves on the outside looking in.

[spanone]

11. K&R...

[Amaryllis]

15. very impressive. Calm and measured; much more effective than if he'd been angry but he left no doubt

that the behavior would not be tolerated, and what he expected.

[DoubleAgentOrange]

20. Ugh!

That's what happens when you put Roy and Boy Moore in charge.

[ecstatic]

21. disgusting. We all hoped millenials and whatever came after would be

past the racism thing. I'm not painting a broad brush, I don't think the majority of them are like that. I'm just saying I had higher hopes for future generations.

[burrowowl]

22. Go General!

[Midnight Writer]

24. The Lt. General wants unity. Trump wants divisive chaos.

[UCmeNdc]

25. This is the result of Trump's leadership

Trump makes being a Racist normal. Diversity is bad in Trump's America.

[Bluepinky]

26. Lt. Gen. Silveria sounds Presidential--this is what a true leader says.

[waltben]

28. That's MY USAF - the first branch to be desegregated and still shows it.

[DrDan]

30. ". . . and it has no place in the White House."

[hibbing]

34. You HAVE to watch the video

I don't know anything about this guy but damn, that was straight fire. His comments could be applied to the current part time resident of the White House. You need to get out!


Peace

[iluvtennis]

35. As an Air Force vet, I applaud the General on this stance. I can honestly say that the AF and

the military overall doesn't tolerate racism - all kinds of regulations against. But, do people in military fell that way, of course as they are just a microcosm of our society overall. The thing with the military is that if you feel that way, you have to zip it up and keep it to yourself.

And I agree with the General that is they feel that way, they need to leave the military. The military is all about command structure, if you balk at someone's orders cause of racism, then it can break the whole system of command structure.

[niyad]

36. about time. and I am still waiting for all the evangelical bible-thumpers

to be tossed out of there. and to address the sexism.

[Blue_Tires]

37. kick

[JoeStuckInOH]

38. This guy has clearly never been in a port-o-potty (aka: "shitter") in a Afghanistan, then.

I'm not condoning these racist sentiments in any way, and it's especially heinous to be put into in someone's living quarters. But for any of you service members on here that has been to the sandbox, you all know what I mean. Every shitter in every FOB/COP/Airbase in Afghanistan/Iraq is literally PLASTERED with racist, homophobic, sexual, or downright disturbing messages and drawings.

I think it's mostly the consequence of making sure every 17 & 18 year old PFC/FNG is equipped with a sharpie at all times... "Hey, I'm stuck here on the toilet for the next several minutes and no one can see what I'm up to. Let me write some fucked-up shit on the walls to pass the time..."

[meow2u3]

39. You tell'em, General Silveria!

That's how to put racists and other bigots in their place!

[zipplewrath]

40. Some details

Near as I can tell, this was not at the Academy per sea, but actually at an associated "prep school", which I take as some sort of remedial school for folks who actually have not yet been accepted to the Academy itself .

That said, I know nothing of the man speaking, but he was at least very clear. And he seemed to understand his audience. I particularly like the "take out your cell phones" bit. Nothing like delivering a message in a form that will be obtained and remembered.

[workinclasszero]

41. Thank God racism has no place in the USAF, it didn't when I was in 30 years ago either

Sadly today it has a home in the commander-in-chiefs oval office at the White House though.

[Mustellus]

42. And when the President tweeted that trans Patriots were to be purged....

... within a half an hour, I got an email from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force:

"Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein said that he and Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson wanted to "emphasize that all Airmen will be treated with dignity and respect as we work through the potential policy changes" proposed by the president."

(Well, everybody got the email. I still work for them.) That's about as close to "f u" as a senior officer can come.

The current status is its under study, and any found critical to the national defense will get to continue to serve. I suspect, in 6 months or so, it will be quietly announced that all our trans Patriot brothers and sisters are critical to the national defense....

smiles... as much as I can in the current situation.

[politicaljunkie41910]

46. Damn that was powerful. You go General. You got my respect.

[RhodeIslandOne]

48. A very sad update

http://gazette.com/article/1614770?TC_SC_REF

Air Force Academy finds cadet candidate responsible for racist messages

An Air Force Academy cadet candidate once thought the victim of racial slurs at the preparatory school on campus was actually the vandal who scrawled the threatening messages across the note boards outside his room and the dwellings of classmates.

The academy confirmed that finding Tuesday afternoon, and stood by a stern speech given by its top general in the wake of the incident. Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria gathered cadets and staff members for a speech that has gone viral in videos posted across the internet. He said that those who can't respect others "need to get out."

"Regardless of the circumstances under which those words were written, they were written, and that deserved to be addressed," Silveria said in a Tuesday email. "You can never over-emphasize the need for a culture of dignity and respect - and those who don't understand those concepts, aren't welcome here."