Last weekend, millions of Americans learned that the United States Marine Band, known as “The President’s Own” had to cancel a concert with a bunch of high schoolers. The reason? Because President Trump’s anti-DEI executive actions barred the Marines from performing with, mentoring, and teaching kids of different backgrounds who were musicians.
Of course, the event was salvaged by American veterans who flew in from across the country to play the concert with the kids. It is a sad story with a redeemable end but heralds a new norm in the U.S. Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth continue to hold that diversity and the military don’t go hand in hand.
Many Americans would think that the military is a monolith, and that may have been the case in the past. But in a post 9/11 world, the U.S. military has grown and will continue to grow more diverse in the next 25 years.
Whites make up 74 percent of the veteran population, but that number will be dropping to 63 percent. Women continue to pour into the service, not just because of more open doors but because others won’t go through those doors themselves. The number of Hispanic and Black veterans are increasing as well.
The racial makeup of military service has less to do with “woke” recruiting and more to do with recruiters finding out that the diversification of the American population has meant a diversification of military recruits. It goes without saying that the relationship between race and patriotism are not and have ever been correlated.
Trump and Hegseth seem to think they are and that has resulted in both embarrassing blunders and real-world ramifications. We can all scoff that the Defense Department scrubbed a mention of the Enola Gay. We can roll our eyes after the Air Force reinstated a course on the famed Tuskegee Airmen after removing it for being “woke.” Some of you will claim that the aforementioned concert really isn’t a big deal. But it is. The military knows that in order to keep up recruitment, it has to recruit everyone they can.
And they have to rely on sharing stories of brave Americans who had to not only overcome the challenges of serving in the military but also the obstacles that society and the military enforced to impede them. Trump and the MAGA world have some strange notion that teaching about discrimination, sexism and racism will somehow get people to hate America.
The American veteran class proves that this simply isn’t the case. When Black Americans learn about the Harlem Hellfighters or Tuskegee Airmen that gives them pride to serve knowing a path was paved for them. When female service members learn about the women who broke barriers in aviation, naval commands and combat roles, it pushes them to break more barriers.
I can go on and on, but there is one example that perfectly illustrates how a DEI education won’t make you hate the United States. The Pentagon decided to remove mentions of Jackie Robinson, the great Brooklyn Dodger and civil rights icon. Why? Because it qualified as DEI. Let’s break that down.
Most Americans will agree that the U.S. fought on the right side of history during World War II. Robinson was not able to go to Europe during World War II to fight on the right side of history. While the USA was fighting on the right side of history during the war, Robinson was being court martialed. Why? For refusing to sit at the back of a military bus.
These are two truths of American history. I would venture that most of you would still think the United States did the right thing fighting fascism while also wishing Robinson didn’t have to deal with the racism he experienced in the military and later in Major League Baseball. Congrats, you just became “woke.”
This however, is what the Trump administration would have you believe is the cause of concern. Somehow, a rapidly diversifying fighting force is less capable because it reflects a changing American population? That teaching about veterans who overcame incredible circumstances will make future recruits too ashamed to put on a uniform?
A lot of my Marine buddies will say that the only color that matters is green. It’s not the person, it’s the uniform. They are correct. But Americans now and in the future need to know that a lot of brave men and women had to endure so much and overcome impossible odds to just be considered a uniform.
Jos Joseph is a master’s candidate at the Harvard Extension School at Harvard University. He is a Marine veteran who served in Iraq and lives in Anaheim, Calif.
