by Eric Lendrum
The United States Navy’s official curriculum is set to include new books on “anti-racism” and “gender politics” that will further push the message of social justice in America’s military ranks, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
Of the 37 books included in the full reading list, 16 books are listed under the category of “personal and leadership development.” Of these 16, four of them deal directly with social justice; among the titles are How to be an Anti-Racist, The New Jim Crow, and Sexual Minorities and Politics. These four stand out in particular against the other 33, which focus on the more traditional subjects such as military strategy and the history of the Navy.
The inclusion of far-left propaganda was criticized by Brent Sadler, a former Navy officer who currently serves as a senior fellow for naval warfare at the Heritage Foundation. Sadler said that “these reading lists should be making our sailors and officers better sailors and officers on ships at sea, ready to be effective in combat but also in great power competition,” but that the inclusion of these titles “suffers a real intellectual dishonesty.”
Although the current list is only meant for professional development, it is not yet required reading for sailors. But it is possible that such titles could become required reading in the future, potentially being used as part of the curriculum at the nation’s three naval educational institutions: The U.S. Naval Academy, the Naval War College, and the Naval Postgraduate School.
One Navy officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the inclusion of these titles was only due to mounting pressure from congressional Democrats to force social justice and identity politics into the military, saying that “you couldn’t not include that today and not have every Democrat on House Armed Services [Committee] glued on you.”
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Eric Lendrum reports for American Greatness.
Photo “Navy Ships” by Official U.S. Navy Page. CC BY 2.0.
To be clear, you’re … *against* these sailors learning about the very significant and VERY real problems of racism and gender and LGBTQ discrimination in America?
You *don’t* want them to read a book that is literally titled “How to Be an Anti-Racist”?
You don’t think there are some crucially important and relevant lessons in a book like that? You are aware that, just yesterday, a white man gunned down eight people in Atlanta, the majority of them Asian?
With respect, you are fundamentally wrong on this issue.