Our military leaders should focus on fighting external threats at this crucial historical juncture, not fighting a domestic culture war.
Corporate media and progressives found a new darling in Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after his congressional testimony last week. Anyone who dared to criticize him was blasted as either unpatriotic or demonstrating “white rage.”
Republicans have criticized the U.S. military for promoting books that advocate for racial divisions — for example, listing Ibram Kendi’s critical race theory gospel, “How to Be an Antiracist,” as reading for sailors in the U.S. Navy. During his testimony, Milley made it clear he didn’t see anything wrong with training the U.S. military in critical race theory.
Milley Defends Racist Indoctrination
“I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin,” he argued. “That doesn’t make me a communist.” Many advocates of critical race theory’s racist teachings have made similar arguments about teaching it in K-12 schools, claiming it is just one of many ideas students are taught.
But the general’s own words quickly betrayed the notion that books about critical race theory are casual reading assignments simply for soldiers’ intellectual curiosity. Referencing the events at the U.S. Capitol in January, he stated: “I want to understand white rage. And I’m white.”
The phrase “white rage” is CRT newspeak, implying that “rage” has a color, and it is exclusively “white.” Emory University professor Carol Anderson coined the term in her 2016 book “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide.” She sees “white rage” as “the operational function of white supremacy,” which is embedded in policies that actively “undermine African American achievement and advancement.”
The phrase reflects CRT advocates’ typical but misguided beliefs that the United States hasn’t made much progress in racial healing and racial equality, and that minorities are still hopelessly oppressed by the white majority in today’s America. Many scholars, including black scholars such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, and Jason Riley, have refuted such beliefs vigorously.
Nevertheless, by using “white rage” in his testimony, Milley indicated he is on board with CRT’s teachings and beliefs. Furthermore, he demands American soldiers be indoctrinated with the same ideology.
“What is wrong,” Milley asked, with “having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend?” This assumes that one can understand the United States by accepting accusations against its white citizens as expressions of “rage.” Of course, there is nothing wrong with American soldiers understanding our nation’s true history — not only its faults, but also the progress it has made.
