Biden’s Air Force Nominee Believes It’s ‘Naive’ For Service Members To Doubt The Military’s ‘Institutional Racism’
An Air Force lieutenant general nominated by President Joe Biden once claimed U.S. service members are “naive” to believe that so-called “institutional racism” and “unconscious bias” don’t affect the military.
Last week, the Air Force Times reported that Biden tapped Lt. Gen. Jim Slife “to serve as the Air Force’s next vice chief of staff.” If ultimately confirmed by the Senate, Slife, who currently serves as the branch’s deputy chief of staff for operations, would be promoted to a four-star general and become the “No. 2 officer” in the Air Force.
While much of the Times’ article focuses on Slife’s military service, it neglects to mention the lieutenant general’s flirtation with racialist politics. In the days following the May 2020 death of George Floyd, Slife authored a message claiming he was “bothered” by Floyd’s death and that the Air Force “is a reflection of our society, so, by extension,” the matter is “an Air Force issue.”
“We’d be naive to think issues of institutional racism and unconscious bias don’t affect us,” Slife wrote. “We can’t ignore it. We have to face it. And to face it, we have to talk about it.”
In his memo, Slife further asserted that it’s important for the military to “listen to other perspectives and accept them as valid, but perhaps incomplete.” He also said that he is “limited in [his] perspective” and described how he’s a “middle-aged white man who grew up in a middle class family in a predominantly white area … [and has] been in ‘the majority’ in almost every organization [he’s] ever been in.”
Slife additionally encouraged service members to listen to “a series on the podcast ‘Scene on Radio’ called ‘Seeing White,’” which the lieutenant general claimed touches on so-called “institutional racism” in America. The Scene on Radio’s X, or Twitter, account indicates the podcast is extremely left-wing.
“If you’re disquieted by what’s going on in Minneapolis and across America…if you have an opinion on Colin Kaepernick one way or another…give it a listen,” Slife wrote. The memo also touched on issues such as “diversity” and “inclusion.”
Slife would go on to participate in Air Force-sponsored events in the years that followed that promoted neo-Marxist ideologies such as so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI. For context, DEI is a poisonous left-wing framework that dismisses merit and instead discriminates based on characteristics such as skin color and sex.
In November 2020, for example, Slife participated in a “multi-part discussion on race in the military” hosted by the Center for a New American Security, a left-wing foreign policy think tank whose leadership is comprised of “former Democratic administration officials and politicians.” According to an Air Force article summarizing the discussion, the podcast “took a deep dive into the Air Force’s efforts to address diversity and inclusion through fostering honest conversations, emphasizing the importance of inclusion, and building the next generation of leaders.”
In his remarks, Slife reportedly spoke about his “blind spot” regarding the issue of razor bumps “and the impact that shaving has on many African-American men.”
Slife’s embrace of DEI would continue into March 2022, when he reportedly spoke at Air Force Special Operations Command’s Leadership, Equity, Advocacy and Development Symposium. While Slife purportedly partook in a discussion “on the topic of infinite leadership,” the event also included “talks on diversity and inclusion.”
Slife is also listed as a panelist on the “How to Be the Change of Inclusive Culture: General Officer Panel,” on a schedule for the Air Force’s 2022 Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Conference.
Slife’s apparent infatuation with DEI further exemplifies the significance of Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s slow-walking of Biden’s military nominations. Using his role on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Tuberville has been forcing individual votes on military personnel moves that require Senate confirmation to protest the Pentagon’s use of taxpayer money to cover service members’ travel expenses to get abortions.
The Alabama senator has since faced numerous attacks from Democrats and establishment Republicans, many of whom have baselessly claimed his protest is harming “military readiness.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
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