The recently confirmed United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will not only face a world of security threats and massive military bureaucracy, but also a challenge that affects him most: eradicating racism and extremism in the military.
Austin took office as the first black person to lead the Pentagon on Friday after a fatal attack on the Capitol that included active and retired military personnel, encouraged by far-right conspiracy theories.
The retired general told senators this week that the job of the Pentagon is “to protect America from our enemies, but we can’t do that if some of those enemies are in our ranks.”
Ridding the army of racists is not their only priority. Austin, confirmed by a 93-2 vote, made it clear that speeding up coronavirus vaccine delivery will have his immediate attention.
But the issue of racism is personal. During his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, he explained why.
In 1995, while then Lieutenant Colonel Austin was serving in the 82nd Airborne Division in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, three white soldiers who considered themselves skinheads were arrested for the murder of a black couple walking the street. The investigation concluded that the attack was racist.
The murder sparked an internal investigation and eventually 22 soldiers were linked to skinheads and other similar groups or were found to have extremist ideas. Among them, 17 were considered white supremacists or separatists.
“We woke up one day and found that we had extremists in our ranks,” Austin told the Senate Armed Forces Committee. “And they did bad things for which we certainly held them accountable, but we found that there was constant evidence of those activities. We just didn’t know what to look for or what to watch out for. “
Austin is not the first secretary of defense to grapple with the problem. Racism has long been an undercurrent in the military. While leaders maintain that only a small minority have extremist views, there are persistent cases of racism and, more subtly, a history of implicit bias in a predominantly white setting.
A recent report by the Inspector General concluded that black members of the Air Force are being further investigated, arrested, punished, and fired for misconduct.
Based on 2018 data, about two-thirds of soldiers are white and 17% black, but the percentage of the minority is declining with increasing rank. According to the Census Bureau, the total US population is about three-quarters white and 13% black.
Over the past year, Pentagon leaders have struggled to make change, hampered by opposition from then-President Donald Trump. It took months for the department to ban the Confederate flag last year, and Pentagon officials left it to Congress to rename military bases named after Confederate leaders. Trump refused to change the names of the bases and defended the Confederate flag.
The flag, as well as the busts and statues commemorating generals and officers of the Confederacy, are seen by some as a symbol of pride or identity, or as a historical heritage or military emblem that only symbolizes the heritage of the Southern states, but others consider them a symbol of racism, white supremacy, bigotry and slavery.
Senators asked Austin numerous questions about extremism in the military and his plans to combat it. The hearing came two weeks after lawmakers escaped the crowd of Trump supporters storming the Capitol.
“Clearly we are at a critical point,” said Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, adding that leaders need to eradicate extremism and reaffirm the values of the military.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine asked Austin about the steps he would take. “Division is probably the most destructive force of our ability to defend ourselves,” said Kaine. “If we are divided against each other, how can we defend the nation?”
Austin, who has had to overcome racial barriers in his four decades of military career, said military leaders should set an example to discourage and eliminate extremist behavior. They must know their soldiers and look for signs of extremism and other problems, he said.