{"id":35479,"date":"2020-06-18T16:10:17","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T16:10:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2020\/06\/18\/new-pentagon-team-is-going-to-take-on-racial-justice-in-the-military\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T07:21:03","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T07:21:03","slug":"new-pentagon-team-is-going-to-take-on-racial-justice-in-the-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/pentagon-congress\/2020\/06\/18\/new-pentagon-team-is-going-to-take-on-racial-justice-in-the-military\/","title":{"rendered":"New Pentagon team is going to take on racial justice in the military"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On day 23 of nationwide protests against police brutality and racial inequality<\/a> in America\u2019s justice system, the Pentagon began an initiative to take a look at those issues in its own backyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Civilian and uniformed military leadership have two weeks to bring Defense Secretary Mark Esper <\/a>their best ideas for improving diversity and inclusion in the military<\/a> immediately, he said in a prerecorded video announcement released Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c… by the end of June \u2013 that we can begin implementing now such as removing photos from promotion, school, and command selection boards,\u201d Esper said. \u201cThis is something I pushed as secretary of the Army, as we worked to overhaul our personnel system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That issue specifically, of including photos on promotion board packets, has been called out for promoting bias in board members who might be more likely to favor a white service member over one of color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper also announced the formation of the Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion in the Military, an internal group of uniformed and civilian personnel who will have six months to make recommendations to Esper on what the Defense Department can do to tackle inequality within its organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe members of this board will have the carte blanche and resources to chart their own course,\u201d he said in an eight-minute video message. \u201cThey will report to me, and will be tasked to bring me their findings and recommendations in December.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A longer term, follow-up body, dubbed the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion in the Armed Services, will take after the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, which stood up in 1951 to guide the Pentagon through the integration of women into the services, and is principally made up of retired general and noncommissioned officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For his part, Esper has been meeting with junior officers and NCOs at bases around the country, holding sensing sessions designed for open conversation about discrimination and disrespect in the services, including while visiting Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas<\/a>, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the coming days and months, I will be out in the field to meet with our service members and hear their views and concerns about race in the military,\u201d he said in the video message. \u201cI will have the chance to listen and learn from their personal experiences, and gain a better sense of where to focus our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though questions of displaying the Confederate flag and re-christening Army posts named for Confederate officers have risen to prominence in fits and starts in years past, discussions about racial injustice in the U.S. have reached a fever pitch in recent weeks, forcing institutions, private businesses and individual Americans to take stock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Esper and his top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley, saw themselves pulled into the fray during a June 1 trip to the White House, during which they accompanied President Trump across Lafayette Square to view rioting damage at St. John\u2019s Episcopal Church. The damage came during protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man prosecutors say was murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\t