’Disturbing’ report highlights racism, sexism at US military school
A survey has found that 14% of female cadets reported being sexually assaulted, while 63% said a fellow cadet had told them that he or she was a victim of sexual assault.
PRETORIA, June 2 (ANA) – A report has exposed the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) for tolerating and failing to address institutional racism and sexism, saying it must be held accountable to make long-term changes, Al Jazeera reported on Wednesday.
The broadcaster said the 145-page report was released on Tuesday and compiled by independent law firm Barnes & Thornburg at the request of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.
VMI is less diverse than other schools. It maintains an outdated reverence for the Civil War and Confederacy, Al Jazeera wrote.
One white cadet at the nation’s oldest state-supported military college was quoted as saying he hears the N-word spoken by other white cadets up to 10 times a day from various people. “That’s not an exaggeration,” he said.
ABC News said the report found that racial disparity exists among cadets who have been dismissed by the school’s student-run honour court.
Cadets of colour represent 23% of the corps but make up 41% of those dismissed since 2011, read the report.
The report also indicated that sexual assault is prevalent yet inadequately addressed. Fourteen percent of female cadets reported being sexually assaulted, while 63% said that a fellow cadet had told them that he or she was a victim of sexual assault, ABC News wrote.
“The racist and misogynistic acts and outcomes uncovered during this investigation are disturbing,” read the report.
The broadcaster cited the report as saying that VMI has no explicit racist or sexist policies that it enforces, but the facts reflect an overall racist and sexist culture.
According the Miami Herald, the report suggests that the state should require VMI to submit quarterly reports on diversity and inclusion efforts.
Other alumni pushed back at the report, saying it relied on isolated incidents that failed to add up to structural biases, the US publication wrote.
Meanwhile, the school’s first black superintendent, retired US Army Major-General Cedric T. Wins, said the school has already been moving towards becoming more inclusive and welcoming.
“Those efforts include the removal of a prominent statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson, who taught at VMI, in December,” he was quoted as saying.
“And so now it’s up to us to take the report, along with our board of visitors, and look at it and understand what the recommendations are.
“And we’ll certainly have conversations with state agencies … and chart a path in terms of the direction that we need to go,” Wins was quoted as saying.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher