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. . . . (read more on The Federalist)
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