The oldest public senior military college in the US has found itself embroiled in a very modern form of cultural warfare, after a group of alumni organized a campaign furiously protesting the school’s recent diversity push.
The controversy at the Virginia Military Institute has been simmering since October 2020, when then-Governor Ralph Northam ordered a probe into reports of widespread racism at the institution, and the school’s board voted to remove a Confederate statue on campus.
In a twist of fate, the two sides in the VMI culture war are led by ‘brother rats’, as VMI classmates are known, who both graduated from the college in 1985, according to a Washington Post report on Tuesday.
The belligerents are retired Army Major General Cedric T. Wins, 59, who is VMI’s first black superintendent, and Matt Daniel, 60, a white former Marine who founded a PAC dubbed ‘Spirit of VMI’ that has launched ads and lobbying efforts opposing Wins’ diversity push.
‘Reject the woke assault on VMI, close ranks,’ one of the PAC’s websites states, adding: ‘We stand for a strong VMI with a proud history and a bright future.’
The PAC has lashed out at Wins and the VMI board, questioning its decision to award him a $100,000 bonus, on top of his $656,000 annual salary, after the school suffered a 25 percent drop in freshman enrollment. . . . .
. . . .Initially, his former classmate Daniel was publicly supportive of Wins, writing an encouraging note in the alumni magazine that said: ‘If there was ever a leader to take the helm and navigate VMI through such odd and dark, shark-infested waters, it is Cedric Wins.’
But as Wins has overseen reforms such as the removal of Confederate emblems from campus, and hired consultants on diversity, equity and inclusion to advise the college, he has faced the wrath of Daniel’s Spirit of VMI PAC.
‘Often described broadly as a form of political correctness, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is a Marxist doctrine at the center of the malignancy of identity politics,’ the group said in a statement earlier this month.
‘Akin to a pervasive cancer that seemingly overnight has metastasized across the country, DEI sows division, destruction, and discord where ever it has been allowed to fester,’ the PAC added.
Wins has rarely responded directly to the group’s allegations, but he did take to Facebook in a rare post last year, slamming a VMI alum who accused to school of being overrun by critical race theory. . . . (read more on Daily Mail)
VMI removed the statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson from the campus in Lexington.
Famed Virginia Military Institute alumni at war over diversity policies: ‘Reject the woke assault’ (New York Post, 22 FEB 23)
A group of Virginia Military Institute alumni is at war with the school’s first black leader over his push to introduce “woke,” new diversity policies at the oldest public senior military college in the US.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins, 60, launched diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives after taking the helm of VMI in October 2020.
He laid out a five-goal plan for “Inclusive Excellence” by citing the mission to “achieve and maintain a more diverse and inclusive student body, faculty, staff, and administration.”
Wins became superintendent after serving in an interim capacity when Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III resigned amid allegations of a racist culture at the venerable school.
Then-Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat and VMI alumnus, ordered an investigation into racism and the school board voted to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Stonewall Jackson from the campus in Lexington.
The probe found that VMI had long tolerated a “racist and sexist culture” and needed to change.
But ever since VMI introduced new DEI initiatives, a group of well-funded, mostly white conservative alumni from 1985 — the year Wins graduated — has led an all-out assault on the woke efforts, according to the Washington Post.
Ex-Marine Matt Daniel, 60, a fellow “brother rat,” as VMI classmates are known, founded a political action committee dubbed “Spirit of VMI” to fight the 183-year-old school’s new progressive efforts.
“Reject the woke assault on VMI. Close ranks,” one of the PAC’s websites declares . . . (read more)
PAC’s websites:
PAC Website: https://www.spiritofvmimission.org/
Another website: https://www.protecthonor.com/
Virginia Military Institute Went Woke, Enrollment Fell 25% (Gatestone Institute, 20 OCT 22)
The Virginia Military Institute is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the presence of women at the nation’s oldest state military college with an appearance by Kimberly Dark: a fat rights activist and author of lesbian fanfic who wants to “reimagine masculinity”.
“Why couldn’t we see that America has been racist forever, sexist forever?” Dark ranted in a post titled, “For those who do not want a Trump presidency — this is what we will do now.”
Under Superintendent Cedric Wins, this is what the Virginia Military Institute has become.
Young men who once turned to VMI for its tradition of excellence and were eager to serve their country are now going elsewhere.
“How have you benefited from adherence to your gender role?” a VMI diversity training presentation asks. The resources for it included journal articles like, “How Military Service Members Reinforce Hegemonic Masculinity.” There’s not meant to be any room for “hegemonic masculinity” at an institution whose students experience spartan living and the warrior tradition.
The institution that gave us Patton, Marshall and Byrd now asks about your “gender role”, urges you to reimagine “masculinity” and spews hate toward anyone who happens to be white.
VMI’s Preston Library’s DEI resources features “The History of White People” and “White Guys on Campus” discussing “whiteness” and the “habits of racism among white male undergraduates” along with the racist ravings of Ibram X. Kendi in “How to Be an Antiracist”, Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “Between the World and Me”.
The message at VMI is one of undisguised loathing for white people, injecting the ugliest racist concepts of critical race theory directly into the campus dialogue while trying to silence critics.
Superintendent Wins, VMI’s woke head, has been accused of undermining its proud tradition and driving away cadets. His “One Corps, One VMI Unifying Action Plan” puts DEI at the heart of VMI and claims that it will “empower Cadets to gain strength through diversity, acceptance by inclusion”. But the cadets aren’t coming.
Enrollment for the new VMI class fell by 25%. . . . (read more)
What a travesty these DEI advocates are foisting on our once proud military. They are destroying the warrior spirit that binds our units together. We don’t want our military to look like the rest of our sick society!