Restoring America Means More Tuskegee Airmen And Less DEI

One of the most common rebuttals you’ll get when you criticize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in any meaningful fashion are historical red herrings. If you’re so opposed to DEI, such arguments go, then you must have a problem with people learning about America’s history of slavery, the civil rights movement, and anything to do with race relations. Obviously, these arguments are fallacious ones — but that hasn’t stopped them from coming up in the middle of modern debates over DEI and America’s struggles with racial division.

Recently, the Air Force was forced to confront this argument. In the wake of President Trump’s executive order prohibiting discriminatory DEI practices at the federal level, reports surfaced that the Air Force had removed (for “review”) instructional materials pertaining to the historical legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, America’s first black military pilots, along with material on the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), a paramilitary group that served during World War II. Among those outraged over the implications of this review was Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), who deemed the move “malicious compliance” on X, a sentiment Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed. “This will not stand.” Shortly after, the Air Force confirmed that “no curriculum or content highlighting the honor and valor of the Tuskegee Airmen or Women Air Force Service Pilots [was] removed from Basic Military Training.”