Air Force Ditches Gendered Terms Like ‘Mom’ And ‘Dad’ In New Diversity Training
The conservative backlash over so-called “woke” policies on gender, race, and other cultural issues has become more acute in recent years, particularly since such theories have taken hold in institutions such as education and the military.
One of the most recent examples can be found in reports that the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado has begun training cadets to forgo terms such as “mom” and “dad,” which imply a specific gender. Instead, new training materials encourage neutral terms that “include all genders.”
As Fox News confirmed with screenshots of a recent diversity presentation, the military branch recommended “parent or caregiver” in a bid to appear more inclusive of non-traditional families like those “headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.”
The training presentation went on to include race-based recommendations, such as ditching terms and phrases like “colorblind” or “I don’t see color” when discussing related issues.
“We see Color/Patterns AND VALUE people for their uniqueness,” the material emphasized.
While this supposedly inclusive instruction aligns with the priorities of many on the left, a number of prominent veterans and conservative politicians spoke out against the military’s ongoing cultural shift.
For his part, Green Beret veteran and U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) asserted that the military has bigger issues to address than “this kind of drive toward gender neutrality.”
He noted that enlisted Americans have always anticipated “letters from mom and dad or your boyfriend and girlfriend,” lamenting that these terms are now verboten within the Air Force.
“I think the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world,” Waltz added.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-NC) expressed concern about national security as America’s enemies follow the current trend.
“As the Biden administration continues to tear down the very foundation of the American society, now they have endangered this country by ‘wokening’ our military,” he tweeted. “How does this nonsense show strength to China and Russia. They laugh at this absurdity.”
Waltz compared the current climate to the indoctrination tactics utilized by communist regimes, explaining: “To those of us who are a little bit older, it reminds us of what the Soviets used to do or what the Chinese do today, where they literally have political commissars inserted at every level end of the chain of command, but they have a separate reporting chain to ensure that the military is abiding by their ideology and their political doctrine.”
