Critical Race Theory Has No Place in Military: Rep. Ken Buck

Conservative News DailySeptember 16, 2021

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) wants the U.S. military to be more focused on “readiness, not wokeness” and hopes to put an end to “dangerous and divisive” critical race theory being taught to service men and women.

Earlier this week, Buck submitted an amendment to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which specifies the annual budget and expenditures of the Department of Defense, regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion practices being mandated at the DOD, when it comes to employment training.

Buck is just one of many GOP lawmakers who oppose critical race theory (CRT) over fears that peddling the Marxist theory to service members will only serve to reduce both their cohesion and combat effectiveness when it comes to fighting real threats facing America, such as those posed by terrorist groups.

Critical race theory redefines human history as a struggle between the “oppressors”—typically white people—and the “oppressed”—other identity groups—similar to Marxism’s reduction of history to a struggle between the “bourgeois” and the “proletariat.”

CRT adherents generally believe that America is systemically racist and that racial oppression exists and that institutions that emerged in majority-white societies are racist and “white supremacist.” The theory has slowly expanded in recent decades through academia, government structures, school systems, and the corporate world.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, congressman Buck said he believes CRT—which has become more of a central focus following the death of George Floyd while in police custody on May 25, 2020— has “no place” within the U.S. military, calling it “dangerous and divisive”.

“I think that there are political theories that are being espoused in this country, such as critical race theory, that are dangerous, and divisive and have no place in the military,” he said.

“If we want to have those discussions in the private sphere, in the marketplace of ideas, we can certainly have those discussions, but to require members of the military to be trained in critical race theory and to have inclusion and diversity officers in the Department of Defense, I think undermines the necessary discipline that we need in our military to conduct business.”

Critical Race Theory Has No Place in Military: Rep. Ken Buck 1

Advocates of CRT, such as Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have defended its teachings among the U.S. military, saying that he wants to “understand white rage” and that it’s important for military members to be “open-minded and be widely read”.

But Buck disagrees with this sentiment, and says the military should instead be focusing their attention on “winning wars” and not spending hours and hours being trained on “social issues”.

“Any time we require hours and hours of training on diversity, inclusion, and other areas, we take away from the time that our troops are actually engaged in the activities that that will save their lives, the training is so important to them,” the congressman said.

“I can remember talking to a general several years ago, and the Obama administration required more hours of training in a particular month than the service members worked in that month,” Buck said.

“In other words, more than 40 hours a week they were expected to be in this type of diversity training, and not in the field practicing and training for why they joined the military.”

Buck noted that placing too much of a burden on teaching social issues to military members can also actually widen the divide between Americans based on their race, among other things, which in turn “takes away from the cohesion that is necessary to create a unified fighting force.”

“It reduces our ability for military preparedness for all threats out there — China, which is the greatest threat to this country’s security,” he said while adding Russia, Iran, North Korea, and terrorist groups that present a threat to the United States.