Latest news with #GrahamParsons
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Military schools' sly tricks to undermine Trump's anti-woke drive
Some of America's leading military schools are purportedly using sly tactics to circumvent a Trump administration ban on discussing politically divisive topics. Cadets and staff at the U.S. Naval Academy have been forming chat groups to explore banned ideas such as critical race theory. It comes as the president cracks down on diversity and social justice programs, with faculty reportedly flagging words including 'barrier,' 'Black,' 'allyship,' 'cultural differences' and 'The Gulf of Mexico.' Professors have been told to teach that 'America and its founding documents remains the most powerful force for good in human history' after a memo from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. One unnamed professor told the Washington Post: 'We at the Naval Academy are here to prepare young officers to command. 'They need to know what we have learned from our study of politics and history and literature and languages. 'We are failing them and we are failing in our jobs if we suppress some things we know are true and we parrot other things we know are false.' They also said that students are feeling conflicted about the possibility of being deployed under the current White House. One professor said they had advised cadets to serve until they receive an order that they feel might be illegal. He told them if that point comes to 'reject it rather than compromise yourself.' Graham Parsons, a former professor of philosophy at West Point Military Academy, left his position earlier this month in protest over the changes to the curriculum. He said that the entire U.S. armed forces have been left up in arms over Trump's reversal of DEI initiatives and social justice programs. Parsons told the outlet: 'It's a feeling of real whiplash. We used to raise the possibility in the military and beyond, there are still real structural problems with racism and sexism. That would not fly now.' He stood down from his post after writing a scathing opinion piece for The New York Times. In it he said: 'I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly. I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.' Concerns: Many in the U.S. armed forces have been outraged by Trump's reversal of DEI and social justice schemes Trump was at West Point Academy on Saturday to give a commencement speech in which he vowed to ditch DEI programs and support for transgender service people. He said: 'We´re getting rid of distractions and we're focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America's adversaries, killing America's enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before. He later said that 'the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,' a reference to drag shows on military bases that President Joe Biden's administration halted after Republican criticism. Trump said the cadets were graduating at a 'defining moment' in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into 'nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.' He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, 'critical race theory' and types of training he called divisive and political. Past administrations, he said, 'subjected the armed forces to all manner of social projects and political causes while leaving our borders undefended and depleting our arsenals to fight other countries' wars.'
Daily Mail
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Fury as top military schools are caught in secret underground plots to usurp Trump's orders
Top military schools have faced a swift backlash after using underground means to discuss books and topics banned by the Trump administration. Cadets and staff at the US Naval Academy have been creating non-governmental emails to chat about the banned ideas, including the likes of critical race theory. The president has cracked down on what made up the curriculum at the school, with faculty saying they run their research through an AI tool screen their findings. Words that are flagged include 'barrier', 'Black', 'allyship', 'cultural differences' and 'The Gulf of Mexico '. Professors have been told to teach that 'America and its founding documents remains the most powerful force for good in human history' after a memo Pete Hegseth. One unnamed professor told the Washington Post: 'We at the Naval Academy are here to prepare young officers to command. 'They need to know what we have learned from our study of politics and history and literature and languages. 'We are failing them and we are failing in our jobs if we suppress some things we know are true and we parrot other things we know are false.' They also said that students are feeling conflicted about the possibility of being deployed under the current White House. One professor said they had advised cadets to serve until they receive an order that they feel might be illegal. He told them if that point comes to 'reject it rather than compromise yourself'. Graham Parsons, a former professor of philosophy at West Point Military Academy, left his position earlier this month in protest over the changes to the curriculum. He said that the entire US armed forces have been left up in arms over Trump's reversal of DEI initiatives and social justice programs. Parsons told the outlet: 'It's a feeling of real whiplash. We used to raise the possibility in the military and beyond, there are still real structural problems with racism and sexism. That would not fly now.' He stood down from his post after writing a scathing opinion piece for The New York Times. In it, he said: 'I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly. I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.' Trump was at West Point Academy on Saturday to give a commencement speech in which he vowed to ditch DEI programs and support for transgender service people. He said: 'We´re getting rid of distractions and we're focusing our military on its core mission: crushing America's adversaries, killing America's enemies and defending our great American flag like it has never been defended before. He later said that 'the job of the U.S. armed forces is not to host drag shows or transform foreign cultures,' a reference to drag shows on military bases that President Joe Biden's administration halted after Republican criticism. Trump said the cadets were graduating at a 'defining moment' in Army history as he accused political leaders in the past of sending soldiers into 'nation-building crusades to nations that wanted nothing to do with us.' He said he was clearing the military of transgender ideas, 'critical race theory' and types of training he called divisive and political.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
West Point professor resigns over education shift under Trump
A West Point philosophy professor has announced his resignation after 13 years on the faculty, citing the academy's rapid shift away from its core educational principles under the Trump administration in an essay for the New York Times. Graham Parsons, a professor of philosophy at the US Military Academy at West Point, criticized the institution for 'failing to provide an adequate education for the cadets' under the new administration. 'I cannot tolerate these changes, which prevent me from doing my job responsibly,' he wrote in the essay. 'I am ashamed to be associated with the academy in its current form.' He goes on to say that West Point began censoring its curriculum to align with the administration's ideological preferences following Donald Trump's executive order and a memo from the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. These directives prohibited instruction on so-called 'un-American' theories, including gender ideology and any suggestion that 'America's founding documents are racist or sexist.' As a result, Parsons says West Point administrators began an aggressive overhaul of the curriculum. Faculty were pressured to revise or eliminate courses dealing with race, gender and power dynamics. Related: US supreme court allows Trump trans military ban to take effect Classes such as 'Topics in Gender History', 'Race, Ethnicity, Nation,' and 'Power and Difference' were removed. The sociology major as well as a Black history project at the history department were both discontinued. He added that influential authors such as James Baldwin, Toni Morrison and Alice Walker were removed from syllabi and a student debate team was instructed not to explore certain positions at a competition. Additionally, a new policy required professors to obtain departmental approval before publishing, speaking publicly, or posting on social media about their academic work. This shift, Parsons says, has made it impossible for many professors, including those studying subjects like masculinity and war, to continue their research without censorship. 'West Point seems to believe that by submitting to the Trump administration, it can save itself in the long run,' he wrote. 'But the damage cannot be undone.' 'If the academy can't convincingly invoke the values of free thought and political neutrality when they are needed most, it can't accomplish its mission,' he added. 'Whatever else happens, it will forever be known that when the test came, West Point failed.' The Trump administration has been at odds with US universities since he took office, with the president consistently threatening to cut federal funding to schools that don't comply with his demands. Institutions of higher education have begun banding together in an effort to resist pressure from the administration.
New York Times
14-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Quote of the Day: Culture War At West Point Claims Books And Professors
'I've lost faith that most people will do the right thing under pressure.' Graham Parsons, a philosophy professor who resigned in protest from West Point after an order from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led to canceled classes and book bans.
New York Times
13-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
What Has Trump Done to West Point?
To the Editor: Re 'West Point Is Supposed to Educate, Not Indoctrinate,' by Graham Parsons (Opinion guest essay, May 12): Dr. Parsons' rebuke of the Trump administration's chokehold on academic freedom and its attack on 'broad-based, critical-minded, nonpartisan education' at West Point attests to a rare character trait: courage. I am a former Air Force captain trained under the Reserve Officers' Training Corps in the 1980s. My fellow cadets and I were exposed to every type of scholarship and viewpoint that our civilian university had to offer. Many of us availed ourselves of diverse courses in which we could listen to the opinions of our professors and other students and test their theories and ideas against our own viewpoints and ideologies. I believe that those lessons, experienced in concert with our military training, made us better informed, more critically thinking Air Force officers when it came time to lead and follow our oaths to our Constitution while in uniform and beyond. The fact that the Trump administration believes that hobbling the minds of our future officers is in our national interest betrays the president's lack of confidence in the men and women in uniform who must be experts in leadership, history, ethics, democracy and our Constitution, warts and all. May we have the courage to defend their right to knowledge.
