Air Force Academy Head Says 'Get Out' To Racists

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — After racial slurs were found scrawled on message boards outside the rooms of five black cadets at the Air Force Academy prep school, Supt. Lt. Gen Jay Silveria gave a stern speech Thursday to more than 4,000 cadets and members of the academy community condemning racism and promoting tolerance. Sliveria asked students to record him on their phones.

"If you can't treat someone with dignity and respect, then get out," Silveria said. "I want all of you to grab your phones so you can use this. So we all have the moral courage together."

According to the Air Force Times, one cadet candidate's mother posted on Facebook a picture of the words "Go Home N-----" written outside her son's dorm room.

"You may have heard that some people down at the prep school wrote some racial slurs on some message boards. If you haven't heard that, I want you to hear it from me. If you're outraged by those words, then you're in the right place," Silveria said.

He ended his speech warning that there was no place for intolerance, sexism or racism in the U.S. Air Force, telling students they were in the wrong place if they didn't understand that.

"If you have demeaned someone, you need to get out," he said. "If you can't treat someone from another race or with another color skin, with dignity and respect, you need to get out."

Meanwhile, a father of one of the students told the Air Force Times he thought his son was fine and he hoped too much would not be made of the events, which he called "utter stupidity."

“The word has zero power in my house,” his father said. “Zero power. The word is not going to yield a reaction. My initial advice to him was, respond with intelligence, do not react, do not get upset. You don‘t have to defend intelligence, you don’t have to defend common sense, you don’t have to defend confidence. He’s fine.”
“The real victim here is that individual [who wrote the slurs], because that individual is going to lose a promising career in the military,” the cadet candidate‘s father said. “That individual is going to go home disgraced. Him or her is the real victim, because they were raised with that kind of vitriol and that kind of hate. My son is not a victim, I don’t view him as a victim.”

The Academy prep school helps prepare high school students, more than half of whom are recruited high school athletes, for the rigorous academic atmosphere of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

Read more from the Air Force Times here.

Image: Courtesy U.S. Air Force Academy. Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, addresses racial slurs recently found at the Academy Preparatory School with Academy cadets, staff and faculty, Sept. 28 2017.