The Army is launching a 15-6 investigation to get to the bottom of an Army pamphlet about inclusion that was disseminated "accidentally" that described covert and overt racism.
The pamphlet describes overt racism such as lynching, use of racial slurs, swastikas and hate crimes. The word cloud then includes a much larger list of what it describes as covert, socially acceptable racism. Among the terms in the word cloud in that category is President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "make America great again," commonly abbreviated as MAGA. Also in this category are words like tokenism, racist mascot and all lives matter as signs of covert racism.
It also includes additional elements that may be controversial such as celebrating Columbus Day, the expression "we're all one big human family," while others may be more obscure to some, such as "spiritual bypassing" and the phrase "you're so articulate." None of the terms are further explained or detailed on the pamphlet, but are simply laid out as "things to think about."
Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., complained about the pamphlet loudly, calling for its authors to be fired. According to his office, the pamphlet was distributed by the "U.S. Army Equity & Inclusion Agency" and "Assistant Secretary of the Army – Manpower and Reserve Affairs." It went out to potentially thousands of people at Redstone Arsenal before the Army pulled it and issued a statement saying that it, "included two unapproved pages that were sent out in error and immediately recalled," CNN reported.
But that is unlikely to placate Brooks, who described the issuing of the pamphlet as illegal under the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from certain types of political activities, such as using their positions to advance political speech.
"ALL U.S. Army civilian and uniformed personnel who drafted, approved or sent this racist and politically partisan email, using government resources, should be prosecuted for their Hatch Act violations and summarily fired for blatantly and illegally injecting themselves into partisan political activities on government time using federal taxpayer money," Brooks wrote in a press statement adding that, "heads should roll."