Hey Jasmineโฆ
Black pilot here.
I think you missed the plot.
Then again, thatโs becoming a pattern.
I graduated from West Point.
I went through Army flight school.
I learned to fly the AH-64 Apache.
I deployed to combat and flew 55 combat missions over Baghdad.
Nobody handed me a cockpit because of my skin color.
Nobody lowered the standards for me.
Nobody looked at me and said, โLetโs check a diversity box.โ
Thatโs what people like you donโt seem to understand.
Suggesting that Black pilots, Black engineers, Black doctors, or Black leaders need special preferences to succeed is not empowering, itโs insulting.
I didnโt want a different standard.
I wanted the same standard.
And when youโre flying into combat, the American people donโt care what race the pilot is.
They care whether the pilot is qualified.
Merit isnโt racist.
Excellence isnโt discriminatory.
And reducing every achievement to skin color says far more about your worldview than it does about mine.