Hey Jasmineā¦
Black pilot here.
I think you missed the plot.
Then again, thatās 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, āLetās check a diversity box.ā
Thatās what people like you donāt seem to understand.
Suggesting that Black pilots, Black engineers, Black doctors, or Black leaders need special preferences to succeed is not empowering, itās insulting.
I didnāt want a different standard.
I wanted the same standard.
And when youāre flying into combat, the American people donāt care what race the pilot is.
They care whether the pilot is qualified.
Merit isnāt racist.
Excellence isnāt discriminatory.
And reducing every achievement to skin color says far more about your worldview than it does about mine.