What the Air Force can teach the country about trust and inclusion
Introduction
On June 1, as President Donald Trump threatened to deploy the U.S. military to “quickly solve the problem” if cities and states did not respond to protests, the highest-ranking enlisted member in the U.S. Air Force, Kaleth Wright, tweeted “Who am I?” His answer went viral. “I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I am George Floyd … I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice.”
This tweet was the preamble to a powerful conversation about race in America between Chief Wright and his white, male boss, then the senior ranking officer in the Air Force, Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein. The two of them sat down together the following day in front of a camera. If you haven’t watched the video yet, I recommend that you do. It’s remarkable. Wright demonstrates how to lead a conversation about race, and Goldfein shows how to be a white ally. Their conversation doesn’t just set an example of how to talk about race for the military. It’s a model of how to have a productive conversation about race for the nation and of how listening can build trust and inclusion. In order to unpack these lessons, it’s useful to see how this is unfolding in the Air Force. Goldfein’s recommendation to the force was to listen, but not every leader has interpreted this expectation in the same way.