From: ”Spirit Of The Fighting 69th” [Email him]

VMI is on the skids, enrollment is down twenty-five percent and Superintendent Maj. Gen. Cedric Wins (USA ret.) gets a bonus on top of his six-figure salary. Alumni have asked why and have questioned his management, some even calling for him to be fired. In the best tradition of the anti-white major media, Washington Post columnist Ian Shapira is outraged: ”VMI’s first Black superintendent under attack by conservative White alumni” [November 21, 2022].  Criticizing Wins is subverting efforts to make VMI ”more welcoming to women and minorities,” says Shapira, whose whole piece asserts because Wins is black, and his critics ”mostly white,” racism must be their motive. That they might have reasons is dismissed with supporting quotes from Wins’ white backers asserting, of course, ”racism.” For Shapira to say that those critics are ”mostly white” implies there are non-white critics as well—did Shapira ever speak to them? Shapira gratuitously throws in that VMI didn’t admit its first black until 1968 (Wins himself is Class of ’85), or women until 1997, to further insinuate racism and sexism are rampant in the 21st century.  What exactly, however, has been going on?

VMI—the Virginia Military Institute—has a long and illustrious history in American military annals. From the ranks of the cadet corps have come many distinguished Americans, most recognizably, George C. Marshall and George Patton.  Her most famous professor was Stonewall Jackson. Cadets live a spartan existence within her walls and are graduated with a sense of history and self, and dedication to the country.

Dedication to country is now assailed at VMI, as it is at the service academies, as racist, sexist, and whatever the latest ”ist” is for the insufferable ”woke” gang. Making it more repugnant at VMI is that Wins is an alumnus, but the most malign instigator of the racism canard was another alumnus, former Governor Ralph Northam, who accused VMI of ”structural racism.” The Board of Visitors went so far as to have Stonewall Jackson’s statue removed, and a diversity committee installed complete with a ”Chief Diversity Officer, Jamica Love [right], who has extensive experience in the implementation of multicultural and social justice programs.” Looking at the Board of Visitors, the eradication of military heritage is not a surprise. Of the seventeen members, thirteen were appointed by Democratic governors McAuliffe and Northam.

It only gets worse.  Wins in full bore ”woke,” went so far as to invite to VMI Kimberly Dark, a man-hating lesbian activist who has said, “Why couldn’t we see that America has been racist forever, sexist forever?” Similar leftist harpies have also been invited to assail ”hetero-normative” and ”white supremacist” masculinity. It doesn’t stop there. Wins has issued ”One Corps—One VMI, A Unifying Action Plan” and ”VMI Inclusive Excellence One Virginia Strategic Plan.” ”Diversity, Inclusion, Equity” (DIE) is repeated so often as to sound like a Buddhist mantra. It does become tedious. Both documents are generalities written in educationist jargon, that is to say puerile, on the level of a Dick & Jane reader. Here is a sample from the ”Action Plan”:

 VMI reaffirms its commitment to providing an environment that emphasizes the dignity  and worth of every member of its community. As such, there is zero tolerance for racism, sexism, discrimination, hatred, intolerance, or prejudice of any kind. Behavior which  attacks diversity, inclusion, equal-opportunity and accountability is unacceptable.

The last sentence is the clincher—”Behavior which attacks diversity...” implies that criticism or questioning will not be tolerated. Maoist self-criticism sessions must be next. Is it a stretch of the imagination to think that ”Diversity” enforcers carry with them the odor of the political commissars of the Soviet military?

In none of the documents is there any reference to the military or national service. A reader searches in vain for the words war, conflict, heroism, fealty. ”Diversity,” not patriotism, is paramount in the new VMI.

All is not lost. Leading the alumni counter-attack is Carmen Villani Jr., who has accused the Institute's leadership of ramming Critical Race Theory into the curriculum. Wins vehemently denies the allegation, insisting DIE and CRT are not the same. Looking at whom the general has invited to address the cadets, the presence of the anti-white fulminations of Ibram X. Kendi on the DIE ”resource” list, and the bias of the Institute’s action and strategic plans, a reasonable man would be pressed to think otherwise.  Now Americans, and the cadets, will have to see what Gov. Youngkin will do to steer VMI back on course before ”Diversity, Inclusion, Equity”—DIE—becomes the death of VMI.

See earlier letters from the same reader.