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By Jamie McIntyre Sunday, October 11th, 2009 11:51 pm
Posted in J-Mac's Attack, Readings and Reviews

“After being on the Admissions Board, I understood a lot of what I’d seen in the classroom. I realized that there was a close to 100% correlation between the students who just couldn’t get basic concepts and couldn’t express themselves and those who either had been recruited to play sports like football and basketball, or who had checked a box saying they were Hispanic or African-American.“
– Bruce Fleming, English Professor, U.S. Naval Academy

There’s little doubt about who is the most unpopular guy with the administration of the U.S. Naval Academy these days. It’s the tenured English professor who keeps raising politically incorrect questions about just how far the academy is going to promote the laudable goal of diversity.

I first profiled Professor Bruce Fleming back in 2005, when he initially made his argument that lesser qualified minority students, or in some cases star athletes, were filling spaces that should go to the most qualified applicants. READ: CNN — March 2005.

It’s the old argument about when affirmative action becomes more of a “handout rather than a hand up.” And once again Fleming’s incendiary charge, lobbed from his insider perch, has infuriated the academy’s military leaders.

They can’t fire Fleming (as much as they may see him as a misguided troublemaker) but they are able to –and have — deny him any pay increases. But Fleming, who gets plenty of “atta-boys” from students and alumni alike, argues this is an infringement of his academic freedom, and has a filed for whistleblower protection.

Professor Accuses Naval Academy of Illegal Retaliation Over Affirmative-Action Criticisms

But back to the allegations at hand, namely that Annapolis has been “race-tracking” for years, and the result is inferior Naval officers.

Prof. Fleming restoked the smoldering ire of academy officials with an fresh opinion piece on the U.S. Naval Institute blog this past summer, provocatively entitled “Separate Water Fountains”. In it Fleming writes that the admissions bar has been drastically lower for racial minorities and that some very weak students are sent to “hand-holding revolving door remedial school.”

Bruce Fleming, an English Professor at the U.S. Naval Academy says, "All minorities are let in over a lower bar, and most would never be admitted competitively."

“We send them for tutoring, let them take courses over, and assign them to majors we think they can pass,” he charges. “It’s a two-track system: whites have to excel to get in, non-whites don’t have to. They just have to be non-white. And their seat, once taken, is thus denied the stellar one. In the long run this has to dilute the quality of the Navy. That’s scary. It’s also immoral. At the Naval Academy in Annapolis and arguably in the military, we’re back to the childhood I remember on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, with separate water fountains for the “colored people.” Only the water fountains for non-whites now are much better than those for the whites. Is this the way our “post-racial” Obama society was meant to play out?

The academy vigorously denies there’s any lowering of standards, and stress it looks at the whole person, not just academic achievement and test scores, to determine who will make the best officers.

But Fleming insists that’s a sham and the students know it. He tells me that just this past week he had two midshipmen in his office griping about unequal treatment. One, who is white, complained the system has been “perverted” to retain erring non-whites. The other student was African-American, and complained about being sent as part of a gospel choir to proselytize inner city school children (while the Glee Club went to Rome), and was given a list of black high school students to “cold call” to encourage to join the Navy. What made the midshipman so angry, says Fleming, could be summed up as, “This place wants to decide what race I am and put me in a box.”

Fleming has been feeling the heat, but he’s not backing off. The USNI blog never ran a follow-up piece he wrote, in which he responds to his critics. You can read it here:

Going Beyond “He Said, He Said” on Race-tracking

You can bet the Academy won’t like his forthcoming “Bridging the Military-Civilian Divide: What Each Side Needs to Know About the Other, and About Itself.”

Tags: Affirmative Action, Annapolis, Diversity, Minorities, Quotas, Race, U.S. Naval Academy

« « Contradictional Wisdom | Bruce Fleming from 2005 » »

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	Kimberly Davis October 12th, 2009 at 2:18 pm So, is this “affirmative action”, “diversity”, “quotas” or all of the above. Or, is it correcting a system of oppression that has denied people of color the right to attend the Naval Academy or even enroll in the Armed Services for generations? Are people of color only “qualified” to work in the mess, as my uncle had to do? Or is college, particularly the academy, a place of discovery–finding what you’re good at to chart a course for your life? I’m sure Mr. Fleming wishes we would only judge him by how smart he is; as it stands now, I judge him on his character, and it appears to be lacking. In other words, he’s a shortsighted, privilege-wearing joke of a professor.
	felicity October 12th, 2009 at 2:52 pm i know plenty of white marine officers _ great ones, battalion commanders and above_ who did not have the grades to get into Annapolis so went to the preperatory academy to catch up.
	Peter October 12th, 2009 at 3:26 pm This man is a teacher!!! If he already has a pre determined outlook on minority students (I was really waiting for him to say something about the students eating chicken and stealing hubcaps!!) I wonder how good of a teacher he can be to these students he mentioned.
	Jamie October 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm I just got this comment from Prof. Bruce Fleming in his own defense, so figured I’d ad it to the comments. Jamie “This is deductive, not inductive: it’s based on 22 years plus of teaching, many semesters of “set-aside” remedial classes, and a stint on the Admissions board. Where in any of this is anything that says that I look at a non-white student and assume s/he is incompetent? I hope for the best, but statistically speaking, the fact is that we have incompetent non-white students but no incompetent white ones (except some recruited athletes), for the simple reason that the white students below a certain level are simply rejected and we’ll go much deeper (about 200 pts on each part of the SAT, for starters) if they’ve checked a box saying they’re non-white. I’m not making a statement about races, only pointing out that we identify applicants by race and take far lower on all predictors with non-whites than whites. If you stock a wine cellar with chardonnay that has to be high quality but reach deep for the merlot, it’s not wine-ist to say, the chard is pretty sure to be good but the merlot varies wildly.“ — Bruce Fleming
	LT B October 12th, 2009 at 7:04 pm Ms Davis, The correction has long since been in place. The military can and should be a meritocracy. We have troops of all colors, all up and down the chain of command. Right now, they are trying, and wrongly, to adjust it w/ “goals” because quotas are unconstitutional, but when a 4-star says it’s a “goal” it pretty much is an order. The problems arise when you look at the statistical availability of some outstanding minorities. Hispanics and Whites, looking at the troop levels seem to be more willing to take up combat arms. Also, the Black outstanding candidates choose, understandably, Harvard and/or Princeton over the academies. To use a wrong to right a long past wrong to assuage guilt or make people feel better about themselves is, well, wrong. Especially when life or death is on the line. Hold everybody to the same standard, and we are good to go. Drop the standards and the outstanding are questioned immediately as to their ability or promotion on the double standard. You may feel differently, but if your life depended on it, would you want the best troop there was standing next to you or would you want the best color of troop standing next to you. If a troop is held to a lower standard, you don’t know which one you get standing next to you. AND under that same system, you MAY view the minority different as he has come in on lower standards. He may be hot at his job, or he may have been the dude that got in and but for the grace of diversity just got out and can’t find North on a chart. The reason I say “he” is because there is DEFINITELY a double standard for females and males. That is a whole other issue and that addresses the physical inequalities which may or may not affect job performance, based on which job one gets.
	Carla October 12th, 2009 at 8:52 pm Stop the presses! There’s a double standard at the Naval Academy! Wow, if only things could be like they were in the olden days when only the students of highest possible academic merit were admitted notwithstanding their talents or backgrounds or, say, their status as legacies … Not. Anyone who knows anything about the history of the Naval Academy knows that there have always been certain fortunate sons who came by their appointments not so much on their merits but upon their relationship to certain families or influential graduates. How else to explain not only the admission but retention of someone like John McCain, who got in because of who he was and not on individual merit and who made a career of flouting every rule while there? He was only the most notorious example. This is not to say that the USNA and probably the other service academies shouldn’t take a look at their recruiting policies. Are they here to make great sports teams or to make our next generation of military leaders? Most worrisome is the impact of the criticism by the Professor upon those who have actually done the work and are there on academic merit. It seems unfair to them.
	LT B October 12th, 2009 at 9:57 pm True, but they didn’t have remedial math and reading for them. They do now! I wonder if the Ivy Leagues do. Seriously, I have no idea. I saw a student w/ a 0.4 GPA at the academy and they tried to retain him as he was a football player. Really?! As if he would make a good officer?
	Proud to Serve October 12th, 2009 at 10:27 pm I am heartened by the fact that somebody was brave enough to stand up and be politically uncorrect. As to this changing anything… It probably wont happen. As a military member I am saddend by the fact that color OR athletic ability factors in at all. The USNA’s “whole person” concept is BS and we all know it. Its time for some “change we can believe in.” ; )
	I love the USA October 12th, 2009 at 10:38 pm To Ms. Davis — I would bet if this English teacher was say Hispanic or African-American and he stood up to say that whites were held to a lesser standard you would be all up in his face. Your prejudice blocks your ability to see that the “po’ black boy” is held to a lesser standard because of your UNCLE’S treatment. My generation should not be held accountable for the sins of our forefathers. The system has been corrected. You just don’t want to see it. You would rather hold our countries FORMER mal-treatment of minorities close to your heart, making you bitter. It says nothing negative about this man’s character that he is willing to talk about statistics, facts, truths. Of course it does not hold to in 100% of the cases. But why should a kid who cannot measure up to the standards be offered a spot at one of the world’s greatest learning institutions because of the color of his skin? This ma’am to me is the RACISM, not the objection itself.
	Kimberly Davis October 13th, 2009 at 12:45 am Glad to hear you love the USA. FYI, my brother graduated from one of the academies in 1994. He was accepted on his merit, not because he could play football. He did end up walking on, though, and became quite good. His GPA at the academy wasn’t great. Not because he’s not smart (3.7 GPA and 1350 SAT), but because of other factors. Now, he’s a major on track for early promotion. Does that mean that performance at any of the Academies is a predictor of success in the service? What evidence do you have to show that people’s lives have been placed at risk because some “po’ black boy” is held to a lesser standard? How do you know you have the “best troop” next to you. If the choice is between an 18-year-old kid fresh out of boot camp and someone who graduated from one of the academies with a 2.0, whom would you choose? And it does say something negative about Mr. Fleming’s character when talking about these statistics, facts and ‘truths’ (your word, not mine, as truth is relative); it says that he leaves out a person’s character. And we will never agree on the definition of racism; so I’m not even going to answer that claim. And, yes, they have remedial math courses at the Ivy League level. And guess what? Some of those at the Academy who engage in remedial education had SAT scores in the range of 1200 and 1300. Some people, no matter their scores and grades, are unprepared for work at the college level; it’s an entirely different system of learning. That’s why it’s called HIGHER education. This report on a recent study about remedial education provides some context. Also, some of the comments are also important. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2009/03/31/rem… As for your saying my prejudice blocks my ability to see that the “po’ black boy” is held to a lesser standard, that only serves to reveal your own biases and prejudices. Not mine. I was accepted into Northwestern despite my SAT scores. I had a 3.9 GPA and the character (I’m assuming) that made me a desirable candidate. I’m now getting a doctorate on full fellowship after graduating in the top 10 percent of my master’s class. If the SAT and GPA were reliable measures of how people would perform in college, I wouldn’t have an argument. As it is, it’s only a partial measure or an indicator of future success. There is no way that a test and a GPA can tell the whole of a person–only part. And those of you attacking my comments or simply engaging with me, why remain anonymous?
	Amber Giltz October 13th, 2009 at 1:34 am Why do you think it is negative of him to leave out character? He is simply trying to point out statistically minorities are held to a lower standard academically. What you are saying in rebuttle is minorities have more character? Or am i misunderstanding? I also said that it doesn’t hold true in 100% of the cases. This is also true for the acceptance of whites. Not all are accepted based on merit. There are some that use their family connections or athletic ability to get in.
	Amber October 13th, 2009 at 1:35 am I would also like to apologize for my use of the term “po’ black boy.” It was definately in bad taste. But i still maintain that you dont want to believe that this accusation could be true. If it is obviously it is not the fault of those applying but the system. So therefore the system should be looked at? I agree academics are not everything and each individual applicant is different. You’re SAT scores do not show your ability to lead and leadership is the most important component in a Naval Officer. I believe that someone may be a terrible tester, have a lower GPA but be a fine officer. But what it all boils down to is THE STANDARDS ARE NOT STANDARD. The bar should be the same for everyone. It should not be easier for some to reach than others.
	Amber October 13th, 2009 at 1:35 am The comparison between an 18 year old kid fresh out of boot camp and a naval academy grad is not fair. They are going to be two way different people. The academy grad would have been afforded education and training the kid has not yet received. So we all know the choice clearly would be the graduate. It is a fixed comparison. Ma’am racism as defined by the dictionary would be discrimination or prejudice based on race. I guess I initially attacked your comment so I would rather turn this into an engagment, a conversation. I apologize if my remarks offeneded you. I would also like to say that the way this article is written sounds racist. I was a little taken aback at first. But I dont believe it detracts from the point that there are two different standards and perhaps this should be corrected. Sorry about the 3 posts. I guess it was too long and i had to split it up.
	Doc Conner October 13th, 2009 at 11:02 am Those of you who think the Ivy Leagues get the best of colors first before the academies had better do a little deeper research. The Ivy’s gpas were going down and subsequently they were loosing their pompus rep of being better just because. They reassessed their grading system and droped the grading system to allow for an artificial gpa to be published, therefore rasing their “good ole boy rep” for a higher and better education for those who go their.
	Dontarious Morgan October 13th, 2009 at 1:25 pm I would pick the guy out of basic training than somebody fresh out of the Academy. Officers are susposed to “lead.” But how are they susposed to lead if they have never been in that position. Privates act as team leaders, squad leaders, and platoon leaders in combat situation at basic.…. I have seen plenty of officers from Academies that were ate up. They froze up on certain situations, couldn’t make a decision in time, and were not dependable during combat. Even on my deployment, some officers didn’t interact with the NCO’s and micromanaged everything. And when a firefight came about, they started pulling rank. I do have respect for officers but just because you have a degree from USNA or West Point doesn’t mean that you will a good officer, or even a leader.….That is all that matters.….Isn’t that why people go to USNA???
	JRM October 13th, 2009 at 1:50 pm Here again, racism is a one way street. A white person is assumed to be racist and minorities are GIVEN certain leeway due to skin color. That is pure racism and NOT what the concept of correcting a long past wrong is about. Equal access when all other admission factors are equal is a great idea. Lowering the standards to recruit or retain minorities only dilutes the whole system and historically does not do anything to improve the status of the society or the person receiving the benefit based on color. Look at thing on the national level. With due respect, we have an executive who has no expience and whose ideas are opposite of the majority of Americans. But who wanted to be the first person to say I won’t vote for a person due to skin color all the while others were saying that the only reason they were voting a certian way (either way) was soley due to skin color. RACISM in it purest form. INstead of looking at the whole person and skills, abilities and knowledge, we can’t get past the skin. Sad situation in this country and one that will only reduce the whole in the end.
	George October 13th, 2009 at 3:06 pm MCPO(ret) — after 25 yrs USN, I am convinced that ALL midshipmen should first enlist, serve at least one year in the fleet, the request and complete NAPS prior to selection to the Academy. Neither race nor athletic ability has any bearing on future performance in leadership positions. Weed out the weak sisters before wasting the Navy’s limited resources on games and dubious social experiments. Cream always finds a way to the top, and many of the best officers got there via OCS.
	CharlesHouston October 13th, 2009 at 5:17 pm Let’s take a look at the Air Force, to spread the venom thinner! As an Air Force ROTC grad with three brothers and a nephew who are West Point grads (so perhaps I know something about the commissioning process) — the US needs the best qualified people to be officers regardless of commissioning path. Unfortunately, both ROTC and the service academies do accept candidates with lower scores and evaluations to promote diversity. Sure all universities have remedial programs and they are heavily filled with racial minority students. But the service academies also make a huge mistake — accepting academically weak students to improve their sports teams. These people may help the team while they are in college, but they are often not qualified to perform in the military after college. I have also been an active (both as Reserve officer and retired) Air Force liaison officer for ten years — helping students get AF Academy appointments and ROTC scholarships. I evaluated a candidate as not having great potential — but knew that she would get in since she had herself down as Hispanic. As far as I could tell she did not speak Spanish and she had no Hispanic culture — but she got into the AFA.
	CharlesHouston October 13th, 2009 at 5:18 pm part 2 I worked with a student who was academically fairly strong, but he was Hispanic and a great soccer player. I evaluated him very low due to his low interest in the military — he was appointed to AFA. At a minimum — the service academies should NOT have nationally competitive sports teams — to reduce the temptation to recruit academically weak students and other students who are not interested in the military. Charles Phillips LtCol USAF Retired
	cabgx2 October 13th, 2009 at 5:25 pm Great post. I spent 20 years in the Navy (SCPO-ret) and I always preferred to serve with officers who were prior enlisted.
	Tim Ratliff October 13th, 2009 at 5:46 pm Is it just me, or the more “diverse” we get, the lower the standards get to diversify? I wonder why that is? STOP LOOKIN FOR A HANDOUT AND START DOING YOUR HOMEWORK
	James Grainger October 13th, 2009 at 6:20 pm Affirmative Action has outlived it’s usefulness. Unfortunately, there a many, whites included, who think it still has a purpose. It takes more than a star running back or point guard to lead in combat.
	rasheri October 13th, 2009 at 7:08 pm Years ago I flew with a LTjg affirmative action activist on the Navigation table. Over the objections of CIC officers and Air Traffic Controllers he had us headed for France or England instead of returning to the North American Continent. We had as physical way points 4 Destroyer Esorts, One Coast Guard Ocean Station (D), the Portugese Azores Islands of Corvo and Flores. We had a surface search radar that reached out 250 miles and more radios than most ships. 16 if remember corretcly. After telling the Plane Commander that I was only an enlisted man and the CICO was biased. ( I was the Senior NCO, Flight Crew Leader, with several commendations and approaching 3500 hours flight time on the Barrier) our 2nd pilot finally got a star shot and turned us around. Several years later I met this WRONG WAY CORRIGAN on M street in Washington, DC. He was working as a lawyer with a civil rights advocacy firm. Within five minutes he was ranting about his slavery in the Navy. Getting blown out of the air by the British or the French air defense commands would have solved his slavery problems.
	ABarber October 13th, 2009 at 4:56 pm I’m not WHITE, I’m Italian American, is there a box for me? Should also look at the government hiring process. One either has to be an uneducated non-white or have a relative in a high up position to push your resume through CPOL. I have too much integrity to copy and paste a false resume and I think “the what ethnic box are you” should be removed from all applications. I believe without a doubt I have not been hired for many positions because the job went to someone other than [white] or they had friends in the hiring processes.
	Cedric October 15th, 2009 at 3:09 am It would be nice if the system was color and/or socio-economic status, but it isn’t. Now, I was recruited by both enlisted and officer recruiters when I was in high school. I scored high on the ASVAB and was desirable to both camps as an African American teen (double in the book). I enlisted because the enlisted recruiter had my ear more than the officer recruiters. I didn’t feel comfortable taking a BOOST billet as I came from a non-disadvantage background (at the time, dad had an executive MBA and was President/CEO of a non-profit and schoolteacher mother with masters in education) and affluent suburban schools.
	Cedric October 15th, 2009 at 3:10 am Part II Junior officers need to be reminded that they maybe senior to a CPO/LPO, but they will need the guidance and wisdom that the CPO/LPO posses. 2 years out of ROTC/academy has nothing on actual time in the fleet. To lead, you must learn how to follow. ABarber, if you served honorable, then you’ll eligible for veterans preference for civil service jobs. Is that giving one group preference over another? Yep! It is more than a test score or our racial background. Too often we are more comfortable choosing someone who looks like us rather than who is better qualified. When that happens I turned that into an opportunity to try harder and try again.
	Sgt Sly October 20th, 2009 at 12:24 pm Duh, I’m shocked that institutes of higher learning show favoritism to otherwise unqualified athletes. See also Vick, Young, Russell, Katzenmoyer.
	911xav8r October 21st, 2009 at 7:07 pm I was nominated to the USNA years ago as a young naive white high school senior. The USNA selection process was the very first exposure I had to “affirmative action”, and after not being selected and learning that my grades and test scores were far higher than the average African-American plebe, I was pretty disappointed and bewildered. I then went to a local college, joined a USMC Aviation Officer program but NPQ’d out for a spinal fusion. Decades later, I have had 2 careers as an Architect and then as a professional civilian pilot, and I have encountered a snootful of race politics in both. As a white person already in minority status in Milwaukee, WI where I now live, I see things much differently now. I am sick of race politics in every aspect of my life. I have struggled every step of the way, paid for every class and flight hour from meager incomes in highly competitive jobs and am currently unemployed and unable to find work in either profession. I don’t feel like I’ve had a particularly easy time because I am white. But yet I have to pay for some sin “my race” committed. Isn’t that racism?
	911xav8r October 21st, 2009 at 7:18 pm I am glad that someone at the USNA with experience and credibility has the courage to say what has been obvious for many years. Yes, there were always exceptions made for children of distinguished military and government families, and most colleges do favor athletes. That’s never been fair, but it was somewhat rational and fairer than making the huge exceptions now made in every institution and workplace in America about race. I worked for an Architect who made a lucrative career from his race status by “affiliating” himself with civil construciton projects as a “DBE” consultant, (selling his name for a fee). He then gained a fat job in county government and feels he’s an example of a successful professional African American. When race-politics reverse the roles, who’s going to do the actual work? Who’s going to pay the taxes for entitlements? I sure don’t feel “advantaged” by having been white. As a matter of well-known fact, had I been black, or female, I would have made it to any goal in either profession in about a quarter of the time, and often with little or no expense.
	911xav8r October 21st, 2009 at 7:20 pm “Life isn’t fair” is a line most parents say to our children at some point, but we need to try to make Life be as fair as we can, — just to avoid war, if nothing else. Swinging a pendulum too far in an opposite direction doesn’t fix an injustice, it only creates another one. In my case, it has created a person who is now admittedly racist, — not against every black person, just the black culture of entitlement, poor behavior and deficient values that I feel have become a blight on this nation. It really hasn’t begun to be addressed and It would end immediately if “White Guilt” ended. I never felt that because all my ancestors were running the underground railroad or fighting for the North in the Civil War. I think it’s time to move on, people.
	Peteo March 30th, 2010 at 5:12 pm I have always wondered about a correlation of a cadet’s performance with the political leaning of their congressional sponsor. I shudder to think of the qualities Pelosi must demand for an appointment.

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