Naval Academy Returns Over 300 Books to Libraries Initially Removed for DEI Concerns

Over the last four months, the Trump administration has launched an all-out assault on anything it believes promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the federal government. This makes it somewhat surprising that the U.S. Naval Academy announced that the majority of the books it pulled from the school’s libraries under the new anti-DEI mandates have been returned to bookshelves.

ABC News reports that of the 381 books that were initially pulled, only 20 have been held back for further review by a Department of Defense (DOD) panel. The return of the books came as a result of a May 9 memo from the Pentagon that listed May 21 as the date the military branches were to finalize and submit their list of books to align with the Trump administration’s ongoing DEI purge within the federal government. 

It appears the primary reason so many books were pulled was that there wasn’t a standardized criterion for what terms and content the DOD was searching for, so the Navy implemented its own criteria. Considering Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,” and Maia Kobabe’s “Gender Queer” were among the books pulled, that criteria seems to have boiled down to anything Black and/or queer. 

From ABC News: 

The 20 official search terms included in the May 9 memo included: affirmative action; allyship; anti-racism; critical race theory; discrimination; diversity in the workplace; diversity, equity, and inclusion; gender affirming care; gender dysphoria; gender expression; gender identity; gender nonconformity; gender transition; transgender military personnel; transgender people; transsexualism; transsexuals; and white privilege.

“The Navy has reviewed library collections at all Department of Navy educational institutions to ensure compliance with directives issued by the President and Department of Defense,” Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a Navy spokesman, said in a statement on Thursday. “The Navy has identified and sequestered library materials potentially incompatible with the military’s core mission, pending the Defense Department’s formal review.”

The Navy wasn’t the only branch of the armed forces to remove books, as the Air Force reported removing about 20 books from their libraries, while the Army hasn’t publicly reported how many books it removed from its libraries. 

The book removals were just one of the many regressive steps the armed forces have taken in recent months as a result of President Trump’s executive order ending DEI initiatives within the military. In April, the DOD announced a task force designed to ensure military installations and academies are complying with the elimination of DEI initiatives.

I’m generally anti-American imperialism, but I truly don’t understand how alienating communities that have historically served their country, even when this country didn’t serve them, makes our military stronger. 

While the books have been returned, the way the Navy has been moving in recent months leaves much to be desired. 

Earlier this week it was revealed that several Navy SEALs and platoon leaders are facing disciplinary actions for creating and distributing racist memes targeting a Black sailor in their platoon. In April, Ryan Holiday, an author who has spoken at the Naval Academy several times, had a speaking engagement with Naval students canceled an hour before he was set to appear when he refused to remove slides in his presentation that were critical of the book removals.  

It’s kind of funny that the DEI Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is spearheading these changes to implement a “warrior culture,” yet that culture seems to revolve entirely around erasing ideas that offend you, alienating non-white, non-heteronormative service members, and having the thinnest of skins when faced with mild criticism. 

But hey, at least the guy didn’t leak classified operations planning to a journalist and then throw a tantrum when called on it. Oh wait. 

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