This is an interview segment with Atlantic staff writer Clint Smith about Black service members’ reactions to Pete Hegseth’s leadership at the Pentagon. Smith says many officers feel sidelined or erased by the rhetoric and policy climate, including book removals, the removal of Black military symbols, and promotion interference, and that this is already affecting retention, recruitment, and morale.
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The segment centers on Clint Smith’s reporting about how Black military officers say they are experiencing Pete Hegseth’s tenure as defense secretary. Smith’s core thesis is that the environment has shifted from the long-standing question of belonging in the military to a sharper sense of exclusion and erasure, driven by rhetoric, policy, and symbolic decisions that suggest Black officers are less deserving of senior roles. He describes a “cognitive dissonance” among service members: on one hand, they feel told they are not worthy of high-ranking positions; on the other, many still want to remain in service because the military will outlast any administration. He gives several examples of what is fueling that reaction. …
Near term, the actionable issue is rising reputational and morale risk around Hegseth’s personnel and cultural decisions in the Pentagon. The setup is about continued negative headlines and possible further signs of officer attrition, not a market trade.
Over weeks to months, the story depends on whether the Pentagon continues intervention in promotions and symbolic resets or whether the backlash cools. If the complaints persist and retention worsens, the narrative becomes a broader talent-and-readiness problem for the military.
Structurally, the segment argues that institutional legitimacy matters for force quality and that the military’s role as a ladder of Black mobility could be weakened if Black service members increasingly feel unwelcome. The long-run implication is about who sees the military as a credible, inclusive institution.
Black members of the military are experiencing a particularly hard time under Pete Hegseth's leadership.
Smith says the last year and a half has been hard for Black service members and links that to Hegseth and Pentagon appointees.
Black officers feel they are being told they are less worthy of high-ranking positions and can be blocked from promotions they otherwise deserve.
He describes explicit and implicit messaging that Black officers do not deserve senior roles, including intervention in promotions.
Some Black service members want to stay in the military because they believe the administration will eventually be gone while they remain.
Smith explains the tension between leaving and staying to protect what they built.
What is it like to be black in Hegseth's military right now? What did black military officers tell you?
Black military members are experiencing cognitive dissonance. On one hand, they're being told implicitly and explicitly by Pete Hegseth and his appointees that they are not worthy of high-ranking positions, that their service is less meaningful, and that Hegseth will prevent them from attaining ranks they deserve. On the other hand, they feel a sense of duty to stay because the administration will be gone before they are, and they have a responsibility to protect what they've built.
What changed once Pete Hegseth became defense secretary, according to retired Colonel Gerald Curry?
Dr. Curry described how the straw that broke the camel's back was being told certain books would be removed from military academies like the Air Force Academy and West Point — preventing young cadets from encountering American history, sociology, and works like Maya Angelou's. He also pointed to the removal of portraits like General Chappie James Jr., the first Black four-star general, from prominent spaces in the Air Force gallery at the Pentagon.
What message does it send when even symbols honoring generations of black military contributions are removed or essentially erased?
It has a hugely damning impact because the portrait of Chappie James represented the intergenerational impact Black soldiers have had on the military. Many officers are second, third, fourth generation service members whose ancestors served from the Civil War through Afghanistan. Walking past that portrait was seeing a manifestation of that history — someone who personified Black soldiers' commitment to a country that hasn't always made that same commitment to them.
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