Hagel bows to CBC; This is not my surprised face
We all know how Chuck Hagel takes on the really tough issues – like the drone wars medal, how he put the kibosh on that as soon as he got into office. Next up is hairstyles in the Army, says Stars & Stripes;
Following an outcry by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel is considering changing hairstyle regulations that affect female African-American servicemembers.
On Tuesday, Hagel sent a letter to lawmakers announcing that, within 30 days, each of the services will review the definitions of authorized and prohibited hairstyles contained in each of their respective policies and revise any language that might be considered offensive.
Caucus members had complained that a recently updated Army regulation governing troops’ hairstyles was racist and unfairly targeted African-American women.
The easier issues, like winning the war against terror, the childish-acting flag officers, the suicide rate among reservists and National Guard soldiers, the Russian invasion of the Crimea…those problems will all solve themselves eventually. But we need needles down on this hair standard thing.
“The use of words like ‘unkempt’ and ‘matted’ when referring to traditional hairstyles worn by women of color are offensive and biased”…all 16 female members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote in a letter to Hagel
Funny, my hair is unkempt most days and no one ever mistook me for a “woman of color”. We probably need 8-hour orientation classes for everyone, that would be my solution, complete with PowerPoint presentations. Anything we can do to keep Congress from doing their actual jobs is helpful. Right up there with keeping generals’ minds off of fighting those war thingies we have boiling up…um…somewhere or other.
Category: Congress sucks
To be fair, Jonn: in his position as SECDEF, Hagel can’t ignore any member of Congress, much less a group of 14. That’s true whether their concerns/complaints are valid ones or are raving lunacy. In either case, he has to at least go through the motions and “glad-hand” them.
Yeah, he has more important things to do. But Congress approves the $$$ to pay DoD’s bills, so he kinda has to be polite and seem interested in their concerns – even when those concerns are bogus.
Eff it. Have only two authorized haircuts, regardless of gender/race – High and tight or none at all.
STOP MAKING SENSE!!!!11!11111!!!!!
Since when do civilian hair styles get “consideration” as authorized for military wear?? That’s what being in “uniform” means; everyone abides by the same grooming standards, regardless of color, ethnicity, etc. When they started making exceptions to the uniform/grooming standards, then the flood gates were opened to everyone’s little idiosyncracies. I don’t give a fuck who you are, no facial hair and a high n tight is the order of the day, dammit!
there’s precedent. Exceptions were made for Sikhs. Now everybody’s a special snowflake
Exceptions have always been made on grooming standards on a case by case basis. The “Sikh exception” applies to all who can show a Religious Belief that requires a waiver. While I have some issues with it, they are pretty damned minor.
This Bull Shit about the CBC harping on this is just beyond stupid!!
My response on another forum to this story…
Stupid bitches…. you fucking joined the Army, not girl scouts. Cut your fucking hair to regulations and quit your fucking bitching. Seriously, how many of us had High and Tights, not because we wanted them but because someone up the chain decided that was the standard for the Unit you served in? Some douchebag wants to complain she cannot have her frucking weave? Go make me a sammich, because you don’t belong in the Army bitch.
Exceptions were made for Sikhs? My first PSG in 1982 was Sikh. Vietnam Vet, retired a CSM.
Yeah, thats a good idea with the high and tight. Lets bring back the stupid looking high and tight along with the starched uniforms, shiny boots and a bunch of dipshits that wont do their jobs like properly PMCSing a vehicle or pre-flighting an aircraft because we are afraid of getting our uniforms dirty or our boots scuffed.
Will he also direct the services to review the uniform regulations that affect inked-Americans? Here’s a thought: 10 second rule for hairstyles. You go in a room with an NCO. He has a CS grenade and a ball peen hammer. He pops the CS, in 10 seconds he’s going to hit you in the head with the hammer. Better hope you can get your mask and kevlar on in time. Otherwise it’s going to be a painful day
Oh, let’s just go back to the 1960s, when the regulation for women’s hair for ALL services was ABOVE AND OFF the damned collar. Period. It applied to ALL women, no exceptions.
This is simply childish.
There you go, making sense again… 🙂
Lemme guess…Sheila Jackson Lee got her royal crown weave all worked up about this because, she is always the first in line to throw down the race card.
I believe Lee is indeed a member of the CBC, streetsweeper. Whether she was leading this little band of tw
erps or just one of the crowd, I don’t know. Nor do I care.
I’m with Stacy0311. He has the point on this one.
“The use of words like ‘unkempt’ and ‘matted’ when referring to traditional hairstyles worn by women of color are offensive and biased”…all 16 female members of the Congressional Black Caucus wrote in a letter to Hagel”
Well, well, well! Aren’t we all just becoming special, unique little soldiers these days. I say if you ain’t happy wif yo nappy, then stay the hell out of the military or stay in current regs. I understand Hagel has to appease congress but it doesn’t mean he has to do anything other than the usual, “It has been given due consideration”. If black woman don;t like their “natural” their fucking problem to groom, clean and comb, not the military’s to adapt to them. Next thing we’ll see is black female troops in red wigs.
Egads. Is this really the most important issue with which members of Congress need to occupy their time? Maybe so, because if they look elsewhere, they might just screw things up worse than they already have.
Just can’t manage to generate anything, much less outrage, over this nonsense.
Good lord, this should be a non-issue with troops. These hair styles look OK to me. I would not like to go thu life with a high and tight. As most of you EX military like to say, uniform means uniform. Since when do we give up all of our individuality just to serve.
We can be in the military and still be an individual. Please get over yourselves.
OK, let me have it!
Let you have it about which part? Pretty much I don’t understand what exactly you are trying to say. Perhaps it is too nuanced. Or maybe it’s just too inarticulate.
In any case, what’s with the slam at EX military? Many of us are called “Retired.” At least that is what it says on my ID card. If you don’t like the term, please take it up with someone else.
No, I will not get over myself,you can maintain some individuality but not all of it, you’re in the military damit!!
When is the military going to be allowed to do their job and continue protecting the freedoms of this country without becoming a pussified social experiment. Military life is different from civilian life and you know that when you come into it.Be thankful we don’t have a draft,a person volunteers, remember? Play by the rules that are created for the general function of a specific life style or just get the fuck out. We are not a fashion statement, we have a job to do while you and the rest of America are in the shopping mall worrying over designer handbags and calling baseball players heros.
Stupid.
Blah blah blah … and being an Irishman it is not recommended to drink whiskey at work!
What is the problem CBC?
As expected, you did let me have it. As far as the EX in my comments, most of you are not retired, but did serve. No disrespect intended but still putting in the 20 required takes some discipline and tolerance to others.
We all do not march in lock step in our views. I will bet that at least some of the contributors to this blog took their discharge because of the life style required or some other regulation they did not like. Otherwise they would have stayed in the service they claimed to have loved.
As far as my own 22 years plus, it was not always a cake walk or something I enjoyed everyday, but I did it. So let us not quibble amoung the retired and former service personnel, but let us rejoice in having survived.
How about wearing covers sideways and pants on the ground?
There has to be common sense thrown in somewhere. Just like its crazy to expect make-up that is made for light skinned females to look good or match the complexion of dark skinned ones the hair issue is one where you have people of different types trying to fit into some standard of uniformity.
It’s no so much a matter of culture or rebellion, its a case of it being physically impossible to make hair behave the same way.
I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.
Of course. All they want to do is play the racism card and whine to get their way.
Maybe the regulations shouldn’t allow hair to look like shit? Oh wait, they already do that… for men.
Somehow I really don’t think corn rows on a woman screams “professional”. They can call it whatever they want but they still wind up looking ridiculous in a uniform that should command respect instead.