The prestigious US Military Academy at West Point has opened an inquiry after 16 black female cadets posed for a photograph with fists raised in militant style.
The pose struck by the cadets, dressed in their gray uniforms, while standing on the steps of barracks late last month, is seen by some critics as an implicit show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and thus a potential violation of a US Department of Defense rule against “partisan political activity.”
West Point seeks to portray itself as a melting pot that brings together talented students from across the nation, without regard for racial or ethnic differences, for elite training as future military leaders. Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Kasker, a spokesman for the academy in New York state, confirmed that the cadets were members of the current graduating class.
“Academy officials are conducting an inquiry into the matter,” Kasker said on Saturday.
The young women were following a longtime tradition at West Point, where soon-to-be graduates each year strike stern and straight-laced poses in historic style much as their predecessors have done for more than a century.
However, instead of raising their sabers to the sky, as they did in another photograph without controversy, the black student-officers sparked a mini-tempest by raising their fists at a school with a predominantly white male student population.
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