May 13 updating to correct: Jared Keller explains that the event was not at the White House and wasn’t military spouses in general.
The photo was actually taken at the annual Joint Armed Forces of Washington Luncheon (JAFOWL) on April 24, not the White House. In fact, it only shows members of the Air Force Officers’ Spouses’ Club.
…
Given that the wives in this photo chose to marry Air Force officers — 20 percent of whom identify as a racial minority, below the rate for officers across the entire U.S. armed forces — it would make sense that there might be a distinct under-representation of black and Asian military spouses, and it’s certainly a problem. But the issue isn’t that the White House only invited white women — it’s that organizations like JAFOWL, though they serve the military and veterans communities admirably, are stuck in the f*cking 1950s.
Many others believe that groups like JAFOWL reinforce a hierarchy where officers’ spouses have a louder and more prominent voice than enlisted spouses, and Military Spouse Appreciation Day is a fantastic chance to get the Pentagon’s attention on like this. Sadly, Ron Klain ruined it with an inaccurate cheap shot at the White House — and in an age where all quarters of the government shout down their critics as “fake news,” this sort of inaccuracy can muddle the waters on a subject indefinitely.
H/t Sackbut
Wow.
https://twitter.com/RonaldKlain/status/994807951679508481
Comments
14 responses to “Selection”
Not just that – they all seem to be young and attractive. Funny how that is, huh?
Also, they all seem to be women.
Like ‘What a Maroon’ said. Aren’t there women in the military.
Or gay men. Keep in mind that we don’t know anything about the spouses’ spouses—it’s conceivable that some of them are people of color and/or women.
The twitter thread says that this was for mothers day, which would explain the 100% female sample.
It’d be hilarious to suppose that every last woman there was married a woman of color in the military, making it a glorious celebration of armed interracial lesbianism… but I kinda doubt it.
There is at least one woman of color (fifth from the right, standing back row). So that’s 50 trillion to 1?
There are a few that are ambiguous, maybe 8 more.
But still super white overall. Probably self-selection, with POC not wanting to attend a Trump event. Still on Trump though, for being horrible.
Hmm – it’s far from a slam dunk that 5 right in the back row is of color. It feels icky to stare closely at people trying to figure out if they’re of color or not, but still…far from certain.
So, I count 50 women in that photo. Around half are various shades of blonde (not that that means much these days I guess) which is of note simply because I very much doubt even half the Anglo population is naturally blonde. As for the woman at 5 right, possibly Asian, but not necessarily so. Given that black and Hispanic men are over represented in the military, it does stand out that the sample is so white. Also, is there a law in the US that requires women to have long hair?
#5 Holms.
Don’t you know that men have babies too nowadays? Don’t let anyone hear you say different, lest you be cast into the outer darkness, and trolled to exhaustion by the trans-police.
Yes. It’s called the Bible. At least, that’s what I was told by my parents!
Of course, some of us do have long hair because our hair is such that when it is short it becomes impossible to take care of, but when it is long, it behaves itself…but I suspect most of these women have long hair to “look feminine”.
The photo appears to be from a different event, and those are members of the Air Force Officers’ Spouses Club.
Here is an article correcting the error and containing photos from the White House event.
Aha. Thank you; I’ll update.