Readers React: Why question the motives of West Point’s female black cadets?

To the editor: Let’s be real: If the West Point cadets posing with raised fists were Korean, Latino, White or any other racial group, no one would have cared. So why do an inquiry when a group of black female cadets did it? (“Where Beyonce, Black Lives Matter and global history collide: The ‘Black Power’ salute at West Point,” May 9)

Now a shadow has been cast unfairly over these future leaders because someone or a group of persons chose to question their motives. At this point, the rational thing to do is simply to ask each cadet informally why she raised her fist rather then assuming that somehow they were all giving a “shout out” to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Where was the controversy in 2012 when Mitt Romney, then a presidential candidate, spoke to an audience of uniformed cadets at the Citadel and told them they had a weak commander-in-chief in President Obama? That entire speech was partisan political activity, and uniformed cadets participated.

As a retired military officer, I actually wrote the Citadel to inform it that Romney’s speech to uniformed cadets, in my opinion, was in poor taste and violated military customs and courtesies.

Kimberlyn Hearns, San Bernardino

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To the editor: My reaction to the “controversial” photo of the graduating cadets of West Point? Power to the people in the picture — black female cadets.

Right on.

Stan N. Seidel, Rancho Palos Verdes

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