The director of an American military school was sacked Monday, October 26, after the opening of an investigation into accusations of systemic racism in this establishment in Virginia which still honors the memory of the Confederate generals on a daily basis.
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In a letter of resignation issued by the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), retired General Binford Peay, 80, says Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam had "
lost confidence in my ability to lead
" the institute and "
asked for my resignation
".
Binford Peay had run one of the oldest military universities in the country for 17 years.
Since the death of George Floyd at the end of May, a black man who was killed during his arrest by a white policeman, the United States military, which is one of the institutions where minorities are most represented in the United States, has opened a big internal debate on racism.
Black students and graduates of the Virginia Military Institute then denounced on social networks the indifference shown by management when they claimed to be victims of racist insults from other students, undeserved punishment, even racist thoughts of their teachers.
Last month, the African-American magazine The Root published the testimonies of several black students.
One of them recounted how a teacher had smilingly mentioned her father, a member of the Ku Klux Klan;
another was protesting because all students must salute a statue of Southern General Stonewall Jackson every time they pass by.
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Ralph Northam last week ordered the opening of an investigation into "
structural racism
" within the establishment, which receives public funding after the publication of these testimonies.
When black students protested against what they see as a "
glorification of the confederates
" of the Southern states, opposed to the abolition of slavery, during the Civil War (1861-1865), the leadership has always refused to change what she sees as a "
tradition
" that is not racist.
