⁍ As America confronts the question of systemic racial injustice, the U.S. military is undergoing its own moment of reckoning.

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⁍ As America confronts the question of systemic racial injustice, the U.S. military is undergoing its own moment of reckoning.

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⁍ But interviews with dozens of current and former U.S. service members reveal deep skepticism about whether coming forward with concrete allegations of discrimination will be beneficial.

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– When Deven Sherk first saw a swastika scrawled in the bathroom at Barksdale Air Force base in October 2018, he was already disillusioned with how the Air Force handled racism complaints. The Black airman had filed a complaint alleging discrimination that June when a fellow airman, a white man, hung a noose near him on the base. “I felt that was a direct threat to my life,” he tells Reuters. Along with the noose, he reported seeing a whip on display at the hangar where he worked, with slogans including “F—in Attitude Adjuster” written in marker. Sherk says he never felt the Air Force’s Equal Opportunity office took seriously his complaints of racism. By February of 2019, the Air Force said it quietly censured several people over Sherk’s complaint, but the sergeant’s career was over. He says he found himself pushed out of the service with an honorable discharge after suffering depression and anxiety. “Incidents like these must stop,” an Air Force spokeswoman said of Sherk’s case. “We are committed to ensuring our Air Force is a place of respect, diversity and inclusion.” But interviews with dozens of current and former service members reveal deep skepticism about whether coming forward with concrete allegations of discrimination will be beneficial. Especially daunting, they say, is using the complaint process specifically set up to address concerns from members of the Armed Forces. So-called Equal Opportunity offices are located on US military bases around the world to give troops access to some of the protections against discrimination that American civilians can tap into the US Equal Employment Opportunity. Troops, which can investigate discrimination against the military’s a major issue.