Washington — The Pentagon has ordered military leaders to remove and review library materials related to diversity, anti-racism and gender issues within the next two weeks.
The order was sent Friday to leadership and is the latest step in the Trump administration’s broad effort to purge so-called diversity, equity and inclusion content from federal agencies.
“The Department’s instructional materials should be mission-focused and not promote divisive concepts and gender ideology,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Military leaders must identify any library materials at their educational institutions that are “potentially incompatible with this core mission” and “appropriately sequester those materials” by May 21, according to the order. The materials will then be reviewed and “an appropriate ultimate disposition” will be determined, it states.
A temporary panel, the Academic Libraries Committee, will provide guidance on process and developed a list of search terms to help identify the materials requiring review. The terms include “affirmative action,” “allyship,” “anti-racism,” “critical race theory,” “discrimination,” “diversity in the workplace,” “gender identity,” “transgender people” and “white privilege,” among others.
“Those terms and guidance are to assist solely with the preliminarily identification and sequestration of materials to be further reviewed,” the order says.
Several military institutions received similar orders in recent weeks to review their materials, including the Naval Academy, which removed hundreds of books on the Holocaust, histories of feminism, civil rights and racism.