Sixteen Black West Point cadets who posed with raised fists for a pre-graudation picture that sparked debates on race and proper behavior in uniform won’t be punished for the gesture, the U.S Military Academy said Tuesday.
The decision, less than two weeks before the 16 female seniors are poised to graduate, found they didn’t violate military rules limiting political activity.
An internal inquiry found the cadets didn’t plan to make a political statement, West Point’s superintendent, Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr., said in a letter to the student body.
But. he said, they showed “a lapse of awareness in how symbols and gestures can be misinterpreted and cause division,” and they will receive instruction to address “their intent versus the impact of the photo.”
The fists-up image, which circulated online, led some observers to question whether the women were expressing support for the Black Lives Matter movement, which grew out of protests over police killings of unarmed Black men.
But the inquiry found the picture, among several the women made in keeping with an informal campus tradition, captured a spur-of-the-moment gesture intended to demonstrate unity and pride in graduating, Caslen wrote.
Some observers suggested the women were improperly identifying with the movement while in uniform.
Defenders said the women were simply celebrating their forthcoming graduation, something closer in spirit to a team lifting helmets to celebrate a win.
The decision was politically fraught for West Point, which has been making a push to increase the number of women in the Long Gray Line. About 80% of cadets are men and about 70% are White. In all, there are 18 black women among the roughly 1,000 seniors on track to graduate May 21.