America's Navy: Forged by a Sea … of Whiteness

Diversity has become a top priority for the Navy In January of this year the Department of Defense published the Task Force One Navy TF1N Final Report The TF1N was established last summer as a response to nationwide protests following George Floyd39s murder and quotset out to analyze and evaluate issues in our society and military that detract from Navy readiness such as racism sexism and other structural and interpersonal biases to attain significant sustainable IampampD Inclusion and Diversityrelated reformquotThe TF1N was organized around four quotLines of Effortquot The first of which quotRecruiting Navy Recruiting Command NRCquot was led by the same flag officer quoted in the Ad Age article RDML Dennis Velez Noting that quotdiverse teams are 58 percent more likely than nondiverse teams to accurately assess a situationquot and that quotmission readiness is stronger when diverse strengths are usedquot the report made 56 recommendations for reform Here39s the first1 Strengthen Outreach to Underrepresented CommunitiesCurrent recruiting strategies do not fully appeal to diverse populations Diverse candidates require diverse outreach Thus our efforts to reach future Sailors and officers should use a concerted MampampA marketing and advertising and strategic outreach plan which highlights the many existing voices within Navy ranks MeasureOutcomes Improvement in the number of minority applications selections and commissioning to reflect relevant national demographic percentagesIn other words the Navy needs advertising to quotreshape recruiting efforts to better address minoritiesquot and thereby quotdismantle barriers to equalityquot in order to quotattract and recruit the best talent from our diverse nationquot The report also recommends that quotNPC Navy Personnel Command Staff Reflects the Diversity of the Navy Populationquot and increase quotconfidence and transparency in the talent management processquot Indeed the Navy enlisted population has grown increasingly diverse For instance in just the last two decades the percentage of nonWhite Sailors has increased from 31 to 38 And today 19 are BlackSo it39s no wonder the TF1N Final Report seeks to quotimplement researchbased Marketing ampamp Advertising MampampA and deliberate sustained and relevant community outreach within underrepresented communities that appeal to Generation Z minoritiesquot while also noting that quotall members up and down the chain of command need to own IampampD to both hold themselves and others accountablequot while they quotplan and execute the Navy39s marketing and advertising activities incorporating Inclusion and Diversity Goals and ObjectivesquotIn that spirit of accountability up and down the supply chain of command let39s do a head count Here39s Blum39s VMLYampampR crew plus senior staff from Wavemaker and Iostudio quotDiverse candidates require diverse outreach to reflect relevant national demographic percentagesquot One has to wonder if the Navy39s criteria was the ability to quotaccurately assess a situationquot and quotmission readinessquot to recruit quotAmerica39s diverse talent poolquot then how did this unit pass musterWhile the Navy says their Personnel Command should reflect the diversity of their enlisted population it would appear that the same standard does not apply to their agencies If it did we would see at least two Black faces on VMLYampampR39s team alone Suffice it to say that this kind of transparency does not inspire confidence in quotthe talent management processquot Adding insult to injury despite the Navy39s own report finding that quotcurrent recruiting strategies do not fully appeal to diverse populationsquot they still decided to double down by awarding nearly half a billion dollars to a monochromatic team from the same agency they hired in 2015Having already used this data visualization methodology to reveal who39s in control behind the scenes of Super Bowl ads and a beloved insurance spot I39m not surprised by the results But having also written elsewhere about the importance of taxfunded marketing dollars being allocated to creative teams that represent the diversity of American taxpayers I find this case particularly brazen given federal requirements to include minorityowned businesses in government contracts Thus when I saw VMLYampampR39s Navy quotwinquot the victors brought five other words to mind Whiskey Hotel India Tango EchoPhotos courtesy of Christopher BoultonClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160amp160amp160

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America's Navy: Forged by a Sea … of Whiteness

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Christopher Boulton

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