Pete Hegseth is laser-focused on what is really important: making sure America’s armed forces are clean-shaven. What? You were expecting that his priority would be overseeing a bombing campaign that is quite clearly extrajudicial murder?
While in South Korea, Hegseth has declared that he will not be meeting with any troops who are not clean-shaven, The beard thing is an absolutely unhinged and bigoted obsession for Hegseth. Service members are required to be clean-shaven, but they can obtain a shaving waiver and maintain a beard if they have a medical necessity or a religious exemption. However, since Hegseth’s eyes cannot abide the sight of a beard, he’s eliminated permanent shaving waivers.
This fixation is not just a weird idiosyncratic thing for Hegseth (something on which he places outsized importance but doesn’t really matter to others). What's really underlying it is Hegseth’s constant obsession with stripping the military of everyone except white men.
Most soldiers who need a shaving waiver for medical necessity are Black, because Black men get pseudofolliculitis barbae, where curly hair grows back into the skin and causes painful bumps and scarring. The only real treatment for it is not to shave closely. About 3% of white men have the condition, but for Black men it’s anywhere from 45-80%. So, Hegseth’s “no beardos” rule is going to disproportionately affect Black men, which is precisely what Hegseth wants. Now, anyone who requires a shaving waiver for longer than a year will be involuntarily separated from the military.
There are also religions that require men to maintain beards-- and let’s just guess they are probably not religions Hegseth thinks should exist. Both Islam and Sikhism require beards, so this policy may also have the effect of forcing those troops to choose between their faith and their jobs. Real nice religious freedom you got there!
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