Dear West Point,
In 1944 when Bashon Crawford was a private in the U.S. Army, the law of the land forbade him from fighting for his country in a unified Army. He was subject to segregation, discrimination, and Jim Crow laws which said, you can wear the cloth of a nation, but you'll have to use a separate water fountain, separate bathroom, sit in a different section of movie theater, lunch counter and bus, even though you choose to risk your life to protect the freedoms of EVERYONE who would wish to use the same.
In 2016 America, a black person can sit in church and pray while being killed for simply the color of their skin, as our justice system debates whether or not it is an 'act of terrorism'. In 2016 America, the mere mention of the words, 'Black Lives Matter,' draws the ire of irrational individuals who exclaim that in fact, ALL LIVES MATTER without even considering the facts which make the latter so evidently contradictory when juxtapose with the former and subsequently unwilling to debate any merits necessary to arrive at a truth too few wish to acknowledge.
If in 2016 a black woman, 16 of them at least, decide to undertake the rigors of our nation's United States Military Academy and adhere to its educational demands, physical and mental stress, and face the fatigue of a nation at war; all while keeping in mind the numbers of sexual assault cases present across our military -- then I would suggest the biggest political statement she can make is wearing the uniform itself each and everyday.
A fist in the air is a triumph over adversity, not an investigation of wrongdoing.