NEW YORK (AP) – Sixteen black West Point cadets who posed with raised fists for a pre-graduation 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.