West Point black female cadets will not face punishment for raised fist gesture in photo

Sixteen black female cadets will not face punishment for raising their fists in a pre-graduation photo, said the US Military Academy.

Just two weeks before the women graduate, they were found not to have violated military rules which limit political activity.

The West Point cadets took several pictures of themselves in uniform on the steps on their barracks building, raising a fist – a gesture often associated with the national Black Lives Matter movement which fights racial injustice.

The images circulated on social media and received a strong backlash from people who said the women should not have raised their fists while wearing uniform.

An internal inquiry, instigated on 28 April, found that the cadets did not plan to make a political statement.

“I find that, based upon available evidence, none of the participants, through their actions, intended to show support for a political movement,” said the investigator, whose name was not released to the public.

The women’s gesture, however, showed “a lapse of awareness in how symbols and gestures can be misinterpreted and cause division”, according to a letter to the student body from Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen Jr.

He added the cadets will receive instruction to address “their intent versus the impact of the photo”.

Army Times, a weekly newspaper that is read by US Armed Forces personnel, said that it received several letters arguing that the photo went against military guidelines.

But Mr Caslen said that other cadets have used clenched fists to show support for a team or pride at serving their country. He added that he, along with hundreds of West Point employees and graduates, raised their fists the night before the Army-Navy football game in 2015.

“The time, place and manner of a symbol can also hold significant meaning and influence perception,” he wrote.

A raised fist is a gesture shared by civil rights activists since the 1960s and has been used by Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison in 1990 to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail in 2016.

“Their [the cadets'] frame of reference is: 'Right now, we're getting ready to graduate in three weeks. I'm standing here with my sisters,'” said Mary Tobin, a 2003 West Point graduate who spoke to the students after the photo was taken.

There are 18 black women in a year of about 1,000 students who are set to graduate on 21 May, and critics said the female seniors were being held to different standards.

“Will there ever be a time when black women can unapologetically show that they are strong, proud and supportive of one another without their action being interpreted as an act of militant defiance?” Essence magazine editor-in-chief Vanessa De Luca asked in the Wall Street Journal.

West Point is 70 per cent white and 80 per cent male.

Seniors traditionally pose in grey uniforms carrying sabres to mimic the “Old Corps” photos as part of a pre-graduation ritual.