Racial Disparity Root Cause Analysis for the Department of the Air Force

In December 2020, the Department of the Air Force (DAF) Inspector General (IG) released Report of Inquiry (S8919P): Independent Racial Disparity Review (which we will also refer to as the RDR), which examined racial disparities that exist for Black service members in several areas, including certain promotion rates and selection/classification into operational versus support careerfields.4 In September 2021, the DAF IG released Report of Inquiry (S8918P): Disparity Review (which we will also refer to as the DR), which expanded on the RDR by examining disparities in discipline and opportunities for other racial/ethnic minorities Asian, Native American, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic/Latino and for women.5 These reports found that minority military members are underrepresented in promotions to E-5E-7 and O-4O-6 and in the operational Air Force specialties, with the largest disparity being among pilots. The Director of Military Force Management Policy, Deputy Chief of Staff for Manpower, Personnel and Services, Headquarters U.S. Air Force(AF/A1P), was charged with responding to the DAF IG reports by identifying root causes that explain the racial disparities and developing countermeasures to address them.6