When I first started reading this story, I admit that mentally I pushed back. As a young Air Force officer, some of my brother and sister officers were of Asian descent. I never saw them treated with anything less than respect, and their careers advanced on schedule.

Then I remembered a young enlisted man in my flight. He was white, but he wasn’t well liked, and something about his face might have looked vaguely Asian. He had extremely poor social skills, and in retrospect I suspect he was probably autistic.

By the time I finished reading your article, I remembered that his nickname was Gook.

I never called him that, because in my position it would have been unprofessional. But most everyone else in the flight did, and I did nothing to stop it even though I could have and should have.

I knew that nickname was an anti-Asian slur. We all did.

And we tolerated it anyway.

Thank you for reminding me of that.