Why wouldn’t they? Not enough role models on billboards, TV commercials, Hollywood films? If I didn’t know any better, these depictions would make me believe there are no white males on flight decks. Seen the Air Force chief of staff?...the “navy ace“ female that saved the day when the engine shelled out at Southwest? If minorities and women aren’t seeing it, they must be living under a rock

My ‘white privilege’ involved a GED, bus ticket from a rough neighborhood to boot camp. College and flight training via G.I. Bill. Same route any one of my underprivileged enlisted brothers and sisters could have pursued, but chose not to.

Sat on flight decks for decades talking to minorities/females, many of which came from Upper middle class upbringings, attended /recruited to prestigious schools, flight schools and service academies, only to then get invitations to preferential hiring seminars and receive scholarships via OBAP, WIA, 99s, etc, and proceed straight to the front of the hiring line at every major airline that competed for their “representation”. I did not resent them for their opportunities, but wished I too could’ve got to the majors 5- 10 years sooner.

To say that enough has not been done to attract females and minorities is simply not true. There have been role models for decades, Civilian, military, bending over backwards to attract them. The field has not only been leveled, it tilts heavily in their favor.

Enough with the excuses. It all boils down to choices, and perhaps we should start to accept the evidence that maybe they don’t want this lifestyle or what it takes to get here.