The United States army is investigating allegations that a unit at Fort Wainwright in Alaska encourages the use of racial slurs against one another every Thursday. The ‘tradition’ mainly occurs in the 2^nd Platoon, C Company, 3^rd Battalion, 21^st Infantry Regiment, according to the Army Times, which first brought the story to light.

“When I first got to my unit, someone said we should do ‘Racial Thursdays’ because it’s been a tradition,” said the soldier who spoke with the Times, who asked to remain anonymous. “It’s something they made up where you can say any racist remark you want without any consequences. The platoon sergeant said no, but the shit is still going on.”

The soldier, who is a staff sergeant, said no one directed any racial slurs towards him, even though he was black, because he asked not to participate.

The US Army has initiated a commander’s inquiry into the allegations, said Lt. Col. Alan Brown. Such an inquiry is an informal investigation at the unit level with the objective to determine if in fact the allegations are true.

“Based on the results of that inquiry, and if the evidence supports it, the commander, usually the brigade commander, can elect to conduct a 15-6 investigation,” he said. “It’s important to emphasize that these allegations are just that. They’re allegations, and that’s what the investigation has been assigned to find out, exactly what happened and if anything happened.”

The findings of the inquiry will decide if further action needs to be taken.

Another soldier in the unit, a junior officer, has also come forward anonymously to report the use of racial slurs every Thursday.

“The way it was put to me was it was a tradition among the guys,” said the junior soldier. “Every Thursday, they wouldn’t make you, you didn’t have to participate, but they’d remind you. Everybody would get a joke in or one person would be picked out and everybody would say jokes to that one person.”

The junior soldier described one particular incident, saying: “I remember it like yesterday.”

“A soldier I’m pretty good friends with, he was getting picked on the whole entire day until we were off work,” he said. “He’s Latino. They were calling him wetback, border jumper, those kinds of jokes. He would say some jokes back, but he got to the point where he wanted it to stop. He and another soldier almost got into a fight, and guys had to step in between them and keep them apart.”

The junior soldier had been afraid to speak out against the practice until the sergeant contacted the Army Times first.

“For the soldiers who are minorities, we don’t want to be looked down upon or looked at as outcasts or traitors or Blue Falcons, so we didn’t open our mouths,” he said.

Racial diversity is a continual problem for the US military services.