A Black former guardsman in the British Army has successfully filed and won a lawsuit against the Ministry of Defence in England, citing claims of direct race discrimination, racial harassment, and victimization.
This determination marks the final chapter of his 16-year military service — a tenure made unusual by the former non-commissioned being allowed to wear locs while in the service.
While Dwight Pile-Gray was able to make a career in the military, achieving the rank of lance sergeant, this episode was a glaring example of how racism is rampant in the country’s Army, especially for those below officer rank.
According to his lawyer, Emma Norton, from the Centre for Military Justice, this racial bias is the backdrop of the lawsuit that he ultimately won in October of this year.
Pile-Gray was at the Wellington Barracks in central London in July 2021 and got into a back-and-forth with another soldier. He had entered the barracks dressed in civilian clothes for a medical appointment and stepped out to make a phone call. He realized later he had forgotten his identification inside.
When he tried to return, the white lance corporal on duty refused to let him in.
“Disbelieving that I could be a soldier — he actually stuck his head back into the guard room and said, ‘This gentleman thinks he’s left his ID inside,’” Pile-Gray said during an interview with the BBC.
The lance corporal looked at him in his street clothes, sunglasses, and locs, and continued to give him pushback. It was not until another person recognized him that he was able to come in.
“I was absolutely treated differently because of my appearance. I’ve been doing this a long time, and I understand when there is a racial element to an interaction,” he said.
This was not the first time he had encountered bigoted treatment while serving.
He joined the military at 37 in 2005, initially serving as a musician with the Royal Corps of Army Music and later playing the French horn in different military bands, including the Band of the Grenadier Guards.
Fellow soldiers asked intrusive questions about his personal life and appearance.
“Why are you allowed to wear your hair like that?” he said some would ask. “Aren’t you supposed to be a pacifist? Don’t you smoke drugs?”
He was even reportedly asked about the size of his genitals, a Black man.
“I was under no illusion as to what I might encounter,” Pile-Gray declared while noting some people were just rude and used the N-word, explaining that soldiers, particularly privates, hear these kinds of slurs all the time.
After the barracks incident, he got into uniform with his rank and returned to the lance corporal’s duty station. He remonstrated with the lance corporal about how the situation could have been handled differently.
The white soldier accused him “of playing the race card” before another white officer, this time a higher-ranking sergeant, interjected in the conversation, insisting that no one was being racist.
This erupted into a much larger altercation, resulting in him being escorted out of the guardroom.
Pile-Gray reported the incident to a higher-up and asked for mediation, telling the BBC, “They had no understanding or concept that what they were actually saying was racist.”
But that would not be the case. Instead, he was hit with a formal charge of insubordination for going back and forth with the sergeant. He said that was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“I didn’t feel that I could continue in an organization that so disregarded my feelings and my welfare and actively sought to make me a bad person,” he added.
First, he made a service complaint, but it was ultimately dismissed. Pile-Gray left the service that year, but it wasn’t until he pursued his case with the employment tribunal that his grievances were taken seriously.
The tribunal ruled in favor of Pile-Gray, affirming that he had indeed endured mistreatment and discrimination based on his race, as argued by him and his legal team.
Since leaving the military, Pile-Gray has dedicated his life to music, including starting a blog that focuses on diversity in music.
The Ministry of Defence has a policy of not commenting on individual cases. It has issued a statement asserting a stance against abuse, bullying, or any form of discrimination, emphasizing a commitment to a zero-tolerance policy in such matters.
