Well I'm saying that in the military context specifically, it's well-known that the vast majority of shave-chit holders (i.e., people who can have beards) are black men. There was a whole thing a few months ago when they banned shave-chits, and a large part of the discussion was how it would disproportionately affect black men, and how this is one part of a larger strategy to push black men out of the military.

So within that context, yes, this statement by Hegseth absolutely does carry racial undertones, and you don't have to dig very deep to uncover that. It's not a conjecture, that statement was thinly-veiled racism.