August 4, 2010:
The U.S. Navy leadership, unhappy with the lack of diversity (non-white, non-male officers) in its senior ranks, is setting up a secret list of high potential junior officers who are non-white, or women. These officers would be given special attention (mentoring, influential assignments) by the senior admirals, as well as special attention when it came to promotions.
The navy is under a lot of political pressure to promote more women and non-whites to senior positions, and this special mentoring program is meant to do that without filling the top ranks with people who have the right gender or ethnic background, but are not competent to get the job done.
The main problem with this program is keeping the names of those on the list secret. If the chosen ones were known, they would receive a lot of hostility from fellow officers because of the special privileges and advantages bestowed on those selected, early in their careers, for extra help in achieving high rank.