Preferences For (Not In) The Military

Controversy continues to swirl around the Rangel-Hollings bill to bring back the draft, which was intended to correct a disproportionate representation of minorities in the military (and hence a disproportionate risk as we prepare for war) that appears not to exist.

A recent Dept. of Defense study did find that 21% of military personnel are black, but, according to an article on the controversy in the Washington Post this morning, “they tend to work in areas away from the front lines, in roles such as administration, combat support and medical and dental care.”

Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich), a co-sponsor of the bill, said a draft without educational exemptions “would help dispel the Vietnam-era belief that some minorities served, and died, disproportionately.” Perhaps, but an easier way to do that would be to publicize the official data revealing that in Vietnam blacks “represented 11 percent of those who served, and about 13 percent of those killed. At the time, African Americans were almost 11 percent of the general population.” Regarding a topic less somber than military service and death, one would be sorely tempted to ask, “With disparities like these, who needs equality?”

In the old pre-preference days, the civil rights movement could be described equally well as the anti-discrimination movement. Not now. Now, it’s the anti-disparities movement, and — no doubt because the playing field is not level and the clock is being turned back — there are disparities everywhere you look. Even disparities that are the result of choice are still disparities because, in the absence of a level playing field, no choice is really free.

“They tell you that the military is voluntary, but that concept for blacks and poor whites is like a rat being dropped in a maze,” said Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political science professor. “The playing field outside the military is not level. Life structures you into certain choices, and you wind up in the military.”

Walters and other observers note that 38 percent of the military’s 1.1 million enlistees are ethnic minorities, while they make up only 29 percent of the general population. In the largest branch, the Army, the percentage of minorities approaches half of all enlistees, at 45 percent.

Anyone other than an advisor to Jesse Jackson would no doubt be called a racist for saying the choices of

black high school graduates (96% of enlistees today are high school graduates “with above average aptitude,” says the Defense Dept.) reveal them to be acting like rats in a maze. But never mind. With disparities such as that 9% overrepresentation of minorities, the numbers game must go on, sometimes to bizarre effect. For example, the Post article helpfully points out:

Walters and other observers note that 38 percent of the military’s 1.1 million enlistees are ethnic minorities, while they make up only 29 percent of the general population….

African Americans alone account for nearly 30 percent of Army enlistees, according to Defense Department statistics compiled in 2000. Latinos represent 9 percent of the Army and 12 percent of the population. Black women comprise nearly half the Army’s enlisted women.

Black soldiers also reenlist in far greater numbers than white troops, according to a 1997 Department of Defense survey. Activists say that is because minorities face more obstacles to employment in a society where corporations discriminate against them.

Additionally, the percentage of minorities enlisted in the armed services far exceeds the percentage of minorities in post-secondary education colleges and universities, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

About 29 percent of enrolled post-secondary students are minorities. That includes students at historically black colleges and universities, which often accept African Americans who are turned away by predominantly white schools.

With such a feast of disparities, one hardly knows where to begin. Is there something wrong with there being a higher percentage of minorities in the military than in higher education? Perhaps military pay and career opportunities should be limited to prevent so many blacks from enlisting and then re-enlisting. Or maybe any new draft should be limited to Hispanics, since are so underrepresented. It would have been helpful if Daryl Fears, author of the Post article, had mentioned some of the “activists” who attribute black choices to enlist to the fact that their choices are limited because “corporations discriminate against them.” Names of these “activists” and an examination of any evidence they presented would have removed some of the hot air from his article.

Martin Luther King, Jr’s, dream has devolved from a vision of a society where all individuals are judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin, to one where the society is judged by the degree of its efficiency in eliminating disparities among groups of different but permanent colors.

Say What? (2)

  1. Ideefixe February 5, 2003 at 11:24 am | | Reply

    Okay–so let’s have a minority quota for the Armed Services. Once it’s filled, turn ’em down. And listen the outraged squeals from Rangel etc. about minorities being denied their rights.

    The Armed Forces are a great deal for people who can’t or won’t go to college. And a for a community sadly lacking male role models, it’s a way for inner city boys to grow into responsible men.

  2. Rev. Lindsey Grant August 25, 2003 at 11:51 am | | Reply

    I would hate to see a draft instituted now, though I can see it more likely happening. If recruiters would not promise recuits the moon…if they would follow through, be truthful, middle AMerica might sign-up….Not. The military sucks! A lot of our army guys have family on public assistance. Their pay is so abysmal, there is so much stress that families fall apart. Psychotherapy, family couseling is looked upon as a weakness, you get passed over for promotion…it’s a bad choice for many except the more stoic, and driven…the Colin Powells, the MacArthurs, Pattons, Bradley, et el.

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