Does racial prejudice still exist in our military? Can the military show real examples of how we live with the fact that all lives matter?

2016-11-10T10:43:22-05:00

Response by 1SG Mike Case made Nov 10 at 2016 10:47 AM

2016-11-10T10:47:54-05:00

At an institutional level, I do not believe it does but there are service members currently serving who have prejudices.

Response by SFC George Smith made Nov 10 at 2016 10:56 AM

2016-11-10T10:56:54-05:00

I know in the SF community where was little to none ... because it was not tolerated ... there was no room or time for it...
We saw more racism displayed by host nation Counties than was in "Group... "
the racism issues had been drilled out or were in the late 80-90's

Response by Cpl Justin Goolsby made Nov 10 at 2016 10:57 AM

2016-11-10T10:57:50-05:00

Racial prejudice does exist in the military but not in the manner you might think. We are all equal in the military, but the current political climate is infecting our Junior Troops. One of my black brothers, a man I trusted with my life, a man who watched over me while I slept, flat out started spewing the most racist rhetoric one day and how he wanted to start a white genocide because "us white folks are always plotting to kill my black brothers". I have honestly never been more scared in my life.

I don't understand what you mean when you say can the military show examples of how all lives matter. If the military was truly discriminating against non-white males, we wouldn't have females or non-white males in some of the highest positions in the chain of command. I think the majority of my SgtMajs were all black. I had a female SgtMaj. These are among the highest ranks you can achieve in the military. If that doesn't demonstrate that we're all equal, I don't know what will.

Response by CPT Jack Durish made Nov 10 at 2016 10:58 AM

2016-11-10T10:58:30-05:00

Racial prejudice is not a characteristic of the military. It exists in the personalities of people. Virtually everyone has it to some degree, however, most suppress it. Learning to suppress our meaner qualities is a function of civilization or the civilizing of people. We the People have decided that racial prejudice must be suppressed and we were growing ever more successful in suppressing it in America until about eight years ago. That's when the race baiters began making it respectable again (for their profit). Inasmuch as the military is the most controlled segment of society, we are better able to suppress it there and set an example for the civilian community.

Response by CPO Bill Penrod made Nov 10 at 2016 11:22 AM

2016-11-10T11:22:18-05:00

One time a black airman asked me when was the last time a black person was in my home. My response was why not ask when was the last time a white person was in my home. I don't track who comes and goes in my house.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 10 at 2016 11:41 AM

2016-11-10T11:41:12-05:00

I do not see much racism in the military, however, I HAVE seen people accused of being racist when conducting regular performance counseling. NCOs have to counsel people. When they tell people that they have things to improve upon, like effort, initiative, motivation, or they overall are screw-ups, there are a lot of reactions. An unfortunate one is people saying that "they just don't like me because I'm [insert ethnicity/gender]". This is just an excuse I see out of people, not actual racism, the individual would rather find some terrible excuse to explain their poor performance review that doesn't require them to actually improve themselves.
I HAVE seen one instance of racism in the military, and it made me very uncomfortable. I had a racist BN CSM once who would constantly make comments that offended me, but I knew that if I called him out that I would be the one who appeared racist. He even started his time as our CSM by stating "white folks don't know how to raise their kids" in the course of his introduction. I will say, to his credit, his racism did not extend into any policy or action taken by the command that I could see, it was purely limited to his conversations and opinions with others. Made a bunch of us very uncomfortable around him. The command climate surveys were pretty interesting.

Response by SGT William Howell made Nov 10 at 2016 11:48 AM

2016-11-10T11:48:48-05:00

Absolutely it does. To ignore it would be wrong. In saying that, I believe it is much less than the civilian population. It is hard to have unrealistic beliefs about a certain group of people when you have to work side by side with them every day. The military helped me to get rid of all kinds of stereotypes that I had from growing up in rural Kentucky (We did not have a single black student in my high school). Even more importantly, we are tearing down the walls of stereotypes of the LGBT community. As people get out they will take that into the civilian world and tolerance and understanding will rise.

Response by CAPT Kevin B. made Nov 10 at 2016 12:01 PM

2016-11-10T12:01:21-05:00

Sure it does, especially if you're reminded by a bad experience. Back in the day, there was a large disdain of the "Filipino Mafia". An example would be when Adak was in full op mode. The commissary officer (caucasian) had pretty much a full Filipino staff. So fresh food stocks were frequently scarce, but the Filipino community always had everything they wanted. Members would be pushing a cart out from the storage area filled with stuff everyone else couldn't get. So when the Commissary O-6 came out from DC and had a pile of photos dropped on him with "What are you going to do?", things got tense. The Ops boss was Filipino. We had a C-130 "training flight" which would leave around 20 DEC to McChord and then have another "training flight" that would come back 3 JAN. You could sign up. It was very popular with the junior enlisted who couldn't otherwise afford air travel. People would line up outside the MAC terminal at 0300 in crappy weather to get on the list. Problem was the first one who signed up at 0800 was number 58 on the list. The Ops boss put his Filipino crowd on the list prior. Huge backlash with him being tossed from service and the first 58 getting tossed from the flight. What we heard in response was "it's a cultural thing". That didn't go over well either. Bottom line, stereotypes and then prejudice are still there and so long as people are reminded in a negative way why it's there, it will still continue, even when the vast 99+% have nothing to do with it. Really tough to purge the remaining mindsets of general labels.

BTW prejudice is on a variable scale. If you think we have it bad here, just go to most other places in the world. Although we have a way to go, we've come a long way. One of my 'sons" is black and he was uncomfortable with me in Hayden, ID which has a dubious history of white supremacy. He'd say "Dad, I would never want to live here". Yep, still around.

Response by 1SG Al Brown made Nov 10 at 2016 2:40 PM

2016-11-10T14:40:08-05:00

It always will to a certain extent. The reqs have done a good job of banning all types of prejudice. However, everyone has a prejudice toward something. Some have more, some have less. We're mostly type A humans, with competitive personality flaws that others whine about. In 20 years, I heard a dozen different races say prejudice things about a dozen other races. Oddly, they were all friends that thought they were better because of some reason or other. None of them had any reality associated with their comments. And honestly, I never saw Jesus walking around in the motorpool, and I spent a lot of time there.

Response by Sgt Wayne Wood made Nov 10 at 2016 3:22 PM

2016-11-10T15:22:25-05:00

If racial prejudice is what you're looking for, you'll find it. If you are looking for a bunch of regular folks trying to get along and accomplish the mission, you'll find that too. Which is more important?

Response by PO2 Sybil "TT" I. made Nov 10 at 2016 4:34 PM

2016-11-10T16:34:58-05:00

Yes, it does. There are law enforcement agencies that track and specialize in racisist groups in the military. The reports are out there...

The military is a reflection of society, but I think, it's often a better reflection, at least, with training people how to work together and get a job done even when they hate each other.

Response by PFC Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 10 at 2016 6:20 PM

2016-11-10T18:20:33-05:00

Absolutely not. Atleast in the infantry. All of us are a tight nit community and everyone's head is in the same place.

Response by SSG Mark Franzen made Nov 11 at 2016 12:55 AM

2016-11-11T00:55:31-05:00

BACK WHEN I WAS IN IT WAS REALLY BAD AND THAT WAS IN THE EARLY 70'S AND NOW ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH NO ONE IS BETTER THAN OTHER.

Response by SGT Allen Harris made Nov 11 at 2016 1:06 AM

2016-11-11T01:06:45-05:00

Like anywhere there will always be a degree of racism. However our true brothers and sisters, can make jokes and mess with each other about any imaginable differences. It's not to hurt or offend. We bond in the most difficult time in our lives and aren't bothered by petty shit

Response by CPT Alexander Grant made Nov 11 at 2016 2:29 AM

2016-11-11T02:29:33-05:00

It is indeed more prevalent than people might think. But I think everyone can get past it... it's more productive to think about things in terms of socio-economic groups

Response by MCPO Roger Collins made Nov 11 at 2016 12:33 PM

2016-11-11T12:33:52-05:00

Another point, note when this happened and when the services were fully integrated.

Response by TSgt Don Purciful TSGT Retired made Nov 19 at 2016 12:30 AM

2016-11-19T00:30:24-05:00

All are equal pieces of shut if you are a nice piece of ass guaranteed tdy with maintenance pukes

Response by LCpl Danny Smith made Nov 19 at 2016 9:04 PM

2016-11-19T21:04:55-05:00

I was in during the early 80's and I'd like to think it doesn't,the Corps taught us one thing we are all GREEN! I've carried that with me my whole life! Does color matter under fire?