Why are awards so political in the military, why are awards being based on Rank, Race and Gender?

I disagree that awards are political, and I have never seen race or gender used in deciding whether to approve an award, but I have seen the scope of responsibility, not rank, used in determining awards.

When I was a 2LT, I was surprised I had to put the race and gender of the Soldiers I recommended for awards on the paperwork. When I questioned my commander and the S1, I was told it was to track statistics.

Since then, I have never seen race or gender on any awards I have either been the recommender or somewhere in the chain of recommendation or approver.

I do believe that scope of responsibility, not rank, should be considered when an award is being recommended. A SSG, Squad Leader, may do many of the same things a CPL or SGT Team Leader, however the SSG has a larger scope of responsibility. On the other hand, if the CPL/SGT gooes outside their scope and assumes the duties of the Squad Leader (or higher) then that should be considered in the award.

I have never seen politics involved in awards, unless it has to do with the past behavior of a Soldier and how that may influence the approval chain.

If anyone thinks that race or gender is involved in awards, and the chain of command is unresponsive to your questions, we all have the obligation to go to the next hight level in the CoC or to the IG.

With all do respect to the LTC, it is based on rank and not scope, maybe in his COC or units, but during every deployment that I was involved in over the past decade before retirement, it was put out in staff meetings and pre-deployments briefings, E6 and below will never see anything above an ARCOM, unless they are injured during a attack or insurgency, E7 and above will get a BSM unless they get in trouble and will still get at least a ARCOM.

Proof of this, I had a CW2 warehouse OIC that arrived in Taji to take over, never left the FOB until we redeployed back to the states and received a BSM, while myself as a SSG who was handpicked to be a MTT team commander because the CPT that was picked to do it refused saying he was too busy in the S3, and there were no other E7s or LTs available, I earned a CAB that was submitted for 3 different events related to insurgents, a purple heart from an IED incident during a prisoner transport, and a handful of 3ID General coins for actions outside the wire, I only received an ARCOM for my tour award because I was an E6, although my scope of responsibility was that of an O3 for 8 months of 13, and the other 5 months I was the NCOIC of a detainee camp for Taji, which was an E8 position and I was handpicked for that job by the BDE CDR before deployment.

So where did the scope of responsibility apply for both of those duties while deployed with the award I received.