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Mentorship is key to making a change to this statistic about Black officers, but who really cares about this statistic if the best people are getting the job done, regardless of race?
I mentioned that last part in one of my post about that key word. Mentorship. If there was anything I coulda done when I was in that I coulda changed it woulda been more mentorship of the guys(black/white/brown/purple) woulda been identifying the ones who had what it took and let them explore that option of putting the bars on.
I am not a veteran; I am the son of a Army Air Corps sergeant who worked on the crews of Tuskegee Airmen planes during WWII, as well as the nephew of a Tuskegee Airman who was KIA, and well as two other uncles who served during that conflict.
I am also not a right-wing American patriot; I am a leftist who sees many problems with how this country has been run over the past 20 years or so. Frankly, though, I wish I had been a veteran. I have done very, very well for myself without spending one minute as a serviceman. But I do believe that a stint in the military would have been immeasurably helpful to my development as a human being.
Revelated: You, sir, are a spoiled brat with a sense of entitlement that, frankly, astonishes me to no end. I understand that you don't want to be a soldier (or marine, or sailor, or airman). That is your prerogative. But for you to continue to trash the way things are done in the military and then say that if things were different, you would enlist is snotty and childish. You obviously don't know much about life, especially life in the military. The armed forces are not there to bend to your little whims. You would be there to bend to theirs. Things are not going to be the way YOU want them. Get over it.
I was much like you as a young man. I graduated from one of the top universities in the world, and even before I went there, I considered enlisting (my best friend was an Army musician and I was close to following him), and for sure could have received an appointment to one of the service academies. But I didn't want to spend all of my life being told what to do. You know what? I regret it immensely. If I would have gone to West Point or Annapolis and stayed in, right now I'd be the one telling a whole lot of people what to do. Even if I would have left after two years in the band, or five years after graduating from an academy, I would have benefited. If you don't wish to enlist in the military, that's fine. Just don't be so doggone obstinate about the way they do things. Get in or stay out. Either way, shut up.
We DO have a great country, and people like my father and uncle went through a whole lot of BS so you could have the right to come off like such a brat!
You should'nt compare the % of blacks in the officer corps v. the % of blacks in the general population, but against the % of blacks in the population of college graduates. The college grad population is where the vast majority of officers are sourced from.
Therefore, Given that a. African americans make up 10ish percent of the population & b. 18% of blacks have B.A.'s v. 27% for the total population of the US I would't be surprised if blacks are actually overrepresented in the officer corps
I am an African-American and currently a member of Army ROTC. If everything works out, I will be an officer by 2010. That will make me one more number to add on to those percentages haha!
there is something to be said about choice. i doubt it is a large percentage, but i know some of the marines i served with had the chance for a commission, but refused it, prefering their enlistment. i am sure that the other branches have something similar to this--in the usmc, there is a lot of pride in being enlisted. being a noncommissioned officer has its perks, and i'd imagine (though i got out before getting that far) that picking up staff nco is even better.
when taking percentages of people in what job into account, we have to also take into account that the military is way more than a job. people choose branches, specialties, and even officer vs. enlisted for the same reasons that they pick colleges, or even football teams.
o, to address the tangent:
i am not sure about the other services, but in the usmc, there is hardly such thing as a nondeployable career. there are nondeployable jobs, but those last only a few years before you get shipped off to a deployable unit. i've only met a few senior guys in my time that never deployed, and i don't think that any of them were very far along time-wise.
boot camp is a piece of cake (even 13-week usmc boot camp)--so long as you can game it right. and that game is entirely mental. the physical part of boot camp is really mental. if you think it is physical, you are not playing the game right. there are certainly physical exertions in boot camp--every day. but if that is a worry, then you aren't even remotely in the right frame of mind to be thinking about the military in any serious sense.
the funnest part of boot camp for me (besides some of the most hilariously comedic things i have ever seen in my entire life--period), was the mental aspect. part of that was to see how far i could push the envelope. sometimes i screwed up and got in trouble. once, i screwed up and got everyone in trouble). there is a fine line between loud&motivated, and loud&sarcastic&obnoxious, and i had fun flirting with that line.
now, that said, don't go to boot camp *expecting* a cake walk. you have to make it a cake walk. you have to provide your own entertainment and motivation. if you wait for the drill instructors to provide it, you're doomed. they will mess you up big time. they can send you back in the process, so you repeat weeks of training. that would just be miserable. i made sure that i didn't get sent back for any reason. i made sure i qualified on the rifle range (shot expert), and didn't go to them for any medical problem until the end (if it would have been life or limb-threatening, i would have gone), not even for pneumonia. i got in, did my time, laughed at the funny stuff, and got out.
next: if you expect that your weeks in basic training are irrelevant to the rest of your career, you are still in the wrong mindset. i know that there are some senior guys on their second enlistments that think that boot camp had nothing to do with their career. too bad they're still wrong even so many years later. in boot camp, you get screwed with constantly. they steal your stuff. they frame you for any crime that they can come up with. they call your parents and tell them that you're a pansy. they yell at you for malingering if you tell them you have medical problems. they yell at you for stupidity if you don't tell them about your medical problems. they yell, curse, and degrade you at every turn. they smack you around when they think that they aren't being watched by higher, sometimes very violently so. not only the abuse, but they change your job on a whim, they demote you, promote you, and send you wherever they want with no real logic or reason behind it. one day, you are toilet-chief. next, you're platoon guide. next, you are toiletpaper recruit (step up from earlier).
and you think that this has no relevance to the rest of your military experience? if that is so, then you haven't yet figured out the military mindset.
so, it is very relevant. i am glad i went in; wouldn't change it for the world. but i am also glad i am out now.
I am an African-American and currently a member of Army ROTC. If everything works out, I will be an officer by 2010. That will make me one more number to add on to those percentages haha!
We're pulling for you, Lonewolfmccoy! Congats on your selection to a ROTC priogram! Stick with it and you will be well-rewarded! Some good advice for when you are commisioned: Your NCOs will save your backside; listen to them and take good care of them (as well as the rest of your troops!
Thank you for the advice Chief! I hope all goes well though. I would be the fourth member in my immediate family (out of a family of 4) to join the military! But I would be the first officer out of our family. My dad retired as an E-7 so he has told me plenty of stories about the NCO-Junior Grade Officer relationship. But it's always good to hear from NCO's anytime. I really do look forward to serving the U.S. as an officer in the U.S. Army!
Wow my husband is one of the black officers. They must send them all to Yokosuka because I've seen a bunch here. My husband's cousin is at camp zama and he is the Command Sergeant Major over there also black. Must be something about Japan.
To add a different perspective on this topic, 60 years ago when the military was desegregated I think keeping track of this statistic was important. Back then, limiting success of black people was more common place due to accepted discrimination. Colin Powell has said himself that he has benefited from affirmative action policies in place in the military during his time, does that make him less qualified?
Here's my personal story on that.
My dad went to a desegregated High School in Memphis in the early '70s. He competed for and was awarded an appointment to the Air Force Academy. Back then you had to go to Nashville and accept your appointment from your local senator at the State House. The senator who awarded my dad his appointment did not know he was Black. When my dad and his family showed up, the senator refused to give him the appointment because he said -and I quote my dad here-"The Senator told my parents that he did not want to be responsible for sending a N***** to the Academy". Clearly my dad had earned it as he beat out several other young men from that area, but was denied because of his race-and that was an acceptable reason back then.
I don't think that is the case these days. As a matter of fact, the first time my dad met my then-boyfriend (newly commissioned as a 2LT), he held back tears. He was so excited to see that I was bringing home the guy he wanted to be.
Before he met my guy, I never knew that story as my dad just internalized it and moved on to become a very successful businessman. I'm just glad we won't have to ever tell our son and daughter any stories like that from our own experiences.
After being in the military for a long period of time and living that confortable life, and those in get experience the mandated equality. But for those of us that live behind the gates and then live outside of the gates see that it is totally different. Behind the gates we seem to loose a sense of reality. Do you really think that much has changed from when your father was in the military up until the point of him meeting "your guy". Get serious, look today there is a black president, if the next black president comes ten years later, are people going to be that shocked? probably not. If discrimination was not still present do you think your father would express those emotions. I'm about to become 2nd Lt. in the Army. I'm well aware of this country's history and the Amry that plays a major part in it. There have only been 5 Army genrals ever, 4 Air force genrals ever, and 3 Navy Admirals ever that were black. July 26, 1948 Harry S. Truman desegragated the Armed Forces, not because it was morally right, because white people couldn't do it on there own and the blacks were there as always to help out and what was given in return. look open your eyes the position of blacks currently is not good, but look what happen and is currently happening. the lack of representation, yes we lack in high positions in military service but over represent in enlisted and in prison. WHY? ask that question, Blacks make up 42% of jail population but only 13% of U.S. population. Are all convicted blacks really guilty and what are the circumstances behind the ones that are guilty, look people somebody didn't carry a one or skipped a step in this equation. the unemployment rate amongst blacks, the lack of representation in corprate America, Are all blacks stupid? what comes to your mind on these questions? seriously..... we're still dealing with the light skin/ dark skin thing amongst blacks (brown paper bag) those days are not gone, the American make up of "politically correctness" has concealed that issue, it is still there. wake up and know where you stand
Last edited by DYMEZ2DOLLARS; 01-31-2009 at 02:20 AM..
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Sounds about right
