Intelligence Squad #98

3/8/05

AN ARMY OF NONE

Blacks Take a Pass on Joining the Military

Perhaps the key reason the U.S. Army is failing to meet its recruiting goals nowadays is that enlistments of African-Americans have plummeted over the last four years.

In 2000, the last year the U.S. had a president most blacks could respect, we represented nearly a quarter of the Army’s recruits (despite being only 12% of the U.S. population). In the first four months of fiscal 2005, that proportion is down to just 14% of new recruits. The Army’s own internal polling shows that blacks are especially opposed to the U.S.’s role in the current conflict in Iraq, and are spectacularly unimpressed with the leadership of the current commander-in-chief. Furthermore, their polls show that their recruiting efforts are hampered by fears of combat-related injury or death.

While many of us may be inclined to say, "Duh, that’s part of being in the military," keep in mind that with the Iraq War, the "all-volunteer" (ie: post-Vietnam) U.S. army is facing its greatest level of military casualties ever. Put another way: unless the government requires them to do so, blacks are particularly uninterested in risking themselves in this way, at this point in history, and especially for this president, in this war.

While the adrenaline-infused environment of post-9/11 "patriotism" has driven many whites and Latinos to seek out the opportunity to serve in the U.S. armed forces, the unique history of blacks in the U.S. imbues us with a different perspective on joining the military:

In 1775, blacks fought and died for the independence of what would become the United States of America from the rule of the British monarchy. Every schoolchild knows that the first colonist to die in the American Revolution was a black sailor named Crispus Attucks.

To show its gratitude, the new nation chose to canonize the institution of slavery in its shiny new constitution.

In 1865, blacks fought and died to help keep the union of American states from splitting in two. The bravery of the all-black 54^th Massachusetts Regiment is forever documented in the 1989 movie "Glory."

To show its gratitude, the United States dismantled Reconstruction, its highly-successful experiment in using the government to protect the rights of blacks, after only 11 years. During that post-war period, blacks had enjoyed a level of social and political empowerment – not to mention physical safety – that they would not see again for a century.

In 1917, blacks fought and died to defend U.S. friend and business partner France from falling to the German war machine. 171 blacks were awarded the French Legion of Honor for their valor.

To show their gratitude, the U.S. and its states fought against all organized attempts to end discrimination against blacks. One such attempt, produced by New York’s black artistic community, came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance – a Renaissance in which black musicians were not allowed to enter through the front doors of the jazz clubs in which they were asked to play now-legendary music for white patrons.

In 1944, blacks fought and died all over the globe in support of America’s and her allies’ efforts to prevent a revitalized German war machine and its fascist friends from taking over the world.

To show its gratitude, the U.S. government essentially stood by and watched for the next two decades while Southern state governments codified legalized discrimination against blacks. The now-famously pro-military South gave its black heroes a warm welcome back, complete with matching nooses, attack dogs, bombs, and fire hoses.

In 1969, blacks fought and died – at a disproportionately high rate – in support of the American government’s obsession with preventing the spread of communism throughout southeast Asia.

To show their gratitude, state governments accelerated their tendency to promote suburban growth through highway development, land grants, and inequitable school funding. Meanwhile, neglect of the nation’s urban centers reached its peak, trapping those without the financial means to escape – a disproportionately black group – in decaying cities. "Reaganomics" made neglect of the plight of African-Americans all-but-official U.S. policy. Ironically, it was during this period that blacks, driven to the best job opportunity available to many of them, enlisted in the military at their highest rates ever – representing as much as 30% of Army recruits at some points.

In 1991, blacks fought and died to make real their Republican commander-in-chief’s declaration that the naked aggression of Saddam Hussein against Kuwait – a country few blacks had even heard of – "will not stand." They were even coordinated by a black joint chiefs of staff chairman.

To show their gratitude, the Republican Party, upon seizing control of the U.S. congress three years later, set about to dismantle all manner of Affirmative Action programs – programs which that black joint chiefs of staff chairman himself supported – and launch a relentless political jihad against perhaps black America’s favorite U.S. president ever. A poll conducted by the National Opinion Research Center as the Persian Gulf War was being fought showed that half of white Americans believed blacks were less patriotic than whites.

Given this history, an economy that is stronger than it was in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, the lack of a draft, the biggest military combat losses since Vietnam, and deep suspicion among blacks about the motives and competence of the man under whom they would be serving, it is no surprise that they have become increasingly reluctant in recent years to sign up to serve in the U.S. Army.

It looks like those condescending marketing tactics of a couple of years back, including rolling through black neighborhoods in tricked-out Hummers plastered with military decals, have not been paying off. A better commander, a legitimate exercise, a less painful display of gratitude – these are ways the military may encourage blacks to rejoin its ranks at more traditional levels – if it isn’t already too late.

Knowledge Is Power