Let;s hear it for ignorance!

[gridlore]

From an article on aggressive tactics my military recruiters.

Nancy Carroll didn't know schools were giving military recruiters her family's contact information until a recruiter called her 17-year-old granddaughter.

That didn't sit well with Carroll, who believes recruiters unfairly target minority students. So she joined activists across the country who are urging families to notify schools that they don't want their children's contact information given out.

"People of color who go into the military are put on the front line," said the 67-year-old Carroll, who is black.

Bollocks. The majority of people in Army combat units are white. Minorities tend to join for job skill training and college opportunities, whites more for the adventure and experience. I state this as a former infantryman. Every infantry unit I was in had more white guys than other races. But our support units looked like the bloody UN.

So yes, decry the overly aggressive recruiters who are crossing far too many lines in trying to fill the ranks, but don't play the damn race card when it isn't warranted.

Comments

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

Do you think it's not true that recruiters are targeting economically depressed areas because students with less opportunity to go to college will be more likely to find the military attractive? I've seen enough evidence to support the notion that recruiting is concentrated more in economically depressed areas than otherwise. Given that 'economically depressed' in this country often equates to 'minority population', I don't think it's a long stretch to get to the idea that the military targets minorities for recruitment. I personally think the real determining factor is class rather than race (e.g. I suspect that upper class black kids are less likely to be recruited aggressively than lower class white kids), but given the strong correlation between class and race in this country, I can see why people would focus on the race issue.

Yea, but look at her age

[capplor.livejournal.com]

She was worried about her boyfriends during Vietnam. You did not serve in a draft-era military. I think she's probably expressing accurately how things were at that time. So this lady hasn't considered how perhaps looking for volunteers might change the population AND the job assignments from when all men were subject to the draft, and the impovrished (read "black" if you like) didn't have the resources to scheme for non-combat assignments.

I should add that now that there IS a war going on, I don't know that your or my experience necesarilly represents the way things are, either. Maybe we should both ask SoldierGrrl (or however it's spelled).

[chaotic-nipple.livejournal.com]

Hey, doncha know America in general is EEEEVIL and racist and sexist and stomps on kittens for fun, and that the military is even worse? Weren't you paying attention to the orientation briefing for the Great Liberal Conspiracy? ;-)

[hartt-tommel.livejournal.com]

Most of the Combat Arms guys are white. There are blacks in there (hell, there's even one or two Irish/Viet/German mongrels in there), but the great ultra-lefty myth that minorities are used as "canon fodder" is a load of shite.*

-Tom

*It does provide for a funny moment in the South Park movie though.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

One thing is for sure, if we go back to the draft, it'll be the poor who're unable to get out of it.