Military Sees Big Decline in Black Enlistees

[Hissyspit]

Source: Boston Globe

Military sees big decline in black enlistees
Iraq war cited in 58% drop since 2000
By Joseph Williams and Kevin Baron, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent | October 7, 2007

WASHINGTON - African-Americans, whose longstanding relationship with the US military helped them prove their abilities and offered a way to get ahead, have turned away from the armed forces in record numbers since 2000, a period covering the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the start of the Iraq war.

Defense Department statistics show the number of young black enlistees has fallen by more than 58 percent since fiscal year 2000. The Army in particular has been hit hard: In fiscal year 2000, according to the Pentagon statistics, more than 42,000 black men and women applied to enlist; in fiscal year 2005, the most recent for which a racial breakdown is available, just over 17,000 signed up.

The unpopular Iraq war is the biggest reason, according to military analysts, Pentagon surveys, and interviews with young African-Americans. But they say mistrust of the Bush administration is adding to the problem - along with the notion that black soldiers are being steered to combat jobs, a lingering perception from the Vietnam War.

The decline in enlistment applications among blacks is by far the fastest of any demographic group. Between fiscal 2000 and 2005, white applicants declined by more than 10 percent. Hispanic applicants dropped by almost 7 percent.

Read more: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/10/07/military_sees_big_decline_in_black_enlistees/?rss_id=Boston.com+%2F+News

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http://www.imgred.com/

[glowing]

1. Well, we all know Bush hates black people.... so why would they trust him..

I think there were 2 factors... Katrina and the war.

[Demeter]

2. So Much for "The Bell Curve"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

"Much of the controversy erupted from Chapters 13 and 14, where the authors write about the enduring differences in race and intelligence and discuss implications of that difference. The authors were reported throughout the popular press as arguing that these IQ differences are genetic, although they state no position on the issue in the book, and write in the introduction to Chapter 13 that "The debate about whether and how much genes and environment have to do with ethnic differences remains unresolved.""


Take that, Right-wing racists! The only genetically mentally defectives seem to be in the GOP. Birds of a feather, and all that.

[malaise]

10. Very good

I'm sure most were warned not to sign up for Bush's war by their families.

[Deja Q]

3. Racial profiling, cool!

:hide:

[applegrove]

4. I remember reading in a Nials Fergusson book that african americans

would have to seek a new role in the united states because they would not be in the military in great numbers. I wonder how he came to that conclusion... and then it happened. Perhaps an all volunteer army meant that there would be fewer african americans by nature or perhaps they simply are not recruiting in some neighbourhoods and at some high schools. Would be interesting to find out. Is this just an outcome of rising standards of living (under Clinton) amongst some groups or is it intentional? And how did Nials know?

[opihimoimoi]

5. TRUST??? How can anyone w brains trust them PUBs?

[dickbearton]

7. Exactly. The Nazi Chicken hawks should go fight the war in Iraq, they wrongfully started.

[Maq]

6. Compare this article with the Dec 2005 story

In my opinion, American Society has incarcerated so many millions of Blacks,(this includes those who are out of prison but with a felony record) that a large proportion of the black population is ineligible even with a waiver.


Published on Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Fewer African-Americans Enlisting in the Military

by Drew Brown WASHINGTON -

Fewer African-Americans are joining the Army, a trend likely to make it harder to keep the all-volunteer military at full strength.
The percentage of African-Americans among all those who signed up for active-duty Army service fell from 24 percent in 2000 to 14 percent in 2005, according to Army statistics. That's the lowest percentage since 1973, when the draft ended and the all-volunteer military began, say David R. Segal and Mady Wechsler Segal, sociologists with the University of Maryland's Center for Research on Military Organization.


In the past, African-Americans have enlisted at higher rates than their overall percentage of the U.S. population, which was 12.9 percent in the 2000 census. "These trends may spell trouble for the Army, which has depended on blacks to meet its recruiting goals and re-enlistment targets," the Segals wrote in a November study.


In 1974, blacks made up 27 percent of new Army recruits and 21 percent of new Marine recruits, 16 percent of Air Force enlistees and 10 percent of Navy enlistees, according to the study.

"Basically, what has happened over time with the all-volunteer force is that the Army has become sort of dependent on the overrepresentation of African-American recruits, who have been more inclined to stay," David Segal said in an interview.
Blacks have tended to enlist in administrative, medical and support specialties, the Segal study said...

The rest of the story at commondreams
SOURCE: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1221-04.htm

[BlueIris]

8. Good. The war machine has been exploiting African-American for far too long.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. No shit Sherlock. And what did they expect advertising the military

as pro-Republican?

[flashl]

11. An elder man family member said during either Korean or WW II

Black men had a choice of going to jail or signing up for the military. We know where a large number of Black males are today.

Do you think they will get desperate enough to make the same kind of offer?

[tom_paine]

12. That suggests that Black people are smarter than Whites or Hispanics

more savvy in terms of being able to see through self-serving lies of NeoRebConfederoBusheviks, anyway more than Whites or Hispanics, who no longer seem to realize that enlisting inthe Bushevik Amermacht has little or nothing to do with defending the Amerikan People.

One could counter-argue that if Bushler and all his henchpeople were 98% Balck instead of 98% White, then the trends would be reversed, andthat may be true, but since we have no data...

[goclark]

13. African Americans were not visible other than Colon

in the lead up to the war or during the entire mess.

Well, they did include us as one of the speechless faces that stood over the left shoulder of the Chimp for photo ops.

There was one African American General that they "allowed" to be in the media for a while, other than that -- we were/are not visible.

So ~ as an African American, I am proud that the numbers of our young men have dropped from the enlistment rolls.

I am not proud that they have done their best to put us in another Battle Group - the Prison System. If you want to find out where the African American young men are -- check MSNBC any day or night of the week.

MSNBC continues to run PRISON footage to show that they are locking us up as fast as they can.

Why should we send our children to the Bush Mobs war?
If you added up all the AA prisoners they would not have killed/hurt as many people as the Resident of the WHITE House.

[Swamp Rat]

14. That coupled the fact that a much higher percentage are in prison