Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Race or Class? Make Up Your Mind
Writing in the New York Daily News on November 8th, Juan Gonzalez wants us to believe that the US military is racist. Are they discriminating against minorities? Keeping them out of the service? No it seems they are enlisting too many of them.
As a career military man who has seen plenty of minorities, and those from humble cicumstances, excel in the service, I'm willing to bet part of the appeal is that a life in the military offers more opportunity, more equality and more pride than anything those minorities are offered in civilian life. Of course, that doesn't fit in with Juan's agenda so he just rants against the evil, racist military.
¶ Tuesday, November 08, 2005 "In working-class Canarsie, Brooklyn (zip code 11236), 56 men and women enlisted in the three branches in 2004. Of those, 96% were black or Hispanic, while the rest were Asian. Not a single white resident of Canarsie joined the three services last year, according to the Pentagon's records. ...But then he also claims they are targetting the poor; white, black or Latino.
If only our government worked as hard getting blacks and Hispanics into college as it does sending them to Iraq, Serrano said."
"Take the posh and largely white upper West Side, for example. In that neighborhood's two main zip codes ... a grand total of 12 people enlisted... But only three of those West Side recruits were white, according to a Daily News analysis of data; the other nine were Hispanic, African-American or Asian."So the military is targeting minorities. No wait, they're after the poor. Okay, they're targeting poor minorities. No, it's the rich minorities they're after. Which is it, Juan?
As a career military man who has seen plenty of minorities, and those from humble cicumstances, excel in the service, I'm willing to bet part of the appeal is that a life in the military offers more opportunity, more equality and more pride than anything those minorities are offered in civilian life. Of course, that doesn't fit in with Juan's agenda so he just rants against the evil, racist military.
