Why aren't there any African Americans in the Coast Guard?

[JohnnyRingo]

Last edited Thu Nov 22, 2018, 01:41 PM - Edit history (1)

I just saw Trump's photo op with members of the Coast Guard, and the largely lily white faces surrounding him was notable. One or two may have been Hispanic, but I'm not at all certain of that.

So, do black people hate boats? Do they all go to the Marines? There has to be a simple explanation for this absence of minorities in the Coast Guard.

on edit:
I know there are AAs in the CG. The reason none appeared among this hand picked group should be obvious, but I guess it wasn't to many.

[MineralMan]

1. I don't know whether that is even true.

You saw a small representation of people in the Coast Guard. Without actual statistics on POC in the Coast Guard, I would not simply say there are no African Americans in that branch of the service.

I don't know whether any statistical information on that is available, but I will go and look.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

6. In Television, I worked near a Coast Guard Base and met some African Americans in the C.G.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes. I put some official demographic information in a post below.

[JohnnyRingo]

11. I didn't come out and say it in the OP...

..but I think the reason is that Donald Trump is a racist. That group was hand picked to please the president for his photo op.

Sarcasm doesn't translate well on the internet.

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Maybe they refused to pose with him?

[MineralMan]

3. Here is demographic information on all branches of the military.

http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/docs/demographics/FY04%20Coast%20Guard%20Profile.pdf


It does appear that the Coast Guard has the lowest percentage of POC in its ranks of all the military branches. Compared to national demographics, the Coast Guard does not represent current statistics. However, blacks make up 6% of enlisted personnel in the CG. Hispanics make up 8%, according to that link. So, it is not true that no people of color serve in that branch of the military.

Note: this information was quite easy to find on Google. I searched for: racial makeup of the coast guard

[oberliner]

13. The OP was being sarcastic

[MineralMan]

14. Yeah, OK. And I was being informative.

You? I'm not sure what you're being, but that's normal.

The OP has been edited since I replied. I work with what is presented, when it is presented.

[ornotna]

4. Plenty of AA in the Navy

At least there was when I was there.

[dalton99a]

5. At Coast Guard Academy, questions about racism and equity (AP)

https://apnews.com/fc80f2eeb2274a4d97d1f71992747a7a
At Coast Guard Academy, questions about racism and equity
By MICHAEL MELIA
June 26, 2018

NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — At the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, officers-in-training spend four years together at a riverside campus steeped in shared values of honor, respect and devotion to duty. Yet for all the uniformity, many say the experience can feel vastly different for some minority cadets compared with whites.

African-American cadets, in particular, have been raising concerns about off-color jokes, disparities in discipline and the administration’s handling of what some see as racial hostility. Episodes have included a white cadet playing the song “If the South Woulda Won” in a black cadet’s room and an instructor’s use of a racial slur to get cadets’ attention for a presentation cracking down on the widespread, casual use of such epithets. ...

The academy has struggled with diversity for decades; President John F. Kennedy noted to an aide during his inaugural parade in 1961 that there wasn’t a single black cadet in the Coast Guard Academy marching unit. This year, it graduated its most diverse class ever, including 18 African-Americans in a class of 209 (8.6 percent), though last year it had only four black graduates in a class of 195 (2 percent).

At the larger military academies, by comparison, African-Americans made up 10.8 percent of graduates this year at West Point, 7.8 percent at the Air Force Academy and 6 percent at the Naval Academy.

In its effort to make the academy more inclusive, it invited a review by the University of Southern California’s Center for Urban Education, which recently issued a report detailing disparities affecting black cadets in areas including frequency of disciplinary action and graduation rates.

In the 2015-2016 school year, African-American cadets, who made up 4 percent of the student body, accounted for 16 percent of the most severe offenses of academy regulations, according to the report. White cadets accounted for 67 percent of enrollment and 58 percent of the Class I offenses.

[Jersey Devil]

7. Back in the Viet Nam days the Coast Guard was a haven for rich, white potential draftees

You could only get into the Coast Guard if you had political clout. I had a few friends whose fathers were politically active and got them into the Coast Guard as a way of avoiding being drafted and sent to Viet Nam. I believe Coasties were also sent to Viet Nam in the latter stages of that war, but not at the beginning. People of privilege were white so Coasties were white.

[RockRaven]

8. Maybe they told a Coast Guard unit there was a photo op with Trump and asked for volunteers?

And only white people said yes.

Or maybe whomever organized the photo op did not invite any black people. You know what Trump is like. So do the people who work for him.

[Basic LA]

10. Roots author Alex Haley was a Coast Guard lifer.

He was Chief Petty officer with a 20-year career.

[JI7]

12. maybe they didn't want to do a photo op with him