Racism: Silencing the Outrage?

[Zhade]

The odds are stacked against us, like a casino,
think about it, most of the army is Black and Latino.

Immortal Technique, "Harlem Streets"



The 'volunteer' military does indeed contain a large percentage of poor minority youth. So far, 1,400 soldiers have died in this illegal war and occupation. It can probably be safely assumed that more of these soldiers than not have been non-white (I'm certain someone can confirm or correct this assumption).

My question is this: does racism play any part in the lack of rising anger among the middle class regarding the growing number of dead? Or am I reading something into the situation that isn't there?

I haven't decided how I feel about that question myself. What do DUers think?

[Zhade]

1. If you vote "other", please clarify. TIA.

NT!

[mattclearing]

2. I voted other.

It's the media.

As long as they refuse to show images of the devastation over there, or coffins coming back and families crying, no one here will get it.

Racism is everywhere, but I don't think it is the problem here.

[Zhade]

3. Thanks for clarifying. Do you think it is any part of the issue?

Just trying to decide how I feel myself.

[mattclearing]

23. No. I think, like Martin Luther King said towards the end, it's poverty.

Poverty lines are the real discriminatory barriers in America. Racial conflict is a smokescreen for the real danger: class conflict. We haven't seen major class conflict in the US since the labor movement and the Great Depression.

To some extent that is due to the effectiveness of the media in shouting down anyone who mentions it.

People remember the reaction to Al Gore's self-written nomination speech about the people versus the powerful. The DLC, the media, and pretty much anyone else allowed on TV thought it was disastrous. I don't know about you, but I thought it was pretty damn cool, and he won the popular vote, and was robbed of the presidency.

Many people speculate that this is the real reason MLK was taken out...because he started speaking out on behalf of the poor, making him more than a "black" leader. With all the problems going on in America in the late sixties, the last thing anyone needed was a major civil uprising on behalf of the poor.

Getting back to the war, in today's volunteer service, enlistment is a gamble. It's a risk that you will survive whatever service you are asked to do against staying in the same place, making the same money, with the same insufficient education.

There are many reasons that the poor are persuaded to join up. Those who have means, and live in economically stable areas have much less need to join. But if you live in a dead-end town, and don't qualify for federal aid for college, then the military starts to look pretty good.

So I think that poverty and rural issues are more dominant than race in the way the war affects people. That is why many rural voters are more supportive of the troops...they are more likely to know them than city dwellers, who generally have jobs and stable financial support, and are less likely to join.

In the inner city, though, I'm sure this same poverty/dead-end lifestyle issue is pervasive as well, and no doubt leads to a great deal of recruitment.

I think the media plays a huge role in sowing racism. Michael Moore does a huge bit on this in Bowling for Columbine.

It's certainly evident in the marketing of rappers and R&B...positive and thought provoking artists like Common, the Roots, Dialated Peoples, Erykah Badu, etc., generally get very little mainstream publicity these days.

Meanwhile, you have less relevant stuff about bling and other nonsense EVERYWHERE.

</rambling>

[Zhade]

32. Great insight in paragraph #7. Hadn't realized that, bit it makes sense.

I'd forgotten about the part in BFC where Moore details the racism in the news media's choice of stories. Going to have to watch that again!

Great post, thanks for following-up.

[tubbacheez]

4. A lack of outrage can have pretty complex causes.

I can see an influence from racism, but I have a hard time pinning down where it got inserted.

For one example, racism is one of the reasons for the current uneven distribution of wealth in America. Today's military recruits heavily from the poor, offering them a chance to learn skills and/or go to college. So is this economic incentive to join the military a racist incentive? I'd say that it technically isn't, since there is no explicit targeting of certain races. But that is not to say there is no contribution from the racism of the past.

This country was marinated in racism for hundreds of years. Even if we've recently been trying to wash it off, much of the flavor has penetrated deep into society.

Racism is not the specific cause of all problems, such as the subject of the original poll post, but most (if not all) problems have been exacerbated by racism.

[Zhade]

5. Good post, thanks for the reply.

NT!

[ultraist]

19. I think racism is why is a disproportionate number of blacks enlist

There is an unlevel playing field, and until blacks enjoy equal acess to opportunity, there is a "racist incentive." Poor whites have more doors open to them than do poor blacks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A21039-2003Feb3?language=printer
They tell you that the military is voluntary, but that concept for blacks and poor whites is like a rat being dropped in a maze," said Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political science professor. "The playing field outside the military is not level. Life structures you into certain choices, and you wind up in the military." Walters and other observers note that 38 percent of the military's 1.1 million enlistees are ethnic minorities, while they make up only 29 percent of the general population. In the largest branch, the Army, the percentage of minorities approaches half of all enlistees, at 45 percent.

African Americans alone account for nearly 30 percent of Army enlistees, according to Defense Department statistics compiled in 2000. Latinos represent 9 percent of the Army and 12 percent of the population. Black women comprise nearly half the Army's enlisted women.

Black soldiers also reenlist in far greater numbers than white troops, according to a 1997 Department of Defense survey. Activists say that is because minorities face more obstacles to employment in a society where corporations discriminate against them. .

"Your way out is to defend this country, or you're not going to get the fair shake that's due you," said William E. Spriggs, executive director of the National Urban League's Institute for Opportunity and Equality. Debate over who serves in the military, and how, is hardly new. During the Vietnam era, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. invoked race when protesting the war, saying in a 1967 speech that white and black troops "kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same schools." King saw irony in that black and white fighting men "would never live on the same block in Detroit," and said, "I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor."

[tubbacheez]

25. Yeah, you and I agree on the facts.

Where to draw the line and explicitly label the effects as racism is a matter of perspective. I see racist effects of past racism as having such an insidious effect that even technically non-racist policies will be influenced... or tinged, if you will... by racism. What does that mean for social analysis? If we label everything tinged in the slightest by racism as racist, we will end up labelling almost every social inequity we see.

Great post. Thank you for the quotes.

[Zhade]

6. I find the "no role at all" responses interesting.

Would like some more information on those to ponder.

[DARE to HOPE]

9. I think class differences and blue state/red state also weigh in...

Our own small southside Chicago parish has white, hispanic, African American and ethnically mixed kids attached to us. Despite my husband's and my anti-war agitation, we have had as many as eight at one time over in Afghanistan or Iraq. The premise of Michael's movie, that the lower classes are recruited and see the military as an option where there are few jobs, is also true for us.

When we attended the 3000-member cathedral up in River Forest, IL one Sunday afternoon last fall, a friend of ours who ushers there said, "No" they had really never had a list to pray for, that as far as he knew, he could think of NO ONE who had gone.

I have been reading that some of Bush's support in the red states really IS slipping due to the dead soldiers coming home in increasing numbers to traditionally military towns. It takes a little while for that anger to coalesce, but that really is beginning to happen, I believe.

A lot of us progressives have been boycotting the military for our own kids, not only from economic reasons, but from bitter experience through the Viet Nam era.

BTW--my prayer has been, "Lord, PLEASE bring them home with their bodies, but also their souls, undamaged in ways from which they cannot recover!" Lots of cockiness before they go ("Yeah, Pastor, what do YOU know!")--tearful emails home once they get there, yet "secret" so they are not shamed.

Finally--the niece of one of our women was in Mosul, in the tent, just before the explosion occurred. She got up and left due to "a feeling" just ten minutes before. TBG!

God, protect them all, and especially, especially the Iraqi people! Thwart and shame all the warmongers, and bring home the soldiers.

[Zhade]

13. Maybe it's more about class than race. Good post.

NT!

[AirAmFan]

7. You mean "disproportionate numbers" have been minorities, not "more"

African-Americans are 73 percent more prevalent in the military than in society at large, while whites and Hispanics are undererepresented.

From http://www.humrro.org/poprep2002/chapter3/c3_race.htm :

Table 3.3. FY 2002 Race/Ethnicity of Active Component Enlisted Members
and Civilian Labor Force 18-44 Years Old (Percent)

Race/Ethnicity . DoD . . . . 18-to-44-Year-Old Civilians

White . . . . 62.0 . . . . . 68.4
Black . . . . 21.8 . . . . . 12.6

Hispanic .. . 10.0 . . . . . 13.9
Other . . . . 6.3 .. . . . . 5.1
Total . . . . 100.0 . . . . . 100.0

[Zhade]

14. Thanks for the clarification!

NT!

[msgadget]

8. I don't think it's so much racism as a socio-economic thing.

The poor are disproportionately represented in the military so it's easier for the middle and upper classes to live with the consequences of war since their children and neighborhoods aren't as affected by it. OTOH, the media has not been as vigilent as they were during Vietnam (or Clinton's term) and we only occasionally see maimed soldiers on tv or in the paper.

[jcappy]

10. more than a small role...

because it also means most don't see the Iraqis as anything but invisible. the soldiers, if anything, are clearly more visible, while being pretty invisible.

this war does not exist because its participants are way over there and people of color.

[Zhade]

15. This is a very, very good point, I think.

NT!

[Grooner Five]

11. This is not remotely accurate

think about it, most of the army is Black and Latino

http://www.humrro.org/poprep2002/chapter2/c2_raceth.htm

[Zhade]

16. Well, those are Immortal Technique's words, not mine...

You'll have to take that up with him. :)

[XemaSab]

12. I'm highly skeptical of this assumption

Looking at pictures of the dead soldiers, they look like mostly white guys, with a fair representation of hispanics and a few blacks.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/

My guess is that the apathy of the middle class has little to do with racism and a lot to do with ignorance of the casualty totals.

[Zhade]

17. Yeah, as I said, I am undecided on the question.

It just popped into my head this morning, so I figured I'd run it by DUers. Thanks for participating! :)

[rinsd]

31. I would tend to agree (nt)

[ultraist]

18. Racism most certainly plays a role: Blacks and "brown skinned" Muslims

There are a disproportionate number of blacks in the military and we are slaughtering "brown skinned" (as Bush refers to them) Muslims.

I think we would see a lot more outrage if middle class whites were being killed. It's more acceptable to see Muslim children slaughtered. I think the racism is weighted more heavily against the Muslims than American blacks in context of this war. But I wouldn't discount racism against blacks altogether with regard to Iraq.

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=13&num=1552
"Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a Korean War veteran, has introduced a bill to reinstate the military draft, arguing, "A disproportionate number of the poor and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the military..."
Indeed, in a little noticed development, the percentage of military personnel who were minorities shot upward during the years from 1995 to 2000, with enlisted ranks rising from 28 percent to 38 percent minority (compared to 30 percent of the national population), and the officer corps growing from 11 percent to 19 percent.

The booming economy of the late 1990s may have made it harder for the Pentagon to recruit whites, who tend to enjoy more lucrative opportunities in the civilian economy than do blacks or Hispanics.

Blacks are found disproportionately in the military, while Hispanic residents, many of whom are not citizens, are slightly underrepresented. Blacks are found most heavily in the Army and are least common in the Air Force."

Some interesting tidbits:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-01-20-army-race-usat-_x.htm
Subtle racism might play a role in the representation of African-Americans in elite units such as the Green Berets and the SEALs, both less than 5% black. Segal says many blacks may not feel welcome in a subculture that "grew up as a white, largely Southern area of the military." There is also a cultural theory to explain why whites seem more interested in jobs that involve shooting rifles. Segal notes that whites, especially those from rural areas, are more likely to have hunted, fished and camped than their black or Hispanic counterparts. Wall says those skills are a kind of prep school for numerous combat jobs.

Race, class and history

During World War II, black soldiers were assigned to segregated units and barred from most combat jobs in the military because of prevailing racist attitudes. The Tuskegee Airmen, a celebrated group of black fighter pilots, won numerous battles with German pilots during the war and dispelled widespread stereotypes among whites that blacks weren't brave enough or smart enough.

During the Vietnam War, when the government drafted foot soldiers, the problem wasn't getting African-Americans into ground combat. It was just the opposite. Early in the war, blacks were killed and injured at rates significantly higher than whites, leading to allegations that the draft was unfair and minorities and poor whites were paying a heavy price. By war's end, after civil rights leaders had protested the elevated casualty rates, black combat deaths had fallen to 12%, roughly in line with the African-American population in the USA.
###
What percentage of the fallen soldiers in Iraq are black? Is it more than 12%, the national average of minorities? If so, there is a disproportionate number of blacks dying in Iraq.

http://www.highbeam.com/library/doc0.asp?docid=1P1:34069755&refid=ink_pubnews&skeyword=&teaser=&COOKIE=NO
Who is more likely to get killed, officers or the enlisted?

The Washington Post
10-23-2000
UNDER THE HOOD; A LOOK AT THE INNER WORKINGS OF GOVERNMENT; Minorities
in the Military
Edition: FINAL
Section: A Section
Column: THE FEDERAL PAGE

The Army has the greatest proportion of minorities of any branch
of the military, and minorities make up a much higher percentage of enlisted personnel than officers.

[Zhade]

20. Good points, thanks for the info.

I'm kinda surprised at the number of "no role at all" votes, to be honest.

[LittleClarkie]

21. We barely get to see the dead

I don't think most Americans know what color they are. There is a civilian chicken hawk contingent that I've met who blithely say "Well, that's part of the job, isn't it."

Perhaps if more of our people knew what it was like to be in the military. Also, I thing there is an active duty vs National Guard/Reserve thing going on where the active folk are relatively well taken care of, and the NG/R people aren't, and some think that's alright. I commented that NG don't get the same treatment as Active to a couple of Texas guys. One of them started to say he thought that was proper, until I said that if you take the same risk, you should get the same treatment. He agreed, and knowing I was a Kerry voter, said immediately "So... you support the troops but not the war." He seemed vaguely impressed. I was just proud that he got that message without me having to say it outright.

I think mostly it's an "out of sight, out of mind" thing. We're not allowed to see the dead, so it's as if they aren't real. That's what funerals are for, you know. To make death seem real. I know I was "fine" after my mom died until I actually walked into the visitation room. Reality hit and the whole family got hysterical.

I suppose it's not the same, but I do think the media blackout is much to blame. Of course, that's why Rummy and Co. insisted on it. They want the public ignorant of the cost.

[Skittles]

22. my guess is no

I doubt most people know who comprises the bulk of the military. It seems to me more of a case of out of sight, out of mind. They don't see the coffins or the carnage - the media simply does not show it.

[baldguy]

24. "My kid isn't going into the military..."

How many rich white college students voted Republican? They wouldn't even think about joining up to fight in Iraq without a draft.

[Blue_Tires]

26. i have a friend of mine that works for the Virginian Pilot

in Norfolk, VA (biggest military town on the east coast)...In his office, (I was last there a couple years ago) he had pinned up the front page of the story about the bombing of the USS Cole off the coast of Yemen (which had the photos of all the sailor killed...iirc, out of the 17 dead, 13 of them were people of color), and some readers had mailed back the front page as a form of 'protest'...One had put X's through all the minority victims pictures, saying they were not "Real Americans"...The other had said the paper should not have printed their photos because it decreased the morale of the rest of the sailors..

[Pepperbelly]

27. not at critical mass yet ...

No where near enough lives have been personally touched for it to be more than abstract to massive majority of Americans.

[robbedvoter]

28. I voted "Other". Arrogance is my diagnosis. Same reason that

made people disbelieve 2 stolen elections . The "we're # 1" attitude. The whole world can go to hell as long as we are safe attitude.

[SoCalifer]

29. I Voted Other

Even though I feel racism is still rampant in parts of our country. I don't however think that race has any direct bearing on the lack of concern by the majority of our middle-class countrymen.

In my opinion it boils down to the simple idea of: "I haven't felt any effect."

But you can make a valid argument that this country's upper and middle class doesn't care about the low-income class, and of course it's the low-income class that makes up the majority of those in our military who are the combatants, and thus make up most of the deaths. The poor have always been fucked-over by the rich and always will.

So in my opinion concerning your question. I would have to say the race does have a indirect bearing on the lack of concern by the majority of our middle-class countrymen.

[rinsd]

30. The vast majority killed have been white...

at least according to CNN's casaulty tracker.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/

If you hit the link in the first paragraph that says graphical breakdown it will give you a 2nd window with breakdonws by month, country, age, gender and race.

According to that, 970 white, 157 Hispanic, 153 Black, 27 Asian, 27 Other & 16 unknown have been killed.