More Cowbell - Recruiting should be like a dog show

Over the last few weeks, the Cassandras from the “Diversity” Industry have been making all sorts of hay over the fact that “African-Americans” are not enlisting in the Army at higher levels as they once were.

First, everyone should read Thomas Sowell's book, Race and Culture: A World View. ES: there is never a perfect racial balance in any industry (his facts); to expect one is to be a fool or an autocrat (my opinion).

Generation X, Generation Y, and those that follow are/will continue in intermarry at higher rates. THAT IS A GOOD THING. More and more, we are truly a ethnic melting pot. For the sake of argument, lets pretend I have blond hair and blue eyes with the last name Gonzalez (my grandfather came over here from Spain right after he was on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War and the rest of my family is standard issue Anglo-Saxon-German-Scotch-Irish-Adoptedwhoknowswhat); my mother-in-law is from the Philippines and my father-in-law is the grandson of a Black Alabama sharecroppers whose son made good in the Navy and married a Hawaiian-Japanese mix he met at Waikiki in the late 1960s (which makes the wifey a wonderful melt) what do the professional, modern version of Wiener Gesellschaft für Rassenpflege in the Diversity Industry want to call my children? Mmmmm? I’m waiting…..and while I am waiting for an answer, will the Association of Naval Services Officers quit sending me their racist literature?

Enough venting, let’s do a minor Fisk of Robert Burns's little take on this.

Young blacks have grown markedly less willing to join the Army, citing fear of being sent to fight a war in Iraq they don’t believe in…..Fear of combat also is a leading reason fewer young women are choosing the Army…

Soooo, are you implying that blacks and women are cowards and every other “group” is not?

Statistically, the fear factor is about twice as strong among potential recruits as a whole as it was in 2000, the study said.

Duh. A few things happened since 2000 Robert; you may want to Google it.

The Army has suffered more of the 1,500-plus U.S. deaths in Iraq than any other service, and thousands have been wounded. Some soldiers will serve their second tour in Iraq this year. While Army leaders say soldiers have shown a strong interest in re-enlisting, the strains of war seem to have become a barrier to first-time enlistees.

Mmmm. Think to investigate why? Think it might be that those doing the fighting might know something that you are not writing about in the MSM that might change the view of the war?

Blacks make up about 23 percent of today’s active-duty Army, but the share of blacks in the recruit classes of recent years dropped. From 22.7 percent at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the share slid to 19.9 percent in 2002; 16.4 percent in 2003 and 15.9 percent last year, according to figures provided by Army Recruiting Command spokesman Douglas Smith.

The slide has continued, dropping to 13.9 percent as of Feb. 9.

That and other studies, all of which are posted on an obscure Defense Department Web site, cited the Iraq war as a major turnoff for many.

Major pissoff point for me. Robert, give the site address so we can see ourselves you AP snob.

BTW, where is the percentage concern for the NBA? Medical School? What a bunch of BS. Let the best serve, whatever they choose to do; and don’t let the bigots from the Diversity Industry get in their way.

All of this FOD needs to be understood in the context of the ethnic breakout of combat units. Even prior to 911, for a variety of reasons, non-blacks dominated the combat arms areas. This is best explained here. We are at war. We are doing more combat operations and shifting focus to combat units. It would make sense that a group that prefers areas of work outside of combat would not join as much. But the key is that the U.S. population consists of a self-defined population of 12.3% Black. They are now at 13.9% of recruits. Shouldn’t these people be happy? Wait, they can’t be happy. That would end their job. Ahhh-haaaa. "I see!", said the blind man.

Enough of Robert's poor work. A much better article on the subject by Josh White at The Washington Post. He covers the same subject in a more balanced way, and answers some of the questions left hanging by Roberts article.

African Americans still make up nearly a quarter of the overall Army, where, historically, blacks enlisted in strong numbers to take advantage of economic and social opportunities not available elsewhere.
But the drop in new recruits from that ethnic demographic means the Army has to make up ground elsewhere. Hispanics have increased from 10.4 percent of new recruits in 2000 to 13 percent in 2004; whites went from 61 percent in 2000 to 65 percent in 2004; and Asians or Pacific Islanders made up less than 1 percent of new soldiers in 2000 but nearly 5 percent in 2004.

Military scholars said the decline was not all that surprising, in part because African Americans' propensity to join the military has been dropping over the past decade.

Not a surprise when you look at some of the major leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus. You know, I am already tired of this post. Racial politics disgusts me, and the history of Blacks in the military is both varied and exemplary. This exercise in racial divisive politics by those with other motives that dates back to Vietnam and beyond, is old, stale, and insulting. The vultures are already counting the dead by the makeup of their genetic code. We are halfway through the first half of the 21st Century. Why do we have to live under this constant Baby Boomer 1970s fetish?

A focus on multiculturalism and racial/ethnic group never gets a country anywhere. With the increase in multi-racial marriage and children, this whole exercise is becoming an ugly anachronism. The future belongs to a culture of freedom, if you can keep it.