Military sees big decline in black enlistees

[unhappycamper]

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/10/07/military_sees_big_decline_in_black_enlistees/">Military sees big decline in black enlistees
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.

The Army Recruiting Command acknowledged that the Iraq war has presented special challenges in the African-American community, but said it continues to reach out to black recruits.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/10/07/military_sees_big_decline_in_black_enlistees/

[yourout]

1. Anyone know the percentage of African-Americans deaths in the Iraq conflict?

Would be interesting to know the percentage of African-Americans deaths versus overall armed forces membership.

[Maq]

2. It is a White Mans' War

Black or African American
US Army 305
Air Force 5
Marine 39
Navy 6

TOTAL 355

Percentage 0f total 3790 is 9.37 percent

Last update from the DoD: 2007-09-22
SOURCE: http://icasualties.org/oif/ETHNICITY.aspx


It is a white mans war according to the released list of deaths. 74.51 percent of the total deaths are white.
My opinion, is that the latent racial discrimination over the decades have self determined that the total makeup of the Military will be white.

[Jackeen]

4. Blacks are slightly under-represented in the casualty tables.

As the article says, they tend to gravitate towards CS/CSS units, likely so they can learn a life skill which you can't really learn as a combat arm. Infantry units tend to attract more whites and hispanics. As a result, the losses are accordingly skewed, though the current nature of the battle is such that CS/CSS units take more casualties than in a 'normal' war, and this thus reduces the disparity.

[Maq]

3. same story dated Dec 2005 citing Vietnam numbers

Compare the article with this story for a fuller picture.

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.

((Maqs' input: This was during the Viet Nam Era))

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.

S. Douglas Smith, a spokesman for Army Recruiting Command at Fort Knox, Ky., pointed out that recruiting is down, not just for African-Americans, but for all groups. This year, the Army missed its recruiting goal by more than 6,600 new enlistees...

SOURCE: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1221-04.htm