Is there affirmative action in the US military?

Answer 1

Not officially, but in reality it does exist. During OBC my platoon had a lieutenant that was absolutely worthless, a complete disruption to unit morale, just a piss-poor excuse for an officer. Had he been white, he would have had many, many reprimands and punishments for his behavior.

He was a black muslim, so not a word was said.

Mind you, the person in our unit who was most pissed off at this guy was another black lieutenant who was an absolute star. He had all the right stuff to be a great officer.

I think he was pissed off that people would look at him and think his achievements were due to his skin color, and not his capabilities. When you see slugs go unpunished, it becomes easy to get that attitude.

Answer 2

Yes, I am an equal opportunity representative in the Army, we had to go to a friggin class learning how it all worked.

Prime example: Colin Powell acknowledges that he would not have reached the level that he did (4-Star General) in the military without Affirmative Action

Answer 3

It doesn't call it that but absolutely it does. There are different standards for men and women in a host of areas. In the arena of promotions, minorities (women, who are actually a majority of the population and some racial minorities) are assigned "goals" which is a code word for "quotas" which can "bump" more qualified majority (read: white male) members in lieu of a less qualified minority. I believe a group of JAG officers sued the DoD for that a couple of years ago.
Then there is the informal affirmative action which tends to benefit the same minority groups by way of the EO and IG offices. Most supervisiors knew its very hard to punish anyone if they are minority, regardless of how much they deserve it.

Answer 4

Good question!!!

The military practices a very real and useful form of affirmative action. They do this by giving IQ tests (virtually outlawed in the business world) to every recruit and assigning said recruits to the military occupational specialty (MOS) most suited to their real-world abilities.

They do this regardless of skin-color, socio-economic status, sex, or whatever. You see, they're focused on WINNING WARS and realize that they need the best army possible. That's why you see, in addition to whites, blacks, latinos, and asians in the highest ranks of the services. The US military is by far the most effectively integrated institution in the US and in the world.

Pretty neat, huh? So how come, after 40 years of "affirmative action" in the rest of our society, there is nothing comparable going on? Maybe, just maybe, the prescribed "solution" hasn't fit the problem very well, after all? Just a thought.

Answer 5

"Affirmative action is a policy or a program of giving certain preferences to certain (usually "under-represented") groups. This typically focuses on education, employment, government contracts, health care, or social welfare. It favors minorities and women in hiring and in admissions to colleges and universities in an attempt to compensate for past discrimination." This definition is from Wikipedia.
In an all volunteer force, as long as you meet physical, psychological and criminal background checks, you are often accepted.
Which under-represented group are you referencing? If you are referring to an "Activist Group", keep in mind that the military defends a democracy but is not one in itself.

Answer 6

Affirmative Action. A Joke. Just a cause for lawyerly briefs and fodder for discussion when there is lull in politics.
We are all human. We all bleed red. We Do NOT need Affirmative Action as it is defined today.
We just need fairness.



The military during both World Wars consigned most Black people to support jobs. The top brass commonly defended discrimination in racist terms, arguing that black men lacked the courage to fight or the intelligence to lead. These bigoted policies shadowed the military long after formal segregation was ended and nearly tore the Army apart during the 1960's and 70's.

One of the pivotal figures in the transformation was Clifford Alexander, President Jimmy Carter's secretary of the Army. Early in his tenure, Mr. Alexander put a hold on a list of officers proposed for promotion to general. He was troubled, as he explained in a 1997 Op-Ed article, ''because no Black colonels had been promoted, even though many had achieved that rank and served with distinction.''

The board that handled promotions was ordered to look at the records of eligible black colonels and to determine if they had been given lesser assignments or evaluated negatively by officers who were racially prejudiced. Once race-related blemishes were expunged, black colonels with otherwise sterling records emerged as strong candidates for promotion.

This decision was affirmative action in its purest, most elemental form. But 25 years of distortion and political warfare over this issue have made it difficult for most people to speak clearly on the subject or even to recognize affirmative action when they see it. Loaded terms such as ''quotas'' and ''reverse discrimination'' have made it all but impossible to see affirmative action as a constructive and vitally important policy for the United States.

This charged atmosphere has obscured the story of the Army's spectacular transformation. Mr. Alexander, for example, took offense when President Bill Clinton argued that Colin Powell, promoted to brigadier general during Mr. Alexander's tenure, was the product of an affirmative action program. Mr. Alexander viewed the measures he had taken as common-sense fairness but rejected the label ''affirmative action.'' The term, he believed, implied that the black candidates for general had been less qualified than the white candidates or that they had been given some ''extra'' benefit. The truth, of course, is that the Black officers would have been trapped in oblivion but for a strategy that allowed them to escape what were known as ''nicks'' on their records made by unfair superiors.

The Army also took steps to ensure that race would no longer be an obstacle to promotion. It ensured that all junior officers had a reasonable chance of getting assignments that, if performed well, made them eligible to move up. As the military historians Charles C. Moskos and John Sibley Butler wrote in ''All That We Can Be: Black Leadership and Racial Integration the Army Way,'' the Army is ''the only place in American life where whites are routinely bossed around by blacks.'' Twelve percent of the Army's officers are black.

The typical Army base is far more racially integrated than the average town or college campus. The rest of the country lags behind. Most Black and Latino students are still confined to mediocre schools that place even excellent, hard-working students at a disadvantage in terms of standardized test scores. Until this inequity is redressed, affirmative action programs like the University of Michigan's will be needed to ensure that talented minority students can enter the elite universities that generate much of the national leadership. President Bush needs to remember that as he weighs whether to take sides when the Michigan program comes before the Supreme Court.
,,,

Answer 7

No. There is no official affirmative action policy.

However, if you look at the statistics, the military is consistently better than the private sector in terms of promoting minorities.

I'm too lazy to find a cite.

Answer 8

Of course there is. Look at the latest Coast Guard Commercial on TV. Who is at the bow of the boat saying " we are the united states coast guard " ? A black man. Behind him , a hispanic and an asian, and then, way in the back, you will see a white boy.

Answer 9

Yes

Answer 10

No, everybody is treated the same, just like ****