In The Barracks: U.S. military promotes racial understanding

Private First Class Tony Ramirez in a navy humvee.

U.S. military promotes racial understanding

By Jonathan Lim

Special to La Voz

The United States Army Initial Military Training, which is responsible for the Ar­my’s Basic Combat Training, is a rigorous program. But beyond pushing soldiers to their physical and emotional limits, the 9-week program also strives to remove ra­cial discrimination from the ranks.

Each branch of the military is comprised of a diverse collection of Latinos, Blacks, Asians and other minorities, along with Caucasians.

“If you think America is a melting pot of race, join the military — that’s the real melt­ing pot”, said Tiara Padron, Latina who is serving in the U.S. Army.

Yet, although 25.4 percent of the veter­ans serving active duty in the U.S. is minori­ties, and 13 percent is Latino, only 4 per­cent of Latino soldiers are officers.

Padron, who served in an airborne unit for two years and is currently in her last year of a commissioning program at this university, said that, “soldiers are expected to treat every culture with respect,” and vehemently denied the notion that the mili­tary is discriminatory in any way — once you put on a uniform

Private First Class Tony Ramirez echoed this sentiment.

“Since being shoved into a fully integrat­ed environment as a junior Marine, I’ve be­come very inclusive,” he said.

For Ramirez, who is also of Latino de­scent, the issue of race hits home.

He said that he used to be, “a little racist against blacks, coming from a mostly white environment.”

“There’s no room for that in the Marine Corps, though,” Ramirez added. “Since we have 50 to 60 guys in the squad bay sleep­ing, showering and eating together, you quickly learn to be more accepting.”

Although both said that soldiers of the same race may congregate together in free time, they attribute this self-segregation to people doing what is most comfortable for them. When it’s time for duty, however, ev­erybody knows skin color is a irrelevant.

“Everyone wears green, everyone gets treated the same.” Said Sam You, a Ko­rean-American who served in the Persian Gulf War as a helicopter pilot.

You said that the military is, on the whole, a very non-bias organization.

When he was serving, You said the mili­tary had an “affirmative action kind of thin.”

“You promote one White captain, you promote one Latino captain,” he explained.

Padron noted the military promotion process is very calculated.

“You either have or don’t have enough points based on college, leadership time, physical fitness scores and weapon scores to further your position,” she said.

Racism in the ranks, although discour­aged, sometimes does come out, but most­ly in jest, Ramirez said, explaining there is a lot of “humorous racism.” He noted that it is all “harmless, but very common.”

“Of course there are situations where a person gets singled out,” You said. “But it’s not because of race, but rather because of that person’s stupidity.

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Posted by admin on Apr 22 2010. Filed under National News, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry