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Historically, military service has been a family tradition in a lot of American households.
You know who wasn't left with a good feeling about the military? A shitload of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, who's kids would normally would be a large chunk of the current crop of recruits.
Do you think that maybe their parent's bitterness and anger about their time in the military, or treatment afterwards, might have affected their kid's decision to enlist?
"What we're seeing is a reflection of society; what we know less of is what is driving all of these things," one Army official told Military.com. "There is no widely accepted cause."
I bet I could tell 'em: the attack on longstanding social institutions that undermines our support for them. A conservative might blame CRT being taught in school, which is nonsense. I'd blame the Republican strategy of telling voters that the government doesn't work and then being elected to office to ensure that it doesn't. Even when I was in the military, I didn't want to risk my life to defend nation on foreign shores. I can't fault anyone else for feeling the same.
We have grown, exponentially, in information sharing in the last thirty years. Anyone even slightly savvy can see that the ideals of "protecting freedom" have been replaced by "killing to maintain corporate growth." Who besides the least advantaged would be okay with that? Dying in needless conflicts is not something privileged people sign up for and it’s why recruiters target minorities.
TLDR: Army recruitment goals are 65,000 recruits for the year. They had a shortfall of 10,000 recruits, 15% short. Meanwhile, white people specifically aren't signing up, only 44% of new recruits are white. For context, the US is 68% white.
Of course there's more than just racism, such as the obesity epidemic making many potential recruits not fit for service, the mental health epidemic doing the same, general apathy, etc etc. But the racism issue not to be overlooked, and it's one of the few things that the army could try to target. The army can't fix the obesity epidemic after all.
Army has fat camp. You still can’t be overly obese but it’s there. Along with an education program for people who didn’t have a diploma.
I am a huge fan of the military since it enables people to do better.
The army is very conservative when it comes to white troops. Sadly, this will impact our ability to go to war since white troops make up the combat arms and special forces.
The army is very conservative when it comes to white troops. Sadly, this will impact our ability to go to war since white troops make up the combat arms and special forces
Here is an interesting admission that conservatism favors white people over others for some things, despite wintermule's pathological and repeated assertions that the progressives are the racist ones.
Also of note is the use of the word "sadly", which would seem to indicate the knowledge that conservatism is not best possible guiding philosophy for all situations.
It doesn’t favor white people. Where did you get that hogwash? Conservatives are more duty bound and well love the country. So yes, they serve in the military at a higher rate. White people are more likely to to combat arms.
Ok sorry, I must have misunderstood. All I know is, despite my ASVAB I didn't actually get a choice of MOS.
That means you didn’t score very high or there wasn’t very much available when you enlisted.
Now if this is a topic that interest you. I’ll try to dig up the old study I read. It’s fascinating why groups join the military. Many whites join for “adventure” and that’s why they go into combat roles. Wealthy families are highly represented in combat arms and especially special forces.
Black people join for careers and job skills. They go to non-combat units. Who wants to do 20 years in infantry ?
Good study. Explains why you see the breakdown in certain mos classifications and why special forces is so white and wealthy.
Hmm yes very interesting. I'd like to read that. It sounds almost as if you could make some careful inferences about US society as a whole based on observations of the military.
I still owe you the study that I am referencing, I have to find it. This is a newer study that appears to be referencing it but I can't get the search to work properly to find it. I will try tomorrow.
However, blacks are also more army to learn skills that are transferable to the civilian labor force. However, blacks are also more likely than whites to seek to stay in the army for a career because they feel the army is a more color-blind employer than they are likely to find in the civilian world. (Segal and Verdugo 1994, 628)
Barriers to Minority Participation in Special Operations Forces subseguently cites the results of the Youth Attitude Tracking Study (YATS) as evidence of relatively lower interest in combat related occupations by minorities.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA384108.pdf
The other article that I need to find talks about Special forces having a higher amount of rich, white kids seeking adventure. Combat arms are the same, a bunch of white kids wanting to blow things up for a few years.
Intriguing stuff. I have not finished reading the whole thing but I feel like there could be some cultural, social and socioeconomic factors that are just kinda glossed over here. Seems like a simple question about a subject that I think is more complex than it initially appears.
Keep reading. They’re address many of those topics. One study isn’t going to cover everything but it’s an interesting read. It makes you reflect on your time in service and you’ll see why people made the decisions they did.
To quote winter:
~~Democrats~~ Republicans can’t stop trying to put people into groups. My skin color is the least interesting thing about me.