COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: Military Recruiting: Youth of Color
Marines concerned over minority enlistment
EDWARD SIFUENTES, NC Times
July 29, 2007
NORTH COUNTY ---- Top Marine Corps officials have expressed concernover a decline in minority enlistments, blaming at least part of the
decrease on the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Marine spokesman Lt. Col. T.V. Johnson said last week that there had
been a decline in enlistment among blacks and that Latino enlistment
had fluctuated in recent years. He said the wars ---- and hesitation
on the part of parents and others who influence young people's
decisions to join the military ---- are possible explanations for the
downward trend.
"There's a war on, and people aren't as quick to recommend military
enlistment," Johnson said.
Department of Defense statistics show that the percentage of black
recruits for all services has dropped from 20 percent in 2000 to
about 13 percent last year. In the Marines, the percentage of black
recruits has dipped from about 13 percent in 2000 to 7.6 percent in 2006.
The percentage of Latinos serving has fallen slightly in the Marines
but has risen in the military overall, according to government figures.
During a recent speech in San Diego, Marine Corps Commandant Gen.
James Conway told officers gathered at the annual National Naval
Officers Association that the numbers are "not a good-news story,"
according to a story in the Marine Corps Times.
The military is often held as a model of racial integration and
economic opportunity for various racial and ethnic groups. Conway
said in a recent interview that the Marines have kept a diverse force
but expressed concern that the enlistment trend may lead to problems
in the future.
"What we have seen is, really, in all three ethnic groups, a ...
declining propensity to join. Our recruiters are aware of that,"
Conway told the Associated Press. "I've tasked our recruiters with
ensuring that our minority percentages stay strong."
He said he wants the Marine Corps "to roughly parallel the ethnic
makeup of our country. I think that's what our country would expect
of our military."
Of the 288 million people living in the United States in 2005, 12
percent were black, 14.5 percent were Latino and 4 percent were
Asian, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Not everyone agrees there is a problem looming.
Tim Kane, a researcher with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
policy research organization in Washington, said the military
continues to be a racially diverse force.
"I don't find a real problem with the demographics, " Kane said. "The
bottom line is, the military does a pretty good job of being color blind."
Kane analyzed demographic data for military enlistees from 2003 to
2005 in a report called "Who are the Recruits?" He looked at
recruits' household income, level of education, regional origin and
race and ethnicity.
The data indicate that "U.S. military recruits are more similar than
dissimilar to the American youth population," according to the
report. "The slight differences are that wartime U.S. military
enlistees are better educated, wealthier and more rural on average
than their civilian peers."
The report was assembled in response to criticisms that minorities
and low-income communities were overrepresented in the military.
Pentagon data obtained by the Associated Press shows mixed results on
the racial diversity of recruits.
The number of Latinos joining the active-duty military and reserves
for all four services grew from about 27,000 in 2003 ---- the year
the war in Iraq began ---- to more than 33,000 in 2006. However,
Marine statistics show that the number of Latinos serving in this
branch declined from 23,000 in 2001 to about 22,000 this year.
Marine officials say part of the military's strength lies in its diversity.
"It's America's Marine Corps and it should look like America,"
Johnson said. "We're stronger as a country because we are diverse,
and we're a stronger military because we're diverse."
But what the military sees as strength, some see as a reliance on
minority and low-income communities to fill its ranks.
Jorge Mariscal, a UC San Diego professor of Latino studies and a
Vietnam War veteran, said Latinos and low-income students are lured
by recruiters with distorted images of the military. He is part of an
Encinitas-based group called Project on Youth and Non-Military
Opportunities that acts as a counterpoint to military recruiters.
"The question is: Who's really serving and what economic class is
being seduced into the military?" Mariscal said.
Aline Quester, a researcher with the Center for Naval Analysis, a
nonprofit research organization specializing on military matters,
said a high number of minorities at higher staff noncommissioned
officer ranks in the Marines points to its success in attracting and
retaining black and Latino recruits in the 1970s and 1980s.
Minorities represent about 45 percent of all sergeant major and
master gunnery sergeants. She said those figures may erode if the
Marines can't attract more blacks and Latinos in the future.
Gerald Johnson, president of the North County branch of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he agreed
that the military is better because of its diversity and that the
decline in minority enlistment is a cause for concern.
"In my opinion, every place in this nation ... should reflect the
makeup of this nation," said Johnson, a 22-year Marine veteran. "I
believe that, not only in the military but everywhere, we should be
able to see the mirror of the populace of this nation."
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