Too Many White Men in the Military?

A March 7 Stars and Stripes headline reads, “Report says too many whites, men leading military.” It could just as easily, and factually, have read, “Report says not enough non-whites, women leading military” but that wouldn’t have had quite the punch. Why punch at all?

There are those white military men of power and authority who would do anything to bring back the good old days of white men leading the way, every way, everyday. They do not, however, represent the majority of white military men. The majority of these men lack the power and authority to do much more than get yelled at when a part of their uniform falls out of place.  I’m not saying they’re victims. I’m saying they’re not perpetrators.

Discrimination is not eliminated by downsizing one group, even in favor of another. It doesn’t matter how much room is made by decreasing the size of group A if group B is still held back by archaic policies (e.g.: no women in combat). Dropping seeds of bitterness around and indicating a need to squeeze some people out is every bit as counterproductive as the practice of booting out homosexuals.

It has always been indecent and in many cases, flat-out inhumane, the way some white men have crawled upon and over the careers and opportunities of non-whites and women. It is widely acknowledged that this brutish behavior is unprofessional and criminally wasteful of human resources. Using any approximation of discriminatory behavior doesn’t magically become more professional or less wasteful when applied to white men.

Anti-discriminatory policies that perpetuate discrimination of any kind toward anyone slow the process of maximizing every service member’s potential and should rightly be called what they are: discrimination.