Whites and minorities in uniform offer strikingly different views on race relations in the military, according to the most in-depth survey of racial attitudes ever conducted within the armed forces.
Are you surprised? Because the military often is seen as a model of racial cooperation, many will be shocked by this report.
But I would bet that a similar survey of workers in just about any corporation or university in the country would produce similar results.
Across the country I have found corporate and university professionals fearful of speaking their minds about race. Whites, in many cases, fear being labeled “politically incorrect,” while blacks fear that complaining about racism will hurt their career.
Despite the military’s admirable record for equalizing opportunity, it has not achieved racial utopia. But, after centuries of segregation, it has done better than the rest of American society, particularly since the mid-1960s, and the military offers some valuable lessons for the civilian world to follow.
In their 1996 book “All That We Can Be,” a study of race relations in the Army, co-authors Charles Moskos and John S. Butler offer this as “lesson one” in their lessons to be learned from the Army’s race record: “(b)lacks and whites will not view race relations the same way. Blacks consistently take a dimmer view of racial matters than whites.”
But the same is true for blacks and whites in the civilian world. For example, the congressionally mandated survey of more than 40,000 service members found that three-quarters of all non-whites in uniform said they experienced racially offensive behavior in the military. Fewer than half expressed confidence that complaints of discrimination are thoroughly investigated.
Whites, by contrast, took a generally positive view of race relations in the services.
That gap is not much different from the Washington Post-ABC News poll in 1997 that found 44 percent of blacks, but only 17 percent of whites believed blacks faced “a lot” of discrimination in America.
Newspapers, for example, that have surveyed their own staffs, have found a surprising number of blacks and whites who feel they are not getting a fair shake because of their race.
Examining race in a Pulitzer-winning 1993 report, the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal found that its own black journalists saw the deck stacked against them–even though their publisher was black.
White staffers at the Beacon Journal, by contrast, felt blacks and black issues received special treatment and consideration. They also felt this bias imposed on whites “a constant pressure . . . to bend over backwards to embrace minority perspectives.”
In fact, the newspaper report found, racial anxiety among whites seemed even higher than it was among blacks.
Reached by telephone at Northwestern University, where he is a sociology professor and expert on military personnel matters, Moskos responded to the new military study with a big “so what?” Racial attitudes in the military, he observed, are less important than racial performance.
For one thing, racial attitudes of black and white soldiers were more favorable than those of Northwestern University freshmen, according to the results of a study Moskos conducted several years ago.
For another, “the Army is one of the few institutions in American society where blacks routinely boss whites around,” he said. “I would prefer a situation like the Army, say, with white racists and black leaders, than a university where there are no open racists and few black leaders.”
The endurance of difference in racial attitudes in the military, despite retired Gen. Colin Powell and other obvious examples of advancement and leadership by minorities, should serve as a warning sign to the rest of us. Beneath our surface tranquillity, a cauldron of racial resentment boils. The best way for us to deal with it is openly and forthrightly.
We should all be as candid and self-examining as the military’s new report appears to be. Liberals need to be less defensive about differences in racial attitudes and conservatives need to be more willing to spend the time and money it takes to bring about true equality of opportunity.
Most of all, we need to lecture to each other across racial lines a little less and listen a little more.
