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InvisibleRandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
Military recruitment
    #3535666 - 12/23/04 11:45 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

Has anybody ever heard someone making the bold assertion that the U.S. military intentionally targets poor black males with no future for recruitment? I even remember reading a quote from a Harvard student right before the start of the second Iraq war. She said sneeringly, "Most of the front-line U.S. combatants will be people of color." I would like to disprove that theory right now.

From USA Today

For example, although blacks account for 26% of Army troops, they make up a much smaller percentage of those in front-line combat units, the most likely to be killed or injured in a conventional war.


I grew up in a 99.9999% white area. I didn't see a black person until I was ten years old. During my senior year of high school military recruiters came to talk to us at our school, military posters were everywhere in the school, I and my friends received phone calls from persistent military recruiters, and we received letters and pamphlets.

I am as white as a sheet and I have been approached by three military recruiters in the past six months(once at a gas station, once at a mall, and once in Wal-Mart).

My point is that military recruiters target EVERYONE...not just poor black folks from the ghetto. And, most of the front-line combat positions in the U.S. military are manned by white people.

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Invisibletak
geo's henchman
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Registered: 11/20/00
Posts: 3,776
Loc: nowhereland
Re: Military recruitment [Re: RandalFlagg]
    #3538290 - 12/24/04 06:36 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

You are correct when you say that they target everyone. They will take who they can get.

About the poor black things. Due to racism in this country, past, and present, many many black people are being pushed into poverty. You may not want to believe it, but its the truth.

Being a middle classed white boy and all, you may not have to worry about it. But as soon as you step into the ghetto you will relize that these kids have to drop out of school to sell drugs, get in with bad crowds to try and make money and be someone, before they get killed. Fact. This is why racism and stereotypes still exist, racism breeds racism.

Most of these people will do anything to get out of thier lifestyle. They need a break from this hellhole, and they cannot depend on thier highschool education, where their teachers were making $12 grand a year. Not everyone can be the next scarface, and move to Miami. These people need an out, and the Military knows that. They offer them sign up bonuses for thier families, extended education and on the job training for a "career" that will allow them to bring some money to the table later in life.

I wont deny, that is a good thing for them to offer. It doesnt justify sending them to wrongful war though.

I am a middle classed white guy. I have lived in 4 places the last 2 years. 2 of wich were 80% upper class white people(jupiter,fl/velencia,ca), and 2 of wich were probably 80%+ lower class black and latino people(RivieraBch,fl/MoVal,ca).

In the upper class white neighborhoods, I was approached 3 times total. Twice in a mall, once at a big shopping plaza.

In the lower class black latino neighborhoods, I was approached countless times. Most the malls had recruitment offices located in them, active personel patrolling the mall 7 days a week. Gas stations, neighborhood corners, mail, phone calls, billboards, signs everywhere, promotional events, anything they can think of.

Sorry if that was long winded, but there is a poverty draft... There is no denying it, dont be confused though, they WILL take anyone they can get.


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The DJ's took pills to stay awake and play for seven days.

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InvisibleSoopaX
Criminal DrugAnalyst

Registered: 11/12/04
Posts: 1,690
Re: Military recruitment [Re: tak]
    #3541931 - 12/25/04 10:54 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

I wish that the goverment would just steal from me and give these poor black folk money rather then offering them a job that would reward them with work skills, a college education, discipline, and a reasonable pay.


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Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man

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OfflineMushmonkey
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Registered: 09/25/03
Posts: 10,867
Last seen: 5 months, 9 days
Re: Military recruitment [Re: SoopaX]
    #3542127 - 12/25/04 12:43 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

for real.

I wouldn't say it's undue targetting. The military is simply always an option, no matter your station in life. For some it's the best option available. I considered it, but it wound up that my student loans were coverin enough of my college and tuition was low enough I could conceive of being able to pay it off.
But if that hadn't been so? Let's say I was from the inner city and my family was poor? All of a sudden it's looking like a real good idea -- decent pay, see the world, get training, get money for college, get that plus when you get out of putting the military on your resumes..

this is nothing new.
goddamn, the ROMANS did this shit. Military service, once completed, would result in Roman citizenship. Incentive for the plebeians and barbarians.


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i finally got around to making a sig
revel in its glory and quake in fear at its might
grar.

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InvisibleSoopaX
Criminal DrugAnalyst

Registered: 11/12/04
Posts: 1,690
Re: Military recruitment [Re: Mushmonkey]
    #3544624 - 12/26/04 04:17 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

The military really can be a way to "pull yourself up by the bootstrap", which is why some people love it and some people haet it. To liberals, that phrase always seems to mean that society isn't GIVING you things with no return expected. To the more moderate libertarian thinkers among us, military service is a great way for people to improve their lot in life. Noone is being forced to join and you get excellent benefits for doing so. How many of these poor blacks coming from the inner city have healthcare through their parents? How many of their parents or contemporaries work a job that offers a FREE college education? How many of their parents or contemporaries are getting paid training for a job that will make them money after they've filled their four year requirement? How many are in a field that guarantees as long as you work hard you'll be promoted through the ranks, given raises, steady benefits?


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Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man

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Invisiblenewuser1492
Registered: 06/12/03
Posts: 3,104
Re: Military recruitment [Re: SoopaX]
    #3544676 - 12/26/04 04:37 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

One major problem I have with the current military recruitment is that of moral ideals. If the military wasn't used for nation building and wars of dubious credibility at best but rather for national defense I could easily support the military.

A person may join the military, or at least may have joined in the past thinking they were helping to defend their country. That same person may feel that their service is being abused by the current administration's goals.

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OfflineMushmonkey
shiftlesslayabout
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Registered: 09/25/03
Posts: 10,867
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Re: Military recruitment [Re: newuser1492]
    #3545425 - 12/26/04 07:41 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

Beh. Give me an administration in the past 70 years who has done any differently.


--------------------
i finally got around to making a sig
revel in its glory and quake in fear at its might
grar.

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Invisiblenewuser1492
Registered: 06/12/03
Posts: 3,104
Re: Military recruitment [Re: Mushmonkey]
    #3545461 - 12/26/04 07:49 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

I'm not saying they haven't, just that it is more apparent since we're in a "war". And if something isn't apparent many people don't consider it. So perhaps some joined the military prior to the war on terror thinking they were going to be deployed only when the nation was facing a threat.

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OfflineSigno
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Registered: 03/05/02
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Re: Military recruitment [Re: RandalFlagg]
    #3545617 - 12/26/04 08:20 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

Recruiters target everyone, there job is to enlist people, not just poor people. I think that as a whole more blacks join though because they need financial gains promised through military service.

ALL RECRUITERS LIE.


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Correlation is not causation!

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OfflineSeussA
Error: divide byzero

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Registered: 04/27/01
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Re: Military recruitment [Re: Signo]
    #3546896 - 12/27/04 04:00 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

> ALL RECRUITERS LIE.

Correct. The father of one of the girls I dated in college had been a recruiter for the US Army. When the military recruiters would call the house to talk to his daughter, he would go off on them telling them never to call again, etc. He said pretty much the same thing, that the recruiters will say and promise anything in order to get a person to sign up.


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Just another spore in the wind.

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OfflineSeussA
Error: divide byzero

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 04/27/01
Posts: 23,480
Loc: Caribbean
Last seen: 1 month, 18 days
Re: Military recruitment [Re: Signo]
    #3546898 - 12/27/04 04:00 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

Ack... double post...  :crazy2:


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Just another spore in the wind.

Edited by Seuss (12/27/04 04:02 AM)

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InvisibleSoopaX
Criminal DrugAnalyst

Registered: 11/12/04
Posts: 1,690
Re: Military recruitment [Re: newuser1492]
    #3547920 - 12/27/04 11:53 AM (19 years, 3 months ago)

If you join the military you should realize that you are at the whim of higher ups and that you have almost no decision making c apability while you are in the service. Thats just the way it works.


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Jackie Treehorn treats objects like women, man

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Invisiblenewuser1492
Registered: 06/12/03
Posts: 3,104
Re: Military recruitment [Re: SoopaX]
    #3548742 - 12/27/04 03:52 PM (19 years, 3 months ago)

I understand that. Like I said, if a person joined the military knowing they would be controlled by someone else but expecting the "higher-ups" to use that control in the proper manner I could understand their decision. Do you believe some people joined the military thinking their services would be used only if their Country was under attack or received a direct threat? I do. I also believe their ignorance or idealism, as you may see it, was abused by the government.

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