“Kind of ironic, ain’t it...that the Sharptons and Jacksons of the world must REALLY hate that quote.”
Yup, for sure. In the early days of thr Iraq War Charlie Rangel would periodically get in tv and rant about the disportinate number of blacks in combat units and that something should be done about it. Finally, some reporter bothered to do some research and found Charlie’s contention not true. When confronted with the facts Charlie shut his pie hole and to my knowledge has never brought it up again. The fact is, blacks don’t volunteer in representative numbers for combat units, especially the elit units. Hispanics on the other hand have a long history of volunteering for the Marines and have performed exemplarily. Don’t know why blacks don’t volunteer for combat units in proportional numbers. I’ll leave that to others to answer....
When I was an assistant OSO (Officer Selection Officer) in Phoenix, while awaiting my Fleet Replacement Squadron class to begin, I was given the task of getting a foothold in the black lawyers association aboard ASU. The head of the department was very honest when he discussed with me the difficulties in recruiting young blacks for officer slots in the military. He said that with all of the corporations that are actively recruiting young black professionals, it is no wonder that the majority take high-dollar jobs as opposed to the promise of long nights, excessive heat, sand fleas and the idea of nasty people shooting at you to join the Corps. He was very pro-military and I enjoyed speaking with him and giving me that insight so as to better tailor our approach to recruiting.
It takes a special breed of man and woman to join the military, especially the officer corps. The first requirement is selflessness and many blacks are simply not brought up to embrace that philosophy. Some are and do quite well, but today's youth are simply too narcissistic to join.