Deep-rooted racism, discrimination permeate US military

For Stephanie Davis, who grew up with little, the military was a path to the American dream, a realm where everyone would receive equal treatment. She joined the service in 1988 after finishing high school in Thomasville, Georgia, a small town said to be named for a soldier who fought in the War of 1812.

Over the course of decades, she steadily advanced, becoming a flight surgeon, commander of flight medicine at Fairchild Air Force Base and, eventually, a lieutenant colonel.

But many of her service colleagues, Davis says, saw her only as a Black woman. Or for the white resident colleagues who gave her the call sign of ABW – it was a joke, they insisted – an “angry black woman,” a classic racist trope.

White subordinates often refused to salute her or seemed uncomfortable taking orders from her, she says. Some patients refused to call her by her proper rank or even acknowledge her. She was attacked with racial slurs. And during her residency, she was the sole Black resident in a program with no Black faculty, staff or ancillary personnel.

“For Blacks and minorities, when we initially experience racism or discrimination in the military, we feel blindsided,” Davis said. “We’re taught to believe that it’s the one place where everybody has a level playing field and that we can make it to the top with work that’s based on merit.”

In interviews with The Associated Press, current and former enlistees and officers in nearly every branch of the armed services described a deep-rooted culture of racism and discrimination that stubbornly festers, despite repeated efforts to eradicate it.

26 years in AF and I’ll raise the BS flag on this one. As a tactical radar controller (2/Lt) in Vietnam my enlisted technician who sat next to me, made all the telephone calls and helped me ensured that aircraft got to where they were going was black. We spent long hours talking about the past and our future. IO worked for a black O-6 in the basement of the Pentagon. His wife asked for a divorce and he was told by senior leadership that he needed a wife to make General. I helped him find an absolutely wonderful wife and partner in life and he did get promoted.
After I retired I worked for a black Army CW5. He was one of the most senior Warrants in Army. We went all over the world working together and we always helped each other to shine. We would be in the audience in a briefing and the four-star would around to the look at the Warrant and say, “Chief, what do you think?”
If she had a chip on her shoulder when she came in the service people sense that and they would go out of their way to make life miserable for her.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.