Race, everything is about race...

Fuck effectiveness and getting the job done!

I grow weary of calls to gender and racially norm the military.

We are not seeing the results of racism in that 77% of the leadership is white.

We are seeing the results of selection bias in out all volunteer military.  Self selection.  If it were a secret society policy of racism, explain Colin Powell.  He's not the only black dude with flag rank.  He was chairman of the Joint Chiefs, if he overcame institutional racism he was certainly in a position to implement policies to end it.  I posit that he didn't because there was no institutional racism to overcome.

Here's a bit of truth for the racial mongers: Black officers tend to leave the service long before they reach O-3.  Figure out the why of that and you'll see your percentage of black officers increase.  Figure out why so few black men apply to the academies, OCS and ROTC and you'll have another datum.  It is politically incorrect to speculate that the military is simply not what an educated black man wants to do with that education.

This pattern repeats with the Rangers and Special Forces.  Volunteers from volunteers.  Hard to join, easy to quit initial entry.  Nearly all white.  Again, self selection bias.  Figure out why minorities do not want to join or if they do want; why they rarely complete the difficult training process.  I have seen an answer for why black SEAL trainees do poorly and it has everything to do with physiology and cold and nothing to do with racism.  Admitting that there are physiological differences that matter to the job has been a problem for the PC crowd.

With a volunteer force, I don't want him there if he doesn't want to be there.

I notice that the report (I'm not linking until Righthaven is dead and gone, can't be too sure...) comes from an "independent" study done for Congress.  Excuse me, but that's not independent at all; especially when the conclusion fits the politically correct mold so well.  "Need more minorities and women.  End ban on females in combat."

Why?  What is the military currently unable to do that they will suddenly be able to do if we allow women into combat arms?  An aside here, females join with the understanding that their careers will be truncated by their inability to serve in a combat role (except for pilots); this was the deal when they joined and they joined anyway.  I do note it doesn't seem to be women SERVING that are complaining about the lack of career opportunity here; but the same people who've been complaining all along.

What missions are impossible with so few black officers?

What I really care about, at the end of the day, is can our military defend us and is it capable of killing people and breaking shit.  If that means a force that's so white the Klan thinks we need an affirmative action plan, so fucking be it.

What needs to be answered for me is how will increasing the percentages affect effectiveness.

I would also like to mention that the racial balance on the enlisted side of the coin was a bit different before Gulf War I.  The enlisted ranks were majority black in the late 80's early '90's.  Once there was a shooting war going on that reversed and fast.  There's another datum for you to figure out.  Retention of non-hispanic minority enlisted is very low when the military is actually in combat.  Recruitment and retention of white and hispanic enlisted men INCREASES when there's shooting going on.

Self.  Selection.  Bias.

The people in the job have chosen to be there and stay there.  Figure out why and perhaps address that.  Don't set mandates that x% must be y race or gender or you will negatively affect the ability to perform the missions if the pool of qualified candidates is too small.