Does White Privilege really exist in our military? "Army says diversity training sent wrong signal... "

Get rid of everything dealing with race and ethnicity in the review/promotion boards, and no longer require the submission of a DA photo for the E-7+ boards...let actions speak louder than demographics. Until we do this, there will be a sense of preferential treatment regardless of what we do.

Personally, I could care less where someone is from, what color they are, what sex they are, or what they believe-if they can get the job done, that's all that should matter.

I personnally don't believe in the concept of "white privlege" and that it is a feel good politically correct term used to bash those of us that are not of a particular ethnic background. DEOMI can push it all they want but they are wrong.

Before I get bashed - yes there are problems, society is not perfect. I get that.

Society has made tremendous progress and gains in matters of equality since the end of World War II. Unfortunatly we have also created an entitlement society were some peope feel that the government and society in general owes them something. I don't believe in this - don't agree with - don't subscribe to it.

The Army had an Asian Chief of Staff. *drops mic*

Sir,

I find the inclusion of "white privilege" in EO training entirely inappropriate. The US military is the closest thing we have to a meritocracy. It's certainly not a perfect system, but it's much better than much of corporate America. One of the things I've always enjoyed about the military is our ability to form a team from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some of my closest military friends are people I would not have engaged in the civilian world. The uniform and collective identity helps us move past that. Claiming that all white Soldiers inherently have an unfair advantage undermines all of this.

What I find the most problematic with the comparison of ethnic demographics to our senior leaders is that they're looking at today's numbers instead of 25-30 years ago. Servicemembers are not promoted to E9/CW5/O10 overnight. Our ethnic demographics have changed dramatically in the last few decades. Furthermore, how many ethnic minorities met the requirements to enlist and/or commission in 1981 v. today? While I admittedly have not done the research, I would bet the disparity is not nearly as severe.

Finally, I don't think anyone will argue that we have fully eradicated prejudices or discrimination but we have certainly come a long ways over the last 50 years. In my personal experiences, it is nearly eliminated at the institutional level. What remains is individuals. I don't personally subscribe to the white privilege mentality. However, for the sake of argument I would state that any number of groups enjoy "privileges" and it is certainly not exclusive to whites. This is not the forum for such a discussion however. How about instead of teaching controversial academic theories we work to eradicate damaging "politically correct" policies instead?

COL Charles Williams , corollary question. Does {insert group here} privilege exist?

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/04/06/mindy-kalings-brother-lied-about-being-black-to-get-into-med-school-calls-affirmative-action-racist/

The newest privilege is "thin privilege." Would you say that exists in the military?Organizational discrimination against those with obesity? Overweight individuals are given flags, possibly considered to be "fat shamed" in weight control programs, barred from educational and career advancements, etc. What do you think of that?

This "Privilege" movement is just a well worded way of justifying racism itself.

I am a fmr EOA at the 2 star level. I completed DEMOI in the summer of 1999. I have been associated with the military since 1970 (Enlisted) and as a Commissioned Officer (1980) and fully retired in 2012. I served in both the Active and Reserve Components. I saw racial conflict during my time as an enlisted even as far as 'fights' between Black/White soldiers in the barracks. I did not understand any of this at the time because I grew up in a diverse neighborhood, went to a very diverse technical trades high school, so I was not as 'exposed' I suspect as others may have been and was only slightly aware of racism. From 1987 to January 2020, I have been involved in Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action in the US Army (AC/RC) and with the US Dept of Labor. I firmly do not believe in 'white privilege'. I had the 'privilege' of studying and graduating from High School, the privilege of enlisting (rather than getting drafted) in the USAF during Vietnam - my 'high school' friends (Black, White, Hispanic and Asian) had that privilege and choice as well. I had the 'privilege' of serving as a Law Enforcement Officer and I served with a department that had Black, White, Hispanic and Asian officers serving as well. I worked with, supervised and led and served under Black, Asian and Hispanic (male and female) enlisted, SNCOs and Officers The college I went to and graduated from was very integrated and at no time did I feel that I some how had the 'upper hand' because I was white. I served in the USAF to get my college paid for - which anyone willing to do the same was welcome to do so.

Bottom line, I think espousing 'white privilege' and 'critical race theory' is antithetical to the Military and will do more harm than good. I am not saying the US Military is perfect, but I can think of no other organizations where diversity has been more accepted than by the US Military.

We are all biased in some way or another. The term “privilege” is divisive and it undermines what it is trying to achieve.

If you are white you will tend to gravitate towards white people in social settings and friends. The same with any race or culture. That is human nature. If you are white you are the majority and if we are all biased and gravitate towards associating with “our own” then it does make it harder for other races to compete. Not because of racism but simply because we naturally gravitate towards people that look like us.

I think the military does a better job than 99% of the civilian workforce at fighting unconscious bias simply by uniform and grooming standards. We all look alike except for slight differences in slime color and hair texture. The military also actually takes active measures to combat real racism within its ranks. The threat of a court martial and jail time is a pretty good incentive to not be a racist openly while in uniform.

I guess I just don’t believe that white privilege is the correct term and we should all accept the fact that we all are biased and we have to work on overcoming it within ourselves regardless of what race you are.

I served a long time and for many years I never saw nor heard of white privileged in the ranks. We didn't have time of patience for that bullshit. The only privilege I heard of was RHIP (Rank has its privilege) and even that was rare. We all pulled together for a common purpose and didn't put up with any of that your this color or that color crap. If you were a POS it was not because of your color. Having come from an Infantry start I can not say it may have happened in other branches of services but I never saw it or heard of it. We did however joke quite a bit about some things as in there were 2 SFC Hicks in one of my units one white boy me and one black fellow and the 1SG used to announce he wanted salt Hicks or Pepper Hicks down in his office and we had some fun with that at his experience. The only Privilege I ever had in uniform was to serve with some great Soldiers and leaders and on occasion with some toxic and useless leaders and troops. Military units can not function or exist with racism at its core. A realist would also understand that some racist actually make it into units and maybe even hide their sickness for some time but in the end they get straight of they get the hell out.