Military enrollment and Inequality
As we watch the war in Ukraine unfold, where men aged 18-60 are required to stay and fight, what does our own armed service look like in America?
Tes Solomon Kifle, a Black Marine, explains the struggles of Black service members who join. “My mom was crying when I joined. She was deathly against it.” Tes goes on to explain Many African-Americans saw military service not as a career but as a way to help pay for education or to help compete in the civilian job market. By contrast, many White service members with long family histories of service sign up for what they call the “warrior culture,” because that is what is expected, and it is what their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers did.
📊 Black men are highly overrepresented in the military compared to the overall population. More than 20% of the military is Black, while only 10% of the civilian population is Black (which roughly tracks the overall population). Overall, 43% of the 1.3 million men and women on active duty in the United States military are people of color.
But this inequity doesn’t just appear in the ranks, it also appears in the line of fire. Black, Hisp…
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