Any news article that mentions reductions in African American enlistments

[harlinchi]

and says that:


The Army says the number of black recruits has fallen from almost 24 percent of the total in the year 2000 to just 14 percent today.


as this article does:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8147705/

without mentioning that Blacks comprise 11.8 percent of the total population at best, is deceptively attempting to cast Blacks in the negative role of being unconcerned about our country. Last time I checked, 14 percent was more than 11.8.

[rogue emissary]

1. "I'm sure a lot of people didn't even know that '24 percent' figure."

The media virtually ignored the high number of African Americans in the military for years. Now that they can make us look bad they're tripping over themselves to report the decrease.

[angee_is_mad]

2. Maybe Black have more common sense?

why go and die for a lost cause, when your own country could care less about you?

Just my spin on it. I have a suspicion that a higher percentage of Blacks were against the war in Iraq that other demographics in the country.

Could it be that we have no illusions of the high price of war and how it affects a family and a community?

[rogue emissary]

4. I've always thought African Americans are a bellwether community . . .

in America. From the drug crisis in the inner city to school violence it hit our poor community's first. Which is why I wasn't not surprised to see the meth addictions hit poor white and rural America. The same goes for school violence. I wasn't that surprised when Columbine and the rash of school violence sprung up in suburbia.

I've heard on Americas black forum they had reference's polls that back up the fact that African Americans were against this war from the beginning.

We've always been the first to fight and sent to the front lines of war. Your right are community is especially sensitive to the lose of one or both parents being away from their families.

[kwassa]

3. The military is having trouble recruiting. Guess why? I - R - A - Q.

They haven't met their quotas for months and months, even reduced quotas.

It will be interesting to see if this results in a draft.

[harlinchi]

5. My thoughts were that...

Blacks would be vilified as part of the recruiting problem. Suddenly I saw articles which focused on the "14%-down-from-24%" fact instead of attending to the "14%-is-greater-than-11.8%" fact. In policy discussions emanating from this administration (such as they exist), singling out one fact out of many seems to lead to assignments of blame.

Wait and see if commentators don't suggest that if only folks would enlist in their pre-war numbers (by racial and geographical categories), all would be well. When they do, a simple mention of what must be the difference in percentages between white enlistment numbers pre- and post-war should suffice to render their argument useless. I mean if Blacks are still enlisting in numbers greater than their population percentage would suggest and Latino are as well then the numbers for whites must have fallen.

While I'm neither a government statistician nor an actuary, I DID stay in a Holiday Inn last night and this does make sense to me!