MIT Report: Army Recruiting Fewer Blacks
COLUMBIA, S.C.
U.S. Army recruiters are signing up far fewer Blacks for hitches as soldiers. During the fiscal year that ended in September, the number of Black recruits from South Carolina fell 24 percent, from 858 in 2004 to 650 in 2005.
Nationwide, Black recruits have fallen 41 percent since 2000. The Army says the war in Iraq is playing a role.
Columbia Urban League President James T. McLawhorn Jr. agrees, saying the war may have prompted some young Blacks to consider other options.
“They’re finding that they can go to a four-year college, and if they can’t do that, then they can go to [technical] school,” McLawhorn says.
A recent report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies says that until “recently, Blacks were far more likely than Whites to volunteer for the Army. Today that is no longer the case.”
The MIT report says young Blacks are less likely than Whites to fight for a cause they don’t believe in. A recent USA Today poll found that 95 percent of Blacks feel the war in Iraq was a mistake.
— Associated Press
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
