We’ve come a long way since that time, and leadership at the Department of Defense (DoD) asserts that recruiting the widest possible pool of talent is not only the right thing to do, it is also a national security issue. As stated in the Department’s recent Diversity and Inclusion Strategic Plan 2012-2017, “It is critical that DoD strive to have a Total Force that not only possesses the diverse backgrounds and experiences to meet the complex challenges of the future global security environment, but that also reflects the face of the nation.”
This makes sense because the dedicated men and women who serve our country in the armed forces are the backbone of our national security—even more so than its ships, aircraft, tanks and weaponry. The United States military maintains rigorous eligibility standards because it needs competent, healthy and educated young men and women to fill the ranks of the most professional, respected and technologically-advanced military in the world.
Unfortunately, many young Americans who want to join cannot. Startling statistics from the Department of Defense show that 75 percent of young people ages 17 to 24 are currently unable to join. The most common barriers for potential recruits are inadequate education, obesity and/or a criminal record.
The DoD’s 2009 Military Leadership Diversity Commission found that up to 80 percent of age-eligible minorities do not meet the qualifications for the Marines. The barriers for young people to qualify for service include disparities in opportunity driven by historical segregation and inequities in access to quality education, early childhood programs, affordable quality food, and health care.
These disparities cut close to home for me. The Mississippi of my youth was segregated and openly harbored bigotry. In 1962, my distant cousin, Governor Ross Barnett, stood in the doorway of Ole Miss to deny enrollment to James Meredith, an African-American. When the federal government enforced Meredith’s right to equality, riots ensued that left two people dead and scores of persons injured.
Likewise, the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was decided the year I was born, in 1954, but was not really enforced in Mississippi until I was a sophomore in high school. Public school integration was more peaceful, but it was no less momentous. I benefited because, by going to school with white and black students, I learned to be suspicious of discrimination toward any human being.
