The 2004 report takes aim at the idea that enlistment in the military
functions as a social-level. According to the report, from the founding
of the U.S. “the various systems of selective conscription used to
staff the military…have privileged the wealthy and politically
powerful.”
4
A 2007 Associated Press analysis found that 75 percent of U.S. troops
killed in Iraq came from small towns where per capita income is below
the national average, and over half from towns where the percentage of
people living in poverty is above the national average.
5
The Army’s inner-city marketing programs
The Army’s GED Plus Enlistment Program allows applicants to enlist
while completing a high school equivalency course. It is “specially
designed for disadvantaged youths who have neither a high school
diploma, nor a GED.” The program is available “only in certain areas”
and those certain areas are “mostly inter-city areas where most
disadvantaged youths live.”
6
The national graduation rate in 1998 for white students was 78 percent.
It was 56 percent for African-Americans, and 54 percent for Latinos.
7
Only one in seven Latinos will graduate from California high schools,
according to the California Department of Education. Only thirteen
percent earn a bachelor’s degree, according to the Public Policy
Institute of California.
8 The drop out rate for white students in California in 2005 was eight percent.
9 Poverty nationwide in 2005 was higher among minorities than among whites, according to a government census report.
10
Designed by the Latino Sports Marketing in San Diego, the Hispanic H2
Tour consisted of a Hummer called a “mobile branded platform,” with
multiple video screens. The U.S. Army website’s stated goal of the
Hispanic H2 Tour was to “build confidence, trust, and preference of the
Army within the Hispanic community.” The Hispanic H2 Tour visited
Latino neighborhoods across the country. “Latino Sports Marketing
claims the tour has "surpassed its initial goal of qualified leads
[potential recruits] by 57%.”
11
The U.S. Army’s “Strategic Partnership Plan for 2002-2007” document
states that “the Hispanic population is the fastest growing demographic
in the United States and is projected to become 25% of the U.S.
population by the year 2025… Priority areas [for recruitment] are
designated primarily as the cross section of weak labor opportunities
and college-age population as determined by both [the] general and
Hispanic population.”
Former Secretary of the Army Louis Caldera, presently the president of
the University of New Mexico, is the architect of targeting young
Latinos for military recruitment. Caldera said, “Hispanics have a
natural inclination for military service,” and the Army can “provide
the best education in the world.” “Hispanics represent approximately
22% of our recruiting market,” a Pentagon spokesperson told the San
Antonio Newspaper
Express-News
in 2002. Only three percent of Marine Corps officers are Latinos. In
all branches of the military 80 percent of officers are white.
12
“Takin’ it to the Streets Tour’ was meant to increase African-American
recruits. Army recruiters toured America in a yellow hummer. According
to Army reporter Amey Adkins, Takin’ it to the Streets Tour uses “ideas
of hip-hop to discriminately target low-income areas -- primarily
comprised of minorities -- to recruit for the armed forces. The Vital
Marketing Group helped the U.S. Army develop the tour.”
13
Junior ROTC programs in America’s inner cities
The Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (JROTC) is “designed to
teach high school students the value of citizenship, leadership,
service to the community, personal responsibility, and a sense of
accomplishment, while instilling in them self-esteem, teamwork, and
self-discipline,” according to the U.S. Army JROTC website.
14
The JROTC is “one of the best recruiting services that we could have,”
former Defense Secretary General William Cohen once said.
The Middle School Cadet Corps is an after school program for children
ages 11-14 which meets two to three times per week. “Programs differ
from school to school, but MSCC students generally learn first-aid,
civics, citizenship, and character development. They also learn
military history and take field trips to local military bases. Once a
week, students wear their uniforms to school for inspections.”
15
Both the Middle School Cadet Corps and JROTC programs are funded by the
Defense Department. During the last decade the amount of Junior Reserve
Officers Training Corps (JROTC) programs doubled from 1,500 to around
3,000. Money spent on the JROTC tripled from 1992’s $76 million to the
approximately $210 million spent in 2003.
16
JROTC programs and cadets doubled nationwide after General Colin
Powell, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, paid a visit to
South Central Los Angeles after the 1992 riots, and said the solution
to the problems faced by inner-city children was the discipline and
structure the U.S. military offered.
17 Colin Powell wrote in his 1995 autobiography,
My American Journey:
“Yes, I'll admit, the armed forces might get a youngster more inclined
to enlist as a result of Junior ROTC. But society got a far greater
payoff. Inner-city kids, many from broken homes, found stability and
role models in Junior ROTC.”
18
Both Los Angeles and Chicago have large JROTC programs. Los Angeles is
the second most populous city in the U.S. The Los Angeles Unified
School District (LAUSD) is considered by critics to be the “the “most
militarized school district in California.”
19 LAUSD has 29 JROTC programs “situated in heavily populated year-round schools.”
20
The LAUSD pays for over half of the $4 million JROTC/Cadet Corp budget.
LAUSD is 71 percent Latin, 12.1 percent African-American, and only 9.4
percent white.
In Chicago 91 percent of the students are non-white and 85 percent are
poor, and 44 out of 93 high schools have a JROTC program. Chicago has
ten military academies: three operate independently, and the other
seven are part of the public school system. According to the Chicago
JROTC website, Chicago has the “largest JROTC program in the country in
number of cadets and total programs.”
21 Only five schools in the more affluent areas of Chicago have JROTC programs.
22 Nine-three percent of students in Chicago’s JROTC programs are African-American or Latino.
23
Many of the young people in JROTC programs will go to enlist in the
military. A 1995 study paid by the American Friends Service Committee
titled, “Making Soldiers in the Public Schools” found that 45 percent
of cadets who complete a JROTC program enlist in a military branch. “A
14-year-old is no match for the Department of Defense in sorting out
the military's claims,” stated study co-author Catherine Lutz.
24
1 Zinn, Howard. A People’s History of the United States. 1999
2 Segal, David R. and Wechsler, Mady. “America’s Military Population,” Population Bulletin. December 2004, vol. 59, no. 4, 2004.
4 Segal, David R. and Wechsler, Mady.
8 Hendricks, Tyche. “College Seems Out of Reach to most Latinos,” San Francisco Chronicle. June 24, 2007.
11 Mariscal, Jorge. “No Where Else to Go: Latino Youth and the Poverty Draft,” Political Affairs. November 2004. http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/295/1/36.
14 https://www.usarmyjrotc.com/.
16 Schaeffer-Duffy, Claire.
National Catholic Reporter. March 28, 2003.
21 http://www.chicagojrotc.com/.
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