I have a question for other fellow veterans here, based on shared personal experience.
There are white racists, black racists, brown racists, yellow racists, and red racists. I wish there weren't, but there are. Its my experience that there are fewer racists in the military (%-wise) than there are in the general population. I believe that to be for two reasons. One, that the service enforces brotherhood among all its members. Nowhere else do you stake your life on the performance of your colleagues. Nowhere else do you want/need your colleagues to be at least as successful as yourself. Two, the close proximity of soldiers to each other in all aspects of their lives undercuts the baseless prejudices that people have learned. Prejudice is a learned behavior, is not innate, and can be unlearned.
My question is this: Should military service be made mandatory, in part as a piece of the solution to overcome the racial issues we're seeing?
There are white racists, black racists, brown racists, yellow racists, and red racists. I wish there weren't, but there are. Its my experience that there are fewer racists in the military (%-wise) than there are in the general population. I believe that to be for two reasons. One, that the service enforces brotherhood among all its members. Nowhere else do you stake your life on the performance of your colleagues. Nowhere else do you want/need your colleagues to be at least as successful as yourself. Two, the close proximity of soldiers to each other in all aspects of their lives undercuts the baseless prejudices that people have learned. Prejudice is a learned behavior, is not innate, and can be unlearned.
My question is this: Should military service be made mandatory, in part as a piece of the solution to overcome the racial issues we're seeing?
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