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> As well, the military is a more diverse organization in the US than almost any tech company. Agreed. I always get irritated when I see people referring to th

> As well, the military is a more diverse organization in the US than almost any tech company. Agreed. I always get irritated when I see people referring to the military as some homogeneous, white-Protestant, politically conservative institution. It's very much not the case. Dan, the subject of this article, studied at Columbia, which has an incredibly large veteran population in the undergraduate student body. From my experience at Columbia, the GS veterans come from an incredibly diverse range of background (racial diversity being just one aspect of that).

cobrausn 15y ago
Regarding diversity in the military, I can only speak of my own experience, but when I was in the military I found it to be a very interesting atmosphere. Unlike the rest of the US, where race is an extremely touchy subject and anyone bringing it up walks on pins and needles, I found that the military was full of people from all kinds of backgrounds constantly needling each other with jokes, questions, and comments that in other company would be called 'racist', but nobody seemed to care - if anything, it seemed like we all learned a lot about each other this way. Only once did we ever really have a problem with a guy who was genuinely racist, and when someone said something about him, the higher-ups came down on him pretty hard. It took a lot to get to that point though - usually the enlisted men can deal with the problem themselves pretty well. Most people who enter the military racist drop that outlook very quickly.
- matwood 15y ago
  I think in the military people become one more so than just being from the same country. Your shared experiences and understandings bind you together in a way that transcends race. It's similar concept in science fiction where the humans on earth usually stop fighting each other once they discover intelligent life off the planet.
  - rdl 15y ago
    There are actually a lot of people in the US military who are not even US citizens (and especially who were not citizens at entry) -- lots of people from US territories, the Philippines (especially in the Navy, to the point where they're considered a "mafia" in mid-ranks in some areas), etc. It's partially because it's a fast-track to US permanent residency and citizenship.
Dove 15y ago
There is a wonderful PBS series called Carrier about life aboard an aircraft carrier. You can see full episodes (with ads) here: http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm , or you can stream it via Netflix. It focuses heavily on the people, and their stories. The sheer diversity of the crowd is amazing.
_delirium 15y ago
I always get irritated when I see people referring to the military as some homogeneous, white-Protestant, politically conservative institution. It's very much not the case. Oddly I usually hear the opposite stereotype: that the military is made up of minorities and poor whites. Also an oversimplification, though statistically has some truth to it (both minorities and poor whites are overrepresented relative to their shares in the population, because middle-class and upper-class whites are underrepresented). That's one reason that civil-rights activists like John Lewis have been pushing to reintroduce mandatory military service, since they argue that many of the well-off whites who also benefit from the U.S.'s military activities aren't equally shouldering the burden.

cobrausn 15y ago

Regarding diversity in the military, I can only speak of my own experience, but when I was in the military I found it to be a very interesting atmosphere. Unlike the rest of the US, where race is an extremely touchy subject and anyone bringing it up walks on pins and needles, I found that the military was full of people from all kinds of backgrounds constantly needling each other with jokes, questions, and comments that in other company would be called 'racist', but nobody seemed to care - if anything, it seemed like we all learned a lot about each other this way. Only once did we ever really have a problem with a guy who was genuinely racist, and when someone said something about him, the higher-ups came down on him pretty hard. It took a lot to get to that point though - usually the enlisted men can deal with the problem themselves pretty well. Most people who enter the military racist drop that outlook very quickly.

matwood 15y ago
I think in the military people become one more so than just being from the same country. Your shared experiences and understandings bind you together in a way that transcends race. It's similar concept in science fiction where the humans on earth usually stop fighting each other once they discover intelligent life off the planet.
- rdl 15y ago
  There are actually a lot of people in the US military who are not even US citizens (and especially who were not citizens at entry) -- lots of people from US territories, the Philippines (especially in the Navy, to the point where they're considered a "mafia" in mid-ranks in some areas), etc. It's partially because it's a fast-track to US permanent residency and citizenship.

Dove 15y ago

There is a wonderful PBS series called Carrier about life aboard an aircraft carrier. You can see full episodes (with ads) here: http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm http://www.pbs.org/weta/carrier/full_episodes.htm , or you can stream it via Netflix. It focuses heavily on the people, and their stories. The sheer diversity of the crowd is amazing.

_delirium 15y ago

I always get irritated when I see people referring to the military as some homogeneous, white-Protestant, politically conservative institution. It's very much not the case. Oddly I usually hear the opposite stereotype: that the military is made up of minorities and poor whites. Also an oversimplification, though statistically has some truth to it (both minorities and poor whites are overrepresented relative to their shares in the population, because middle-class and upper-class whites are underrepresented). That's one reason that civil-rights activists like John Lewis have been pushing to reintroduce mandatory military service, since they argue that many of the well-off whites who also benefit from the U.S.'s military activities aren't equally shouldering the burden.