Glen(n) links to a disturbing story concerning a US Navy recruiter, and a 2002 policy with which he disagreed:
The policy set a limit on the number of minorities admitted into the Navy whose scores on a standardized test classified them as “lower mental groups.”
Hudson’s objection to that was so strong it led him to take on a role he had never pondered: whistle-blower. Today, four years later, he feels he’s still suffering consequences for that act of conscience.
A scenario came to his mind: two would-be sailors — one black, the other white — are in a recruiting office. They score the same on the battery of aptitude tests given to every military applicant. They appear to be equally eligible to become members of the United States Navy.
The recruiter tells the white applicant, “Welcome.”
But, under the new instructions, the black recruit is told, “Try us next month.”
Lieutenant Hudson complained up his chain of command, which was appropriate and in fact mandatory for an officer faced with an order he believed to be illegal. Told to enforce the policy, he later went around his chain of command to file an EOC complaint. That apparently got him in hot water, even though a Navy IG found the policy legally “indefensible.” He claims that he suffered reprisal in the form of an adverse fitness report because he had blown the whistle.
I know the modern Navy well enough to know that, no matter how many problems we may have, institutional racism is not one of them. That of course, is a very easy thing for a white, anglo-saxon, Protestant officer to say, but every flag officer I hear speak on the subject of race insists that we have to do better on diversity, which is not the kind of thing you hear from a redneck network. The culture they’re trying to create is one of an “employer of preference” for smart and hard-working people of every race, color and creed. They’re very much hoping for good people of every stripe at the top of the organization, visibly performing as leaders, mentors and positive examples. They mean it, and they’re not willing to push unqualified people into positions calculated to embarass either the Navy or themselves to do so. Hence, quality.
It appears that the underlying goal of the accession instruction was to level-load vocational aptitude test-based success among all ethnic groups, using test results as a proxy for intelligence. Since minorities in the service are represented in rough proportion to their overall numbers in society, the concern must have been that a greater proportion of people in certain minority groups who were considering enlistment were under-performers, scoring in the bottom quintile. If that were true, it would be easy to see why the Navy would want to level out that representation by competing for higher quality candidates rather than let the first guy through the door fill the quota. We would do this not only because intelligence has a value all of its own in a technical service, but because we send our crews to sea together in ships for long periods, and in such a heremetic environment the social implications of any one group being over-represented by under-achievers (or vice-versa) would be pernicious to our overall goals and unit cohesion.
This is not to put forth the slur that certain ethnic groups are more likely to fall in the lowest quintile on vocational aptitude tests – the bell curve is the bell curve, and every standard distribution will have performers distributed throughout the five quintiles. Instead, it is the overall number in the sample size (and every quintile within it) that is affected by minority status. The basic definition of which – when unloaded of its modern emotional freight – means “fewer of.”
Although I don’t have access to the data, it seems to me that in a country our size (and with a Navy as small as ours is becoming) the problem isn’t that any one group is over-represented in the bottom quintile – the notion is stochastically absurd – so much as the fact that the competition for top performers is so very keen. Everyone wants to attract high-performing people of every ethnicity, and faced with top-tier competition the service might not be an employer of first resort. In other words, to meet “diversity” quotas with IBM and UCLA competing in the same talent pool might very well mean finding yourself competing for what’s left over, with an over-representation collecting in the lower quintiles. Which takes us back to a place we don’t want to be.
Thus the conundrum: In attempting to satisfy the laudable intent of simultaneously increasing the quality and diversity of our workforce, planners found themselves inadvertantly sidestepping into an accession policy that was racist in effect.
Understanding how we got here and why the policy was flawed is important even though it was rescinded in a matter of a few weeks. But it’s also important to know that young officers can challenge what they believe to be – and what were later proved to be – illegal orders without fear of professional consequence.
I certainly hope there’s more to the lieutenant’s tale than what is found in the Tennessean.
I certainly hope there?
I certainly hope there’s more to the lieutenant’s tale than what is found in the Tennesean.
And if there isn’t, what should be the rememdy for the Lieutenant?
There are multiple avenues, the easiest being a “letter to the board” when he’s up for promotion or administrative screening. He also had the right to make a statement when the adverse fitness report was signed. That statement would have made a part of his permanent record.
Seeing that he’s been assigned to a position of greater responsibility, it’s hard to argue that he’s been critically wounded. Still, per the laws of the Navy,
“Tis well if the Court should acquit thee –
But ’twere best had’st thou never been tried.”
We’re taught to do the right thing regardless of consequence, but if there weren’t potential consequences they wouldn’t label acts like these courageous.
Just wondering…how different is this than the college admissions process?
That policy was an attempt to respond to persistent complaints from civil (group) rights advocates that the Navy had too many blacks with “less desirable” MOS’s. For example, blacks were found to be under represented in electronics and aviation categories.
That some are trying to paint this as old fashion discrimination just reflects how difficult it is to please group advocates.
Not really hard to understand at all. The military believes that any questioning of orders, even if justified, is so harmful to discipline that it must be punished. It may well be that whoever promulgated the order that Lt. Hudson objected to has already had his career ended by his superiors, but that won’t help the Lieutenant.
Publicity may help. Appeals within the system are likely to prove only that ‘the system’ is designed to exhaust the appellant’s resources while providing a gloss of respectability to the process.
You wrote “I certainly hope there?
You wrote “I certainly hope there’s more to the lieutenant’s tale than what is found in the Tennessean”
Me too… from the story it sounded like he was immediately pulled in and given an adverse fitrep…
I’d like to say too that this LT’s treatment doesn’t align with the high levels of integrity I generally found among the officer corps. But unfortunately I’ve learned that you can’t underestimate the damage that can be done by a single petty, vindictive, power-threatened officer in a position of authority.
I am a former recruiter, NRD “midwest”, early 90s. RINC (Recuiter in Charge)qualified. Worked at the district HQ last part of my tour, also.
Have to say I never had any kind of restriction placed on who I could recruit based on race. I did have to deal with limits on how many CAT IV’s (lower ASVAB scores) I could put in, but that rarely was a factor.
Sounds like things have changed. We didn’t have ‘boxes’ like the Army recruiters in our building did – we would have a goal of say, four, of which one could be a CAT IV. That’s it. The Army would be very specific on what they needed – one Hispanic male, one upper mental group female, etc.
Recruiting is one hard job. Until you’ve done it, you have no idea. The pressure is tremendous. Most guys out there are just trying to survive. Fortunately I was fairly successful, and earned several ‘gold wreaths’ to show for it. I will say though, you were looked at differently if you were regular Navy, going back to the fleet after you did your three years, instead of CRF (Career Recruiting Force), guys who left their rate to become career recruiters..most of those guys weren’t very well liked.
re your comment that some minority groups may be over-represented in the lower ASVAB quartile, I believe this may be related somewhat to both oportunity and demographics.
While in NROTC I sometimes wondered at the relative paucity of minority Midshipmen and my completely unfounded theory is that the additional scholorship oportunities afforded high-achieving minorities may make the ROTC oportunity less attractive. In enlisted recruiting it be possible that many high-achieving minorities are availing themselves of other (i.e. educational) oportunities?
As for demographics, I seem to remember reading once that a higher percentage of minority recruits come from a significantly lower economic class than non-minority recruits. For many minority recruits the services are specifically seen (and often sold) as a ticket out of a bad economic situation. It just so happens that there is a significant correlation between poorer comunities and poorer education, regardless of race.
Dave,
re: “In enlisted recruiting it be possible that many high-achieving minorities are availing themselves of other (i.e. educational) oportunities?”
I think that was what I was trying to get at, however inelegantly, here: Everyone wants to attract high-performing people of every ethnicity, and faced with top-tier competition the service might not be an employer of first resort. In other words, to meet ?
Dave,
re: “In enlisted recruiting it be possible that many high-achieving minorities are availing themselves of other (i.e. educational) oportunities?”
I think that was what I was trying to get at, however inelegantly, here: Everyone wants to attract high-performing people of every ethnicity, and faced with top-tier competition the service might not be an employer of first resort. In other words, to meet “diversity” quotas with IBM and UCLA competing in the same talent pool might very well mean finding yourself competing for what’s left over, with an over-representation collecting in the lower quintiles.
Color-blind is best, IMHO. Everybody takes the ASVAB, and let the chips fall where they may.
This is important, dammit. As the Navy shrinks, we should at least take the opportunity to have the best people we can in it, regardless of their appearance or genetic provenance. If doing that results in having un-representative proportions of different groups, that’s just too bad. Sucks, and all, but we’re talking existential National survival,here.
Having had a OIC job as a LT where I was expected to herd CAPTs very used to having their own illegal and unethical ways (not true of all, to be sure, but certainly to this incestuous bunch), my record still bears the scars. When I stopped covering up for them and started documenting their activities to my chain, the fun began (my reporting senior, you see, was already the subject of another IG investigation, which finished another officer’s career, although not the reporting senior’s). As my JAG pointed out, you can fight and win the main battle, but they still have ways of getting you, and they will. LT Hudson is in the position of proving that his superiors were, in fact, conducting themselves illegally. Lotsa luck with that one, LT. Letters to the board and FITREP statements are generally seen by promotion boards as whining. His best hope lies in the Bureau for Correction of Naval Records.
I, too, went to a position of “greater responsibility,” from that tour. I was passed over for O4 the first look, but mirabile dictu, picked up the second look. Despite outstanding FITREPs as an O4, and having spent my entire O4 time in operational jobs, I’m DIW for O5, and the apple polishers with no dings are getting selected. Meanwhile, the CAPTs have all retired and taken GS-15 or SES jobs (ain’t GWOT great!).
Zane,
Coffin nails are a real problem and not easilly extracted once hammered in. It took me three looks to make O-5 because of an unintended slight perceived from a EP to P shift. The command had a huge influx of more senior O-4s and the CO didn’t want to bury them (she figured I was junior enough that a P wouldn’t hurt me, never taking into account how the down-check would look).