4 - The Black Vault

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THL BDvI CORPORATION
CHAPTER 5
RACE RELATIONS
A. INTRODUCTION
The United States military was legally desegregated in 1948 iy Executive
Order of President Truman. Through the 1950's and early !.60's, the
military vwas a front-runner in achieving social integration and equal
opportunity. Examples of personal or institutional racism remained, however.
In the late 1960s, concurrent with the rising social awareness given
official expressior. in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1966, racial
r;,ppled through S~unrest the military and civilian communities.
This chapter will examine institutional racism within the Unitad
States Army, biack-wnite relations, the Army's response to the race
problem, and the relations between the Army and the Vietnamese people.
B. INSTITUTIONAL RACISM
Institutional racism is maintained by law,
Institutior'l racism may be intentional or unintentionai.
reguiation, or tradition.
The legal segregation
of the Army prior to 1948 was intentional `r.situtional racism, just
as the legal prohibition against women in combat is intentional sexism. A
regulation that requires a GCT score of 100 ,or eligibility for promotion
is unintentional institutional racism. It overlooks the fact that the
lower socio-economic classes where minorities tend to be heavily represensed,
are less likely to attend or graduate from quality high schools,
and that a good quality education tends to produce a better GCT score.
purpose of the regulation relating general comprehension to promotion was
4 to assure that only reasonably intelligent soldiers would achieve promotion.
The unintentional racist effect precltuded many minorities from
promotion eligibility, even though they met
The
other promotion criteria.
Clearly, institutional racism is a subtle, yet real problem to be grappled
with.
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