THE LEDGER-STAR
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412300485
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Short : 47 lines
Despite the military's generally good record on race relations, overt cases of racism and subtle forms of discrimination still pervade some military facilities, the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday.
The findings of a one-year bipartisan study of racial discrimination ``comprise a complex web of good news and bad news,'' said the report issued by outgoing committee chairman Rep. Ronald Dellums, D-Calif.
The good news is that many service members rated the military's equal opportunity climate as positive.
On the negative side, overt forms of racism such as racial slurs and jokes were common at four of the 19 U.S.-based and overseas facilities surveyed.
More serious, the report said, were minority military members' perceptions that they were disciplined more severely and faced retaliation for lodging discrimination complaints. Equal opportunity training tends to focus on sexual harassment and ignore racial issues, the report said.
Dellums, a senior member of the Congressional Black Caucus and a liberal who has pushed for defense cuts during his two years as chairman of the committee, said he was ``deeply troubled'' that many men and women in uniform ``believe their careers are jeopardized by acts of discrimination.''
He called it a ``dangerous and deleterious situation that must be addressed.''
The task force, which interviewed about 2,000 military members, reported white supremacy and skinhead activity at several facilities and said that at one Marine Corps facility racial tension was ``so elevated, particularly at the junior enlisted ranks, that unit cohesion and readiness were sometimes affected.''
Generally, minorities and lower-ranked members saw discrimination problems as more serious than did whites and officers. Minorities frequently said they had to conform to the majority norms, to become ``one of the good old boys,'' to get favorable consideration for promotion.
The report praised Defense Secretary William Perry for announcing last March that he would set up a Pentagon office for equal opportunity programs.
KEYWORDS: RACIAL DISCRIMINATION U.S. MILITARY by CNB