Racism in the Military

The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War

This documentary effected me in a major way.  It really shows the extent of America's xenophobia and what that has resulted in.  It's awful what's happening in Iraq and Afghanistan, both for the citizens of these occupied nations and for the American soldiers who are forced to do heinous things and have to suffer with the psychological trauma and lack of services afterward.

The military encourages many ISMs (sexism, racism, heteronormativity, homophobia, etc). One of the ways that this manifests is in the slang used and the songs sung during training at boot camp.

Bomb the village, kill the people
Throw some Napalm in the square
Do it on a Sunday morning
Do it on their way to prayer.


Ring the bell inside the schoolhouse
Watch those kiddies gather round
Lock and load with your 240
Mow them little motherfuckers down.
- Marine basic training song, taken from The Lonely Soldier


Disturbing songs such as this one serve to desensitize and dehumanize whoever is on the other side of the battlefield. Training exercises also accomplish the same task; for example, take this passage from The Lonely Soldier:

"'They put us in this foxhole thing and there was this little hut far out to the left, and inside the hut were Iraqi people. We had to bomb them...they all had the little turban thing and the dress thing...' The military does use Iraqi and Arab immigrants, whom it calls cultural role players, for training...it also uses nonwhite and women soldiers. Eli PaintedCrow commented on this: 'They never use white soldiers to do the roleplaying, but they could. But we're not supposed to be bombing White people, I guess.'"

 The message is loud and clear. Even if racial slurs are prohibited in the military, racism is alive and well - along with many other ISMs. The dehumanization of different groups is ingrained in military culture and history, particularly the hatred of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. When an institution devalues the life of one group, the humanity of all groups is compromised.