Do you think the soldiers in the war right now is come back racist?
I think I could see it just as I'm sure soldiers in say WWII, some probably didn't like Japanese or Germans which is a shame. But I would be surprised if not at least some are racist against Muslims now.
i agree but also perhaps soldiers who go to war tend to be more racist than the average person. they are putting their lives at risk for their country against other countries
Quote:i agree but also perhaps soldiers who go to war tend to be more racist than the average person. they are putting their lives at risk for their country against other countries
I don't know, I think any racism would be during or afterwards since they know who they are fighting but until they experience it...
I strongly disagree with this theory-I've been in the Army for three years, and if anything, it's one of the most diverse organizations in the world, complete with a strong emphasis on Equal Opportunity and diversity in positions of leadership. I wouldn't even go so far as to say that a majority of soldiers are nationalistic-most of us are here not for reasons of patriotism or a belief in the superiority of our people, but more for the financial and educational benefits. But I reiterate-the US Army and Armed Forces in general are very diverse, tolerant and all of us enforce policies of tolerance and diversity on a daily basis. If there are any soldiers who are racist when they enlist, they're either very good at hiding it, or they've had it worked out of their system through personal experience and programs within the service that work towards that end.
I do believe, however, that postwar racism against, say, Arabs or people who "look" Arab or Middle Eastern may be higher in redeploying soldiers, particularly those who have to deal with close-quarters combat and daily interaction with locals in Iraq or Afghanistan. Still, this would more than likely have some relation to PTSD, as in the case of the soldiers returning from WWII, Korea and Vietnam, rather than finding its root in some kind of inherent racism that exist only in people who are attracted to the military. I'm exposed to the local nationals here on a regular basis, and I certainly don't view them as somehow less human or less entitled to basic universal rights than I am. However, I do feel that they are primitive regarding education and intellectual development, but that isn't racism in my view, because those are both problems that are remedied by action and have everything to do with class, economy and exposure to ideas, and nothing at all to do with your ethnicity.
By that I mean to say, I certainly don't look at an Afghan or an Iraqi and assume that he's not able to do anything I can because he's from Mesopotamia or Central Asia, although I might assume that (especially in Afghanistan) his rural background and lack of education, unexposed to the larger world, might hinder his perception of life and his ability to think past his own simple life. We still have people out here who tell us that the world is only 13 or 14 hundred years old and that Muahmmad was alive a few months ago, and I'm not exaggerating. But this is due to the depressed educational situation in these countries, not the color or physical features of the people who live here.
The military, like anything else, is a mixed bag. Some of us came back hating Muslims and Arabs because it is perceived that they are the reason we are there; some of us came back really seeing the world and Muslims and Arabs in a different, more positive light. I had a very good relationship with the Iraqis that I dealt with on a daily basis. It all depends on the individual, like anything else in life.