Importance Of Diversity In The Military

Diversity in any type of organization is beneficial for all individuals involved to include top management to the ground employees. Having diversity in a workplace encourages tolerance, acceptance and more rounded place for all employees to work for. It gives persons the ability to grow and to also go up the ladder in the company. Diversity in the military has always been a problem involving women and minorities, but in the last decade there has been a real focus on the lack of minorities in the officer ranks. Women and minorities have only a small percentage of being senior officers compared to the more than seventy percent of whites in the active duty military. In 2008, Congress ordered a report; the Military Leadership Diversity Commissioned …show more content…
Allen West, a right wing black conservative who runs the blog westforwestwing.com explains that the military should not be concerned about the color of the soldier and what rank they hold but they should concerned about how each and every soldier put their lives on the line for America and its people. He also quoted saying “that the military is not a social experiment for outside groups to impose their theories….it is a merit based on organization where everybody can succeed (westforwestwing.com). West does have a point, but at the same time he forgets to realize that the underrepresentation of minorities not only effects minorities but the entire majority as a whole. Whites who do not work around other officers of different backgrounds can struggle to understand and to tolerate when one does come in direct contact with a minority. As the text explains that a company that lacks diversity will not let the employees reach their full …show more content…
The one issue is that out of all the suggestions is that I do not think that recruiters would push the officer route as much as they should considering that they need to meet their quotas. And it is easier to sign persons enlisted compared to officer in many cases. Also to take into consideration would be their ASVAB scores to initially even have them eligible for the military. And there is data that suggests that minorities do score lower on certain tests. So either the military would have to lower their standards or see why minorities are scoring lower on military based test. The lowering of test standards could definitely be a slippery slope and have some recruits crying foul or even worse reverse discrimination. These would be issues that would have to be evaluated before trying to implement this full force for the entire military. Minorities have been contributing factors in the military through the years, but not to the extent that they should be when it comes to being in the elite ranks of officers. Having examples and leaders to enforce the importance of a diverse Armed Force will help to not limit their skills and to open up doors for those who might not have been giving the opportunity in the past. It is very important in a workforce especially in the military that diversity is within all ranks. This makes it