All the enlisted sailors stood as the commanding officer walked in at the end of a mandatory sexual assault meeting (apparently the training was not worth his time). He made his way to the front of the room to say a few words about sexual assault. At the end he said, "We can crush sexual assault in the Navy just like we crushed racism." The US Navy crushed racism? What about the segregation of races within rates, or the lack of diversity within the officer ranks compared to the enlisted ranks? He must be referring to quelling openly racist people and groups in the Navy. But there is still plenty of racism that can be heard and seen regularly in the fleet. Only now these ideas tend to be shared in less public settings: sometimes a revealing racist "joke," or an absurd assumption about another race.
The US military's "2012 Workplace and Gender Relations Survey" found that about 20% of black or Latino Navy enlisted personnel think that racial discrimination was a factor in their evaluations, awards, or opportunities to advance, and about 25% of Navy enlisted women thought they had been subject to gender discrimination. Apparently the fight against racism in the Navy is the fight to sound more politically correct about racism.
Within the enlisted ranks, people are found from all over the country, and some even from other continents. This diversity is touted by leadership and is used to verify that the Navy has overcome its admitted racist history.
While recruiters sit around boasting to each other about making their minority quota for the month, especially for females, this sort of diversity doesn't address the effective racial segregation in the enlisted ranks within rates, nor does it reveal the lack of diversity with the officer ranks, and this is particularly true of flag officers. Non-Hispanic whites make up 66 percent of the U.S. population, but they fill 77 percent of active duty officers' positions. Moreover, African Americans account for 12 percent of the U.S population, but represent only 8 percent of active duty officers. As for Latinos, who make up 15 percent of the U.S. population, they make up only 5 percent of the officer corps (PBS Report: "U.S. Military Lacks Diversity at Top"). Fifty-one percent of Americans are women, but women account for only 16 percent of the officers.
Diversity potlucks and PowerPoint discussions on tolerance and cultural education are good things to do, but they are not going to make more racial equality in the Navy. It is good for sailors to understand cultures within societies, but we need to understand the structure of society. That fundamental structure is capitalism, and its wage system is the material basis for why racism and sexism persist in American culture.
Racism and sexism keep the working class divided over unfair wages and opportunities, superexploiting some workers more than the rest of our class. When sailors go to work sometimes we may forget how the capitalist system works. We forget that we don't worry about losing our job, or that we get housing issued to us, and food allowances, and clothing allowances. But when we get out of the Navy and join our friends and family, and feel the full rawness of that system, we'll be reminded that the bosses won't hesitate to exploit anybody for any reason to stay on top.
Racism and sexism are some of the cultural ideas that have been preserved by capitalism and its military. As we sailors struggle against racism and sexism in the Navy, we need to fight against the capitalist structure that relentlessly weakens us. In order to grow and sustain a mass mobilization for communism, we need to make the fight against racism one of our top priorities.

Your observation about the existence of inequality in the US Armed Forces is remarkable. I remember experiencing racism and sexism in the Army when I was enlisted. Specifically, I remember how black soldiers were more likely to be disciplined and demoted. Sometimes the same infractions would be committed by both white and black soldiers, but it was always the black soldier who got disciplined. For example, I remember a soldier that was demoted for drinking too much on his off-duty time. Yet there were countless NCOs and officers who would do the same thing, but these white or Latino soldiers would never be reprimanded. This caused much anger among soldiers. As soldiers and sailors, we need to realize that racism is ingrained in every part of our lives while we are still living in capitalism. We aren't enemies of each other. We need to join forces to concentrate our anger on the real enemies, which are the capitalists and their racism.
We also need to realize that equality will never exist in a capitalist society, especially in the Armed Forces. Even if more minorities become officers, those officers are selected to perpetuate this racist and sexist system. Our goal as communists is to expose these higherranking positions as tools for the capitalists to maintain their own power. The bosses need officers to control their soldiers and sailors. We must put an end to this objective of the bosses. We must learn to lead ourselves as communists in order to lead the working class to a successful communist revolution. You are doing a fantastic job organizing for the working class. Keep up the good work.

—Red Vet

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