Military recruitment and racism
By Marianne Neill
When I was in my early 20s, two of my brothers joined the reserves because they couldn’t find another summer job. In late August, when they returned, I was sitting on the front porch at my parents’ home, listening to one of them tell me about his summer. With the crickets chirping, and maple trees rustling above us, he told me a story that shattered my understanding of what it meant to be Canadian. My brother told me that during bayonet training, the sergeant had advised recruits to imagine there was a “____ big ugly gook” standing in front of them, and they were to “lunge and thrust” with their guns. For reservists, this had been only the beginning of a lesson in desensitization and dehumanization that crossed boundaries of decency in multiple ways.
Not all recruits have such sordid tales to tell. However, this story is a fragment in a culture of militarism that enables systemic racism in many different ways. Teachers must sensitize themselves to this if they are to pass on critical awareness to their students, and give them a fair chance to make informed choices about their lives.
My conversation with my brother took place during the years when the Canadian military was ostensibly a peacekeeping force. It is true that during the years when the military was publicly identifying with the peacekeeping role, there were missions that called that role into question. There have been questions about Canada’s role in the removal of Aristide from power in Haiti, and we are all well aware of atrocities committed by individual troops in Somalia. Nevertheless, the dissonance between public image and actualization during that time, gave our citizenry a platform for objection when our military strayed from the role we understood them to have.
Since 2002, the Canadian military has gradually transformed its public image from peacekeeping to war-fighting. The public has been non-reactive, largely because of the stealth with which the transformation was effected: an incremental, carefully planned public relations campaign that has shown us images of Canadian soldiers breaking down doors, and creeping through streets with guns, as well as rescuing women and children from vague disasters.
A war-fighting military is more reinforcing of systemic racism than a peacekeeping one. Peacekeepers help develop agency, autonomy, solidarity, and advocacy (the BCTF social justice lens) in the countries they contact. Though perhaps not always in reality, their role is conceived as antiracist. In contrast, war-fighters, even while protecting one group or population, seek to conquer another. Unlike police, soldiers do not discern between one individual and another, and are not constrained by a criminal justice system. Their job is to attack a group that has been identified as the enemy. Most often in wars, the enemy is a racially and/or culturally identifiable group. The aggressive and defensive nature of war-fighting, and its identification of the enemy on the basis of group membership, means the individuals who participate in it are going to be susceptible to racism. My brother’s story exemplifies this.
Clearly, I am not saying that all members of the military are racist. I am saying that the act of war-fighting is inherently racist. Fear and desensitization make individuals vulnerable to racism when they are in a war-fighting situation. This experience can stay with them in subtle ways after the crisis is over. A boundary once crossed is more easily crossed again.
In the last six years, since the Canadian military has begun to transform its public role, and has been structurally integrated with the American military in new ways, we have seen more soldiers come home in coffins than we had in 50 years of peacekeeping. Recruiting efforts have stepped up, and money has been spent on a massive advertising campaign to attract youth. Promises of free education, travel, and adventure, appeal especially to disadvantaged youth. Military leaflets offer the army as a way to fight boredom.
Recruiting campaigns target vulnerable groups. As such, they exploit inequities, including racism. Ads directed at Aboriginal youth are insidious in exploiting psychological needs. They promise the life of a warrior, manipulatively integrating military and Aboriginal iconography. Reserves and the Bold Eagle program for Aboriginal youth pay more than students could get for flipping burgers all summer. The Atlantic provinces produce more recruits because they are economically disadvantaged. Recruiting drives are more aggressive there. General Rick Hillier, who was Commander-in-Chief until 2007, openly advocated targeting immigrant populations for recruitment.
In a just society, youth would not be drawn to the military just because they have no other opportunity to have an education. There is a reason that disadvantaged groups are targeted by recruiters. It may have something to do with all the information recruiters don’t share with recruits, such as:
Military charges against Canadian forces members have risen as much as 62% since Canada started sending troops to Afghanistan. Absent without leave charges were the most frequent.
The suicide rate among Canadian soldiers doubled from 2006 to 2007, and was triple that of the general population.
Canada does not reveal the number of soldiers wounded so badly that they have to return home for treatment. However, during the first eight months of 2007, 108 members of the CF were eligible for an allowance given to people in this category.
Finally, they do not mention the controversy over war as a solution, or the moral disturbance inherent in war-fighting. In a letter to the Toronto Star on October 9, 2008, Corporal Paul Demetrick wrote: “We respond to hostile fire by indiscriminate bombings and shelling of villages, killing innocent men, women, and children; we fire white phosphorous shells into vineyards… we hand over prisoners of war to Afghan authorities, who torture them; and we shoot and kill a two-year-old Afghan boy and his four-year-old sister… How can we inspire the Afghan people to respect liberty, democracy, equality for women, education for children, human rights, and respect for life when we are maiming and murdering them and destroying their homes, communities and the economy, and their country…?” War-fighting creates disturbance in the emotions of healthy people.
Economically disadvantaged youth are more willing to hear the promises and appreciate the opportunities offered by a military career, while ignoring negative messages. This is why they are targeted for recruitment, and why recruiters don’t bother wasting too much time trying to recruit the wealthy.
The injustice in recruiting to the military is effectively summarized in the concept of an economic draft. If you underfund universities and colleges, fail to support Aboriginal, immigrant, and refugee populations, and fail to guarantee a living wage, there is no need for conscription.
In this country, we like to believe we are a just society. We have a Charter of Rights and Freedoms that enshrines equality rights. Yet, we do have systemic racism, and the nature of our military and its recruiting processes are one expression of it.
Marianne Neill is president of the Burnaby Teachers’ Association.
. But I guess if you think about it for every one person against the CAF, there are a hundred people who love and respect our Military. Its just, the person writing this isn't some troll, it's somebody who has direct influence over our children. Somebody who could easily persuade a young man/women who wishes to be in the military to turn against it. Someone who is spreading misinformation to the people most likely to trust and believe her. Your right though, in the end we serve to defend defend free speech, even if it's from people like her ;D. Thanks and ill try to keep my head on Captain. 
