Affirmative Action and the Impact of Promotion Policies on Interracial Conflicts in the U.S. Army

Book excerpt: Many U.S. soldiers perceive the military promotion system to be unfair as a result of the implementation of federal affirmative action policies, yet the Department of the Army has made few efforts to identify and address the nature of this problem. This study examined the nature of the relationship, if any, between interracial conflicts in the Army and promotion policies resulting from affirmative action legislation. The research questions and hypothesis focused on understanding soldiers’ perceptions of the enforcement and effect of affirmative action policies in the military promotion system. This concurrent mixed methods study utilized critical social theory as the conceptual framework. Online surveys based on the Ways of Coping survey were delivered to 163 soldiers at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. A total of 43 surveys were returned and used for data analysis of a MANOVA and a Chi-squared test, which indicated that racial myths were not significantly related to the affirmative action strategies used in the military promotion system. Of the 43 respondents for the quantitative data, a simple number generator was used for selecting 4 participants for qualitative interviews. Qualitative findings indicated that racial myths do exist among soldiers; these myths tend to cast doubt upon Black soldiers’ professional achievements despite their high achievement results on military promotion metrics. This study can lead to positive social change by stimulating the redesign and accurate interpretation of military affirmative action policies, investigating disparities in the military’s grievance processes for racial discrimination complaints, and minimizing racist behavior in the military culture.