Miller, Donald L. "Where We Stand Today: Race Relations in the Armed Forces."
Commander's Digest. Vol. 13, no. 4. Washington, D.C.: GPO, November 30, 1972. P. 1-3.
SuDoc No.: D2.15/2
Donald L. Miller, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Equal Opportunity) writes about race
relations in the military after a return from a field visit in Europe. Among his comments: those
further down the chain of command were more likely to have misapprehensions and
misunderstandings about the military's race relations programs; race relations training should
not foster an appreciation of others regardless of racial and ethnic differences but because of
those differences; and most interesting of all he comments on the issue of past instances of
racism and its effect on the contemporary armed forces:
"When I speak of equitable treatment, I am not saying that you are going to treat everyone just
alike. If we started today treating everyone just alike and went on for 100 years treating
everyone just alike, based on the relative positions at the start, at the end of 100 years,
everyone would be in the same relative position.
"Equitable treatment means looking back and finding the person who has been denied opportunity
in the past and giving him the means to fulfill his potential - giving him the opportunity to
make up for the past. That is when true progress has been made. I hope we will keep in mind the
guy at the bottom of the totem pole. Until he or she is as convinced as we are that progress
has been made, we have, in fact, no progress."
 FULL TEXT
Where We Stand Today: Race Relations in the Armed Forces.
Normally, when one thinks of progress in race relations, it is measured in terms of what has
been done – what has happened in the past. We have all, in the past five years, gone
through radical changes.
We may be uncomfortable with some of those changes, but looking back, I will wager that none
of us would prefer to be the person we were five years ago in exchange for the person we are
now. Change, in the human animal at least, brings about growth. We can all expect more
changes and none of us will be disappointed.
Challenge is Clear
The challenge to us here is a clear one. To continue our operations without disruptions we
need to stabilize the minorities in our system by opening the system up and bringing them into
it as full partners – allowing them to participate in social goal setting rather than
attempting to isolate them, or even dictating to them.
When I speak of minorities in our system, I am not really talking of blacks, or chicanos or
orientals or American Indians. What I am talking about are those who are shut out of
participating in the goals set for them.
It may be that our successes have been limited ones to date simply because there is some
confusion in the field about what Equal Opportunity and Race Relations are all about. I'd
like to dispel that confusion.
As part of our charter to determine conditions in the field and measure the racial climate.
Curtis Smothers, the Director for Equal Opportunity (Military), and I have both recently
returned from extensive visits to the field – he to the Pacific and I to Europe.
We both noted a marked increase in the awareness of the top leaders of the essential need for
well-defined and skillfully executed programs in both equal opportunity and race relations
training. The further we travelled down the chain of command, however, the more we were
likely to find misapprehensions and misconstrued directions.
Not a Black Pacification Program
Equal Opportunity is not a program just for blacks or other minorities, even when
well-intentioned people think it is. Equal Opportunity is not a program just for
blacks or other minorities even when some not-so-well-intentioned people feel threatened
by it and believe it to be a means of self-aggrandizement by minorities at their expense.
Equal Opportunity is not a crisis-dictated marshalling of resources to meet emergency
conditions.
Equal Opportunity is an integral function of command. Equal Opportunity is
absolutely essential to the full functioning of the organization – not simply to prevent
disruptions but to insure the full participation and functioning of every member of the
organization.
How about Race Relations training? Race Relations training does not seek to focus on
our shortcomings or exacerbate the distance we are from where we should be. Race Relations
training does not seek to give members of the Armed Forces a better appreciation of
their fellow servicemen and women regardless of their individual race and ethnic
differences. Race Relations training does seek to dampen friction between groups
of people through an objective recognition of accomplishments as well as shortcomings, and
to give people a better appreciation of their fellows because of their individual
race, ethnic and life-style differences.
What the Services Are Doing
When the Equal Opportunity Officer serves as a full member of the base commander's staff, this
is the kind of management we feel has the best chance to move Equal Opportunity from
ad hoc efforts and crisis programs to a system of affirmative, goal-oriented Equal
Opportunity management, capable of meeting the root causes of inequality.
It still depends on the individual commander to determine how much the command chain is used.
It still depends on the individual commander to determine how much the Equal Opportunity Officer
fronts for and substitutes for the commander.
This is prevalent in the Services from the evidence of our visits to both the Pacific and Europe.
There were far too many examples in all Services of apathetic attitudes on the part of commanders
and other leaders toward Equal Opportunity, including a failure to place guidance from higher
headquarters into practice. There were far too many examples in all Services where matters
properly within command responsibility were transferred to Equal Opportunity Officers in order
to avoid unpleasant tasks or to avoid taking a personal stand. Even so, progress is being made.
Human Relations Councils
A human relations council established to provide a means of communication between the commander
and his men can be a highly effective tool for commanders. It can also be a dangerous one. On
my trip I found a fairly widespread lack of confidence in the chain of command. One of the areas
of cynicism was the human relations council.
Individuals saw councils as set up simply to meet a "paper" requirement. Others
complained that the membership on the councils was "stacked" by the commander to
insure that he had a "tame" group. When I checked out these complaints I found they
were often true.
In other instances I found that the councils had virtually 100 percent all-black or all-minority
membership. This looks to me as a means of providing a safety valve – "blow off
steam if you will," but of no substantive value to the members, the commander, or the
organization.
Commanders are doing a distinct disservice to the Equal Opportunity and Race Relations programs
when they try to manipulate their human relations councils through one of these methods. More
importantly, what it says to me is that the commander is afraid or unable to communicate. What
it says most of all, of course, is that there is a failure of leadership.
In the area of Race Relations training, all the Services have shown a gratifyingly positive
attitude at the top levels.
Affirmative Action Plans
Each Service has developed comprehensive affirmative action plans at the Departmental level.
They include specific goals and timetables for a wide range of areas from which minorities have
been effectively excluded or clearly limited in their opportunities. The progress made in each
Service as a result of the Departmental affirmative actions plans is gratifying.
I wish I could say I were satisfied with that progress. I am not. To date, our affirmative
action plans are still primarily found at the top level.
Action is underway to require affirmative action plans at all units, battalion level or above,
but to date, commanders still are in a position of having to measure progress by such negative
and questionable indicators as decreases in racial incidents. To date, affirmative action plans
are still primarily concerned with the problems of blacks. Other minorities must be brought
into the program.
Women Are Ignored
And here, it seems to me, is an appropriate time to speak about Service women. In every
Departmental actions plan, women are ignored unless they happen also to belong to a minority
group. This attitude must change. If we can't do it "because it's right," we must
do it because in an All-Volunteer Force we have no other choice. Women volunteers may be the
difference between a viable and non-viable Defense establishment.
Take your choice of reasons, but be assured that women will be afforded equal opportunity and
that we will not tolerate a public relations effort without true substance.
I do not intend to be all-inclusive here. What I have intended is to mark the very real progress
that has been made and perhaps to point to areas which must be improved. "Management"
and "leadership" says it all. Where we have outstanding leaders, the job is getting
done. But until we have good management at all levels, we are not going to be able to complete
the job.
To Implement Human Goals
Our office, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Equal Opportunity, is heavily involved
in providing the management guidance to insure that the job gets done. Our charter calls for the
full realization of Equal Opportunity for all people – the full implementation of Human
Goals objectives. Since I assumed office, my staff has been increased 80 percent. This is an
indication that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is serious about Equal Opportunity.
I have been able to assign one officer full time to work with plans and policy guidance for
women. Also, we now have sufficient manpower – people power – to develop and
shortly to execute an effective compliance monitoring operation.
Seminars for General Officers
With the increase in staff, I now have an officer working closely with Defense Race Relations
Institute (DRRI) to insure that the products of the Institute are responsive to the needs of
the Services and fully equipped to do the job. As a result, we have accelerated the output of
DRRI to provide every Service (except the Marine Corps, which has its own Human Relations
Training School) with sufficient instructor teams to afford every Service member 18 hours of
Race Relations Educational annually.
We have taken internal actions to increase the effectiveness of our DRRI graduates, and we are
in the midst of establishing Equal Opportunity Management Seminars for General and Flag Officers,
with a target date of next January for the first session.
The Defense Race Relations Education Program is a program unique in all the world. It is a
pioneer effort to bring people together to understand each other. I think it is clear that most
people enter the Service with an insufficient appreciation of one another's differences. DRRI
is set up to change behavior, with the hope that attitudes will also change once behavior has
changed.
We are convinced that a thorough-going change in behavior is necessary in order to maintain unit
integrity and increase mission effectiveness. This is why we are focusing so much effort on
getting the program moving and working.
In the All-Volunteer Force, with the drawdowns and cutbacks in personnel, we are not seeing
comparable cutbacks of operational commitments. We must optimize our resources to get the
job done. And we can't do that when an individual is frustrated and angry because he or she
is denied the basic right to fair and equitable treatment.
To Make Up for the Past
When I speak of equitable treatment, I am not saying that you are going to treat everyone just
alike. If we started today treating everyone just alike and went on for 100 years treating
everyone just alike, based on the relative positions at the start, at the end of 100 years,
everyone would be in the same relative position.
Equitable treatment means looking back and finding the person who has been denied opportunity in
the past and giving him the means to fulfill his potential – giving him the opportunity to
make up for the past. That is when true progress has been made. I hope we will keep in mind
the guy at the bottom of the totem pole. Until he or she is as convinced as we are that
progress has been made, we have, in fact, no progress.
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