#83. Coast Guard Academy Standards

In Black Run America (BRA), the burning desire for every organization or entity (be it the Boy Scouts, television show, college or university, corporation, major league baseball, etc.) is to increase the number of Black people who comprise the work force/talent/labor to an acceptable level. As we have learned, that acceptable level has no threshold, and a desire to have maximum Black participation in a given activity is the prime objective and motivating factor behind every conventional thought process tolerated in BRA.

The factors and metrics that mark a great company, university or organization are inconsequential if Black participation is negligible.

Any organization or entity that is "hideously white" must be marked for instant integration and worse, questioned for potentially harboring racist hiring policies. What else could explain a paucity of Black people within an organization if not for the ever pervasive impediment known as white racism to maintain racial hegemony.

Even cities that lack a significant Black presence wallow in the misery of self-pity created by this absence of Black people. To some residents of such cities, the dearth of Black people is a constant and visible reminder that their lives are not enriched by having a group of people about which they can bemoan their inability to perform on the same academic track as their own privileged and pampered off-spring and at the same time promote this under performing group to levels above their competence.

All organizations desire an augmentation of the number of Black people involved, for in BRA Black people are known to provide an instant enhancement of that company or university's potential.

Consider that in BRA, a school district in Connecticut came under fire because the face of autism there was too white:

It’s a thorny issue for all sides. When one racial group — black, white or otherwise — appears to be getting a disproportionate amount of special education funding, red flags go up at the federal Department of Education. But local educators said they are powerless to control the racial makeup of their community and who is diagnosed with autism, which is under the special education umbrella.

Autism rates are skyrocketing, with the latest studies showing 1 in every 110 children on the autism spectrum. Properly educating autistic children is extremely expensive, and local districts rely on federal funding to offset the cost to taxpayers. The issue also hints at a hidden trend: Parents of autistic children may be moving to certain communities because the public school district has a good reputation for educating autistic children.

That money could be better spent on improving the inadequate test scores consistently put forth by Black people nationwide, instead on funding the education of mentally handicapped children who happen to be white.

We have learned that the Naval Academy former standards of admission were too stringent and difficult for Black people to surpass and were lowered to ensure proper acceptance rates could be assured so that the disgusting white student body could be made whole.

Well, another military academy is in an all-out war enlarge the number of Black people involved in the operation, lest the color guard continue to be grossly white. The Coast Guard Academy is coming under fire for its inability to recruit and retain a proper number of Black people to fill the ranks of the elite men and women who patrol the sea:

At his inaugural parade a half-century ago, President John F. Kennedy watched the U.S. Coast Guard Academy's marching unit pass him on Pennsylvania Avenue and declared it unacceptable. Not one cadet was black, he told an aide, and something ought be done about it.

Not a lot has, even to this day, when the nation's first black commander in chief is almost at midterm.

The cover of the academy's 2010 cadet handbook comes close to summing up the situation. There are 14 faces, with a single black one barely visible and off to the side and behind a white cadet.

In a year when the academy proclaims the Class of 2014 as its most diverse ever, the share of blacks enrolled is even more modest than the picture would suggest. Only nine of the 289 students sworn in last June identified themselves as blacks or African-Americans — or 15 when mixed-race blacks are included. By mid-August, the total had dropped to 14 after one cadet withdrew.

The problem is so vexing — and so long-standing — that the Coast Guard last year spent $40,000 buying lists of names of blacks and others to recruit as cadets. It didn't pay off, and Congress is wrestling with whether it should change how cadets are selected to attend the academy, located along the Thames River in New London, Conn.

"It's very hard to change the culture there without having the students to change it," said Marcus Akins, a black 1999 graduate who is a civilian Coast Guard architect after a 10-year career as an officer.

An internal task force report at the academy described negative perceptions of blacks and recounted racist remarks by faculty. Just a few years ago, in 2007, a black cadet and an officer conducting race relations training found nooses left for them. A major investigation was inconclusive.

"There is no affirmative action but people think you are there on affirmative action," said Lt. j.g. DeCarol Davis, who became the first black woman to be top of her class at the academy when she was the 2008 valedictorian as an engineering major. "It did persist throughout my tenure at the academy. I was even told I got where I was because I was the token black girl."

This year's figures are still an improvement over the five blacks who enrolled last year and represented only 2 percent of the Class of 2013. But twice in past years there were 22 blacks, in 1974 and again in 1999. As recently as the Class of 2010, there were as many as 13 blacks.

The latest figure is so small the academy shifts the focus to how its latest class is one-fourth composed of underrepresented minorities, including blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans and Pacific Islanders.

"We are by no means resting on our laurels," said Antonio Farias, the academy's director of diversity affairs. Farias said the Coast Guard's goal is for minorities to represent 25 percent to 30 percent of each cadet class.

At the rate the academy is going, it could easily reach its overall diversity goal by 2015 and still be lagging in its numbers for black cadets.

Blacks make up 12.9 percent of the U.S. population — or 13.6 percent when including mixed-race blacks — according to census figures. That would translate into an academy class size of more than 40 cadets and raise overall black enrollment close to 130 students, about 100 more than the past year.

Applying to the Coast Guard Academy is similar to the process at a regular college. Admission is merit-based, with the standards typical of a very selective institution and with a greater emphasis than most on a math and science background. Tuition, room and board are free, but there is a five-year service requirement in the Coast Guard after graduation.

According to current and former black Coast Guard cadets, recruiters and admissions officials:

_The black community doesn't know much about the Coast Guard.

_Unlike at service academies for the Army, Navy and Air Force, there aren't legacy generations of black graduates to steer their children toward Coast Guard service. Among the academies, the Naval Academy has the best record on recruiting blacks, who now make up more than 10 percent of its cadet classes.

_The Coast Guard is competing with public and private universities offering full-ride scholarships for the same black students with high science and math scores.

London Steverson, a black graduate who was a minority recruiter in the 1970s and enrolled a record 22 blacks in 1974, ventured into crime-ridden neighborhoods around Washington. Among his recruits was Manson K. Brown, who last May became the Guard's first-ever black vice admiral. Brown recalled Steverson's conversations with his family.

"He really started the dialogue with my mother that built the trust enough with the family and her in particular to allow me to seriously consider the Coast Guard," Brown said.

Under pressure from lawmakers, the academy last year spent $40,000 to buy lists of names of blacks and others from the National Research Center for College University Admissions, but the effort resulted only in 15 blacks or mixed-race blacks in the cadet class. The Coast Guard emphasized its numbers of overall minorities.

"The results were astounding," said Capt. Stephan Finton, the academy's admissions director. "When you go from 16 percent diversity of our entering class last year to 24 percent this year, I would say that we were pretty laser-focused and we really did get the results we were looking for."

Congress is restless for improvements. Under a provision passed in the House last year, lawmakers would nominate candidates for the Coast Guard's academy the same way that all the other service academies have operated. But the proposal has stalled on Capitol Hill, even as the Obama administration has cut $2.9 million from what has been the Coast Guard's $206.8 million budget for training and recruiting.

Two prominent lawmakers — Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the House Transportation Committee, and Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., chairman of the Coast Guard subcommittee and member of the Congressional Black Caucus — say the Coast Guard Academy is working hard to improve the number of blacks and minorities but has fallen short.

"I give them a B-plus for effort," Cummings told The Associated Press. "In some instances, we are going to have to go out of our way to try to get these young people into the school. It's not that they are not qualified."

Oberstar said he and Cummings will insist on congressional involvement in admissions.

"The other academies have members of Congress as advisers in recommending nominations," Oberstar said, "and there is no reason the Coast Guard can't be treated in the same way."

We have learned previously that diversity is the number goal of the military and cannot be a causality of any crisis. The scandalous and vexing problem of low Black recruitment at the Coast Guard Academy is cause for national concern, government involvement and an intense intervention and application of the enumerated goals of BRA.

Remember, all organization strive to augment their number of Black participants/employees.

Any organization that doesn't aspire for this goal of increasing Black participation is automatically evil and carries the inherent flaw of white privilege, perpetuating white superiority.

The Coast Guard Academy must have greater Black participation, even if Black people find water and swimming unpleasant and unappealing. Though swimming is a primary daily requirement and skill set needed by Coast Guard members, Black people are still in high demand to enroll in the academy to help exercise the omnipresent and ceaselessly tormenting demon known as white privilege.

Only this arcane idea can explain why white people dominate so many industries in the age of BRA and continue to excel in an era such as ours.

Undaunted by the inability of Black cadets to stay at the Coast Guard Academy, social engineers continue to construct new and exciting ways to ensure the highest order of Black participation:

Eight years after the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People signed a voluntary agreement to work together to boost the number of African-Americans at its 1,000-cadet service academy, the annual enrollment and graduation figures for blacks remain in single digits.

Seven blacks graduated from the academy based in New London, Connecticut, in the spring of 2001, the year the agreement was signed.

The same number graduated from the Class of 2006, the first class for which blacks were recruited under the agreement.

Subsequently, there were seven black graduates in 2007, five in 2008 and four in 2009.

That makes 23 graduates in four years under the agreement, including the academy’s first black female valedictorian. In the four previous years the number was 33.

Leading lawmakers have grown increasingly upset with results even as they repeatedly are told the Guard is working hard to improve diversity in a service where only 311 of its 6,787 commissioned officers are black, with only one black admiral.

“The Coast Guard has just not paid attention to it. It is not antipathy or animosity toward it,” said Rep. James Oberstar, Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Transportation Committee. “I think we’re moving in the right direction and got the Coast Guard’s attention and we’re not going to let up.”

Under a House bill, sponsored by Oberstar and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings, the Coast Guard subcommittee chairman, members of Congress would nominate candidates for the academy. All the other service academies have long used congressional nominations.

On a 385-11 vote last month, the House advanced the legislation to the Senate.

The Coast Guard Academy historically has taken pride in viewing itself merit-based and choosing its applicants without regard to their geographical distribution among the states.

Cummings, a member of the Congressional Black Caucus, expects black enrollment to grow with congressional involvement, at least in part because the House typically has about 40 black lawmakers who would be effective recruiters in largely black congressional districts.

The Coast Guard’s position on the bill has been rather subdued.

The academy’s superintendent, Rear Adm. J. Scott Burhoe, likes the existing “merit-based system,” but would be “fine” if Congress adopted congressional nominations.

“I think for us part of our fear is the unknown, really, right now,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

The Coast Guard Academy graduated its first black officer in 1966. In the 43 years since, only about 2 percent of the academy’s graduates have been black and only once has there been as many as 10 in a single year.

Two years ago, the academy drew national attention when a noose was found among a black cadet’s personal effects on a Coast Guard vessel. That was followed with the appearance of a noose for a white officer who was conducting race relations training at the academy.

Cummings said at the time that the Coast Guard must redouble its efforts in the face of a clear attempt to threaten and intimidate efforts to increase diversity.

An investigation involving 50 federal agents including the FBI produced no arrests or motives.

At present, the academy reports it has 136 minorities, with 72 Hispanics, 39 Asians and 25 African-Americans.

The Coast Guard, when asked by The Associated Press how many African-Americans were admitted to its academy as a result of the NAACP memorandum of agreement, said, through spokeswoman Nadine Santiago, that there was no way to know.

Lawmakers lashed out at the Coast Guard at a hearing last June for admitting so few blacks for the 2013 class only months after a previous hearing and discussion about the need to provide for congressional nominations.

Hilary Shelton, the NAACP’s senior vice president for advocacy and policy, said the Coast Guard asked to enter into their nonbinding memorandum of agreement in 2001 after the Coast Guard recognized its record in recruiting blacks was dismal. Eight years later, he acknowledged that the current black enrollment figures are “sad and unfortunate.”

He was unsure about the use of congressional nominations as a solution. He said adding another step in the selection process could be “stifling” for recruitment.

“I am convinced that we probably need to do a thorough assessment of what we’ve done thus far and find ways of actually making it more robust,” he added. “You need to work with community-based organizations like the NAACP to make sure that this great opportunity is there for them and indeed they can be successful.”

Finding the best people available to protect the United States is no longer the mission of the United States military; finding Black people to fill roles that they wouldn't otherwise pursue is the mandate that drives those in power.

One can only wonder how long the ranks of the elite special forces will remain merit-based (a synonym for white privilege) before intervention will be required:

Today the military, particularly the Army, remains one of the few settings in which blacks routinely boss whites.

Blacks, Latinos, Asians, American Indians and other minorities now make up 34 percent of the military, greater than the 28.5 percent minority representation within the general U.S. population.

But the picture is very different in elite units.

Only 13 percent of the Pentagon' s highly trained special-operations forces are racial minorities. Of the 8,775 Army, Navy and Air Force commandos, 1,180 are classified as minorities.

n Less than 15 percent of the Army' s Special Forces and Rangers personnel are soldiers of color, compared with about 40 percent of the entire Army.

About 11 percent of Navy SEALs, whose headquarters are in Coronado, are minorities. "We are underrepresented (with minorities) compared to what we' d like," acknowledged Rear Adm. Eric Olson, the Navy' s top SEAL.

Eight percent of the Air Force' s special-tactics and pararescue groups, the military' s smallest commando force, are minority members.

The greatest disparity appears in the ranks of black servicemen.

The Army Special Forces, known by distinctive green berets, has 234 African-American officers and soldiers in a force of 5,200 men. Blacks make up 4.5 percent of the Green Berets, compared with nearly 24 percent of the male soldiers in the Army.

The Navy has only 31 blacks among its 2,299 Sea-Air-Land, or SEAL, commandos, less than 2 percent of the force. African-Americans constitute nearly 17 percent of the male personnel within the Navy.

And, the Air Force' s special-tactics groups have only eight blacks in a force of 472 men, less than 2 percent. Servicewide, about 14 percent of the Air Force' s male personnel are African-American.

The statistics have not improved significantly in recent years, despite heightened recruiting efforts.

Efforts to recruit and train more blacks and Latinos haven' t been successful, as swimming requirements, low entrance-exam scores, family needs and perceptions of racism appear to have discouraged many minorities from joining.

During the past four years, the percentage of minorities has risen slightly in the Army Special Forces. But the number of minority graduates from Special Forces training dropped in 1999, meaning fewer blacks and Latinos are donning the green beret than before.

At the same time, minority numbers dropped a little in the Navy and Air Force.

And it' s not likely to get better for the Navy, as only one black since early 1999 has graduated from the grueling Basic Underwater Demolition-SEAL training program in Coronado.

No one has suggested implementing quotas, and every one of the dozens of commandos interviewed for this story, regardless of race or rank, balked at affirmative action.

"There' s a fair amount of energy being expended here, and I would emphasize it' s not to achieve any artificially established goals because we don' t have any, but rather to satisfy a need," Schwartz said.

Some minority "operators" -- the nickname for special-operations soldiers -- suspect whites are quicker to be promoted and get better assignments in elite units.

In Black Run America, standards and merit are of little concern; only race matters.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Coast Guard Academy Standards, for the indecency of swimming precludes numerous aspiring Black applicants from daring to get their feet wet at the school.

Strange though, the movie The Guardian lacked any numinous Black character and instead focused on what should be the primary goal of any military organization: protecting and saving lives.

These are of little concern when compared to the idea goal of BRA: To maximize Black participation, regardless of the cost or consequences.