‘Here we go again’: Tampa Bay vets say diversity talks strike familiar chord - Tampa Bay Times

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In the wake of George Floyd’s death in May — and the ensuing national protests and conversations about race — the U.S. Department of Defense pledged to improve how it manages diversity and inclusion within its ranks.

But the promise sounds all too familiar to local Black and Hispanic veterans who spoke with the Tampa Bay Times in recent weeks. They’ve been living with the problem for decades, they say.

On June 19, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper outlined his “three-pronged approach to take the initiative against discrimination, prejudice and bias." He created a diversity and inclusion board and took actions, such as directing services to “review hairstyle and grooming policies for racial bias." Individual branches of the military announced their own initiatives. And at the local level, MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa created a 6th Air Refueling Wing diversity and inclusion working group.

Department of Defense employees have until Oct. 16 to submit their ideas for improving military policies, which will be presented to Esper by Dec. 15.

Veterans who spoke with the Times shared stories of their time on active duty. And many came back to one primary concern: too few people of color advancing up the ranks.

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In 1996, then Lt. Col. Remo Butler published a study while at the U.S. Army War College, titled “Why Black Officers Fail in the U.S. Army.”

He reported that in 1994, Black soldiers made up 27.2 percent of the Army overall, but only 11.2 percent of the officer corps.

Yet, by fiscal year 2018, the latest year for which data is available, not much had changed. Black soldiers accounted for 23.6 percent of the Army’s active-duty enlisted force and 11.2 percent of the active-duty commissioned officer corps.

Across all the military branches in 2018, Black service members made up 18.8 percent of the active-duty enlisted force and 8.2 percent of the active-duty commissioned officer corps. That same year, about 12.7 percent of the U.S. population identified as Black, according to Census figures.

“To ensure equal opportunity for all” in the promotion process, Esper on July 14 called for the removal of photographs from promotion board packets beginning Sept. 1.

Butler, who is a Black man and now a retired brigadier general living in Tampa, said he doesn’t see how that can eliminate bias when a service member’s name alone can give away his or her racial or ethnic identity.

“Here we go again,” was Butler’s reaction to the Pentagon’s latest call for feedback.

What’s really needed, he said, is action that can change the way people think.

“It has to be a cultural shift,” he said.

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Retired Sgt. Maj. Elizabeth Siplin. [ DANNY D. BARNES | Courtesy of Elizabeth Siplin ]

Elizabeth Siplin retired from the Army’s military police corps in 2017 as a sergeant major. After serving for 27 years, Siplin, a Black woman, runs a project management company in St. Petersburg.

Over her nearly three decades of service, she said she saw little improvement in the number of minorities and women in upper ranks.

“I saw the attitude of soldiers on the ground, and they’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re not getting promoted. Hey, we don’t have anybody that looks like us in leadership,’” she said.

The lack of diversity in higher ranks made it hard for her to find mentors for her soldiers who wanted to make the military a career, she said.

Siplin hopes the military can reduce racial bias in promotions, but wants minority service members promoted based on their performance, not just to improve numbers.

“I worked hard to get where I was,” she said. “They need to take the best service members, not based on ethnicity or gender.”

Siplin also suggested adding discussions about diversity during basic training, because that’s when many soldiers interact with people from different races for the first time.

“It’s like almost you put them all together and assume you’re just going to get along,” she said. “And that’s not the case.”

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Army Sgt. James Gittens remembers being in the squad room shortly before his second deployment to Afghanistan in 2013. One of his leaders was struggling to put together a piece of equipment, and in a fit of frustration, shouted a racial slur. Gittens remembers the room falling silent.

“I tried to close my eyes," he said. "And I remembered all the lessons that have been taught to me growing up as a Black man in America, to breathe.”

Sgt. James Gittens. [ Courtesy of James Gittens ]

Leaders in his squad approached him later, he said, offering him the chance to report the incident. But he didn’t out of concern about the repercussions to his career.

“I knew I was outclassed and outranked,” he said.

Gittens is working toward a graduate certificate in Africana studies at the University of South Florida after ending his service in 2017.

He said he doesn’t blame the white men he encountered in the Army who had prejudices against Black people. Rather he blames an education system that falters when teaching about race and racism.

Change for the better will require education about racism led by multicultural experts, he said.

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Jeremy Butler, chief executive of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America [ Courtesy of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America ]

Jeremy Butler is a Navy reservist and chief executive of the national nonprofit Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which has members in Tampa Bay.

He hasn’t seen or heard from minority colleagues evidence of substantive improvements within the military regarding minority opportunities.

Butler, a Black man, also said he’s aware of an overrepresentation of minority service members in the military justice system.

A U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in June found that “Black and Hispanic servicemembers were more likely than white servicemembers to be the subjects of recorded investigations in all of the military services, and were more likely to be tried in general and special courts-martial in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Air Force."

The consequences for being swept into the military justice system can be long lasting, Butler added, including losing all benefits for those who receive a dishonorable discharge.

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For retired Army Col. Jorge Rodriguez of Tampa, improvements must go beyond the concerns of Black service members that are top of mind today.

In 2018, Hispanic service members made up 17.8 percent of the active-duty enlisted force and 7.8 percent of the active-duty commissioned officer corps. The Census that year showed that 18.3 percent of the U.S. population identified as Hispanic.

Ret. Col. Jorge Rodriguez. [ Courtesy of Jorge Rodriguez ]

Rodriguez' service led him around the country and the world. He encountered efforts to get Hispanic soldiers to stop speaking Spanish with each other. And he remembers a senior officer’s response when he mistakenly called Rodriguez Mexican, when he is Cuban.

“Well, they’re all the same,” he said the colonel replied.

To Rodriguez, the military’s calls for feedback are all politics. What he wants is to have more Hispanics promoted into senior leadership roles where they can serve as mentors to others.

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Despite their concerns, the veterans interviewed by the Times appreciated the opportunities afforded them by their military service — a pathway to citizenship for Rodriguez and a way out of financial instability for Gittens.

But whether the latest round of initiatives can improve racial diversity in all ranks of the military, they say, remains to be seen.

And the secretary of defense seemed to agree.

“We are not immune to the forces of bias and prejudice — whether visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious,” Esper said in June. "These things have no place in our military. They have no place in our country.”

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