$60M for one community, zero for Hispanics--yet again!

For several years the Hispanic Veterans Leadership Alliance has been pointing out to the Department of Defense (DoD) that it is failing in its goal to have our military “reflect the face of America” in that the number of Hispanics in its leadership positions falls woefully short of the number of potential candidates to fill them, particularly as compared to the representation of the African-American community. We have presented facts and statistics that demonstrate that while African-Americans constitute approximately 8 percent of the general officer ranks, the percentage of Hispanics in these positions is less than 1 percent. Given that the percentage of Hispanics in the country continues to grow, this situation can only be expected to worsen. Yet, the DoD continues to place the emphasis of its diversity initiatives on the African-American population.

Read the article by Abraham Mahshie published in the Air & Space Forces Magazine:  "Air Force to Start Tactical Autonomy Research Partnership With HBCUs"

To date, we have not seen any comparable programs focused on the Hispanic community. DoD leaders have claimed that they are not “playing favoritism”, but the reality is that in a resource-constrained world, any funds spent on one group is (by definition) at the expense of other groups. This practice must come to an end in the interest of a more effective military that truly reflects “the face of America.”