The Navy Made Me into a Race Realist

For the first time in my life, I experienced racism when I tried to interact with blacks and Hispanics the same way that I did with my white shipmates. I had learned how to get along with nearly any personality type, but just my appearance and voice seemed to irritate non-whites. This was also the first time I witnessed how quickly non-whites can shift from passivity to violence. I saw more fights in ten weeks of boot camp than I had in 18 years of my civilian life.

The blacks and Hispanics showed almost no ability whatsoever to master the simple academic instruction we were given. Every sailor that was “washed back” for academic standards was black. In nearly everything about Navy life, there were obvious racial divisions.

I never saw anything to change those observations. I met Filipinos and saw first-hand why their culture has the reputation it does for hard work and family values, but learned how openly racist they are. I worked alongside Caribbean blacks, and learned to my surprise that they despise American blacks and had more in common with white Americans. I dated a young black woman from the Caribbean for a time and was shocked at the amount of racist comments we got from black shipmates. In all the months we dated I never once heard a racist comment from a white person about our relationship.

What did my time in the military teach me about race relations in America? Racial differences are real. Everything holding blacks and Hispanics back from being successful is either self-inflicted or the result of their natural deficiencies. Every race prefers its own kind, and has the freedom to be openly racist, with the sole exception of whites. We are scolded by our own institutions for the very same behavior that is tolerated, and sometimes even encouraged, in other races.