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- BIG
GUNS FAIL TO QUELL
- ARMY
RACISM CLAIMS
The
Sunday Times (London) January 28 1990
The
forces are in need of more black recruits and a
better race relations image, says BRIAN DEER
If the Earl of Arran has a blind eye and a
telescope, he could last week have replayed Admiral
Lord Nelson's celebrated stunt. Flanked by a
brigadier, an air commodore and a naval captain, the
undersecretary of state declared to an assembly of
journalists at a Ministry of Defence press conference
that he could see no racism in the military.
"I
firmly don't believe there is an enormous amount of
racial discrimination in the services," said the
Eton-and-Balliol-educated earl. "The armed
services have done all they can to stamp out
racism."
The
minister's late-afternoon meeting appeared to have a
threefold purpose. First, to nudge into the public
domain an awkward report from Peat Marwick McLintock,
management consultants, on ethnic minority
recruitment. Second, to announce yet another
government advertising campaign, to win ethnic
minority recruits. Third, to implicitly head off
alleged discrimination cases being brought by two
black former soldiers.
In
fronting this new campaign, the ninth Earl of Arran
was on a particularly sticky wicket. The management
consultants found that racism is widely-regarded as
endemic in the armed forces, with 60% of
Afro-Caribbeans and 49% of Asians saying they would
expect to encounter racial discrimination, bullying
or abuse.
Arran's
view was that such misconceptions were caused by
unfair media reports. "We will in no way
tolerate racial discrimination," he declared, to
the nodding approval of the brigadier. "Where it
is found, those involved will be subject to the full
severity of the disciplinary processes."
But
the report also showed that among those ethnic
minority civilians who had gained first-hand
experience of the services - through army cadet
corps, for example - the numbers who thought they
would experience racial discrimination didn't
diminish, but rose to nearly three in four
Afro-Caribbeans and two in three Asians.
Moreover,
although the management consultants were barred from
speaking to ordinary service personnel about racism,
even by talking to senior officers and recruitment
staff a picture of racism came through.
Against
this background, it is less than surprising that
recruitment among ethnic minorities remains abysmally
low. Provisional figures issued at last week's
meeting revealed that of 78,975 applicants for the
armed services last year, only 808 were black and 379
Asian. Only three blacks and two Asians applied to be
army officers.
How
many were successful remains unknown. Brigadier Simon
Lytle, army recruitment director, said such
statistics were not kept for blacks and Asians -
adding, to sniggers from the back of the room, that
this was also true for "the Scots or
Irish". Air Commodore Peter Oulton, director of
air force recruitment, however, helpfully said that
he knew a black warrant officer - interestingly named
O'Neil.
But
the government has determined that the position must
quickly alter. Population changes have produced a
slump in the number of young people available for
military service and unless black and Asian recruits
are found, there will not be enough people to fill
the service posts.
To
tackle this, Arran announced a campaign to project
"a more positive message" at ethnic
minority youth. "Many servicemen and
servicewomen from the ethnic minorities are already
pursuing successful careers," said a ministry
hand-out. "We intend to give greater publicity
to their achievements as an encouragement to
others."
Unfortunately,
the sort of publicity on the horizon may not be the
kind of which Arran approves. The Commission for
Racial Equality is backing two alleged discrimination
cases.
Case
number one concerns Winston Lindsay, a former
Grenadier guardsman. Last Monday, an industrial
tribunal in London said that it would hear, probably
in March, a complaint brought by Lindsay, alleging
that he was refused re-entry to the army last year on
the grounds that he is black.
Lindsay,
aged 25, was discharged from the army because, it
said, he had not disclosed a conviction for actual
bodily harm before he enlisted. The offence was
discovered after Lindsay had gone absent without
leave - provoked, he said, by 10 months of racial
abuse from Guards officers, NCOs and other soldiers
in his regiment.
Neither
Lindsay nor the Commission for Racial Equality will
comment on the case until key defence ministry
documents are disclosed. But it appears that his
argument will rest on evidence that white soldiers in
similar circumstances have been treated differently.
The
second case involves Stephen Anderson, who was
discharged from the Devonshire and Dorset regiment on
the grounds of alleged flat feet. In 1987, he too
went absent without leave - claiming he had been
subjected to racist taunts and beatings. The
commission argues that the army procedures that
pushed him out did not conform with natural justice.
Whatever
the outcome of the cases, they are certain to attract
attention to alleged army racism, and can only
reinforce the hostility and suspicion felt towards
the services among those ethnic minority groups that
the new advertising campaign is intended to attract.
It is
clear that Arran's copywriters will have to come up
with something slicker than Peat Marwick McLintock
did to dispel this hostility. "The army,"
it reported, "is particularly associated with
service to the community, danger, keeping the peace,
early management responsibilities, commitment for
life, good training for a trade and discriminating
against Afro-Caribbeans and Asians."
Copyright,
Times Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved. No portion
of this article on racism and discrimination in the
military may be copied, retransmitted, reposted,
duplicated or otherwise used without the express
written approval of the copyright owner. Responses,
information and other feedback are appreciated - via
Brian Deer's homepage.
