Military apologizes for racial discrimination and harassment

[Dr Strangelove]

Step one to healing is to recognize you have a problem.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/m ... ailed-you/

[al_keda]

Long overdue.

[Dr Strangelove]

And took several change of command for this to happen. Sometimes you have to flush a few times...

[Dr Strangelove]

Message is authentic.

[al_keda]

Sure, there are all the men and women who were made to feel less than everyone else, but what still stuns me is how so many First nations members were so highly decorated, and so badly treated. It seems like the opposite of the military comradery that is meant to flow through the forces. And then all the highly decorated men and women who were treated badly as first nations or black members just because they were not 'real men' or who they loved.

[Dr Strangelove]

A common thread in the military is that the rank and file quite often preserver not because of the leadership but in spite of it and that comradery instills a sense of esprit de corps. However, it is a glamour that doesn't have a consistency as every person reacts to high stress differently. Fight, freeze or flight those that keep their cool while chaos ensue usually are the ones that come out the other side. Ergo more often than not the ones left are the ones that can survive the galvanizing heat of conflict. In a fox hole there are no aithists and of those two were a black panther and a neo-nazi when the shells hit they put their hatred for the other aside to deal with the current crisis or perish.

It is when there isn't a immediate threat that divisions fester with the undercurrent of agendas and dark motivations. Bad officers often deflect their shortcomings by stoking divisions in the ranks. They know there are cliques that form under their watch and if they vie for their approval they can mollify them. They turn a blind eye or 'let them sort it out behind the shed' to their hazings and culling so they can control the ingroup they have power and influence with. The taint becomes a rot and the rot a message and a warning to others no to trespass.

The lowest trained and motivated soldier is the most common and fertile for petty rabble rousers. So the fact they are knuckle dragging bigots isn't a hard stretch. Ignorance and numbers are their strength. Fear keeps them in line. So when you see a highly decorated first nations get badly treated it is because they are scared of them. They make them look bad because they do what they are not able to do and they feel cheap and they resent that and take it out on them. And since they keep others in line with fear they lash out when decorated first nations embarrass them by just being there.