← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Rudel
Thread ID: 10761 | Posts: 9 | Started: 2003-10-26
2003-10-26 09:06 | User Profile
[IMG]http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/17/army/story.jpg[/IMG]
[B]The Army be thuggin' it[/B] The military is teaming up with hip-hop bible the Source to recruit black urban kids with pimped-out Hummers and off-da-hook merchandise. By Whitney Joiner
Oct. 17, 2003 | Three times a week, 48 weeks a year, a four-man team drives a huge yellow Hummer to a different location. It might be a college or high school campus, a major fraternity gathering, an NAACP event, MTV's Spring Break, or BET's Spring Bling: If lots of African-American teens will be there, the Hummer wants to be there, too.
Spray-painted with patriotic images (a rippling American flag, a smiling white woman in a U.S. military officer's uniform), the yellow Hummer is the signature vehicle for the U.S. Army's "Taking It to the Streets" campaign, a hip-hop-flavored tour launched a year ago by Vital Marketing Group, the Army's African-American events marketing team. During these events, the Taking It to the Streets team lets possible recruits hang out in the Hummer, where they can try out the multimedia sound system or watch Army recruitment videos. The Army's team often throws contests, too: Which possible recruit can shoot the most baskets, do the most push-ups, go up the rock-climbing wall the fastest? The winners are awarded Army-branded trucker hats, throwback jerseys, wristbands and headbands. Want a customized dog tag? They've got a machine that makes them. Want to see what it's like to fly a plane? There's a flight simulator.
It's all to convince urban teens that the Army understands hip-hop culture: The Army knows you play basketball and wear jerseys, because the Army is down with the streets.
"You have to go where the target audience is," says Col. Thomas Nickerson, director of strategic outreach for the U.S. Army Accessions Command, who says that the Army just reached its recruitment goal of 100,200 enlistees this year. "Our research tells us that hip-hop and urban culture is a powerful influence in the lives of young Americans. We try to develop a bond with that audience. I want them to say, 'Hey, the Army was here -- the Army is cool!'"
But critics say that the Army's co-optation of hip-hop in its streetwise campaign is misleading, because it markets a life-changing and possibly life-threatening commitment as a fun, cool consumer choice. And some, like Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who argued for a reinstatement of the draftlast January, voice concerns about the overrepresentation of people of color in the Army.
"One of the reasons why I advocated the draft is because, in terms of a national crisis, we should have shared sacrifices," Rangel says. "When the government says we have to stay in Iraq, we have to show that we're prepared to lose lives, the 'we' should be a broad cross-section of America. They're not asking all of America: They've targeted those Americans who are not getting a fair shake in our society."
[url]http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2003/10/17/army/index_np.html[/url]
2003-10-26 12:26 | User Profile
Hmmm...two angry looking negroes surrounding a White girl. Just what message is the Army trying to send here? Join the Army and you too can be a Carr brutha?
2003-10-27 01:57 | User Profile
The U.S. armed forces are a hotbed of miscegynation. You will see more race mixing near an army base than anywhere in America.
2003-10-27 02:14 | User Profile
The U.S. armed forces are a hotbed of miscegynation. You will see more race mixing near an army base than anywhere in America.
Lawton (adjacent to Fort Sill), Oklahoma, would be Exhibit A in that regard.
Wanna see the stereotypical obese, ugly white women chasing after black men? Go there.
When I was stationed at Ft, Wainwright, Alaska, the dirtbags the Army chaptered out didn't stay in Fairbanks because 1) the climate was too cold for homie and 2) it was too expensive for them to live on the economy.
In Lawton-Ft. Sill, however, there is a whole subculture of military and ex-military thuggery that shacks up with their ho's, deals drugs and engages in sundry other criminal behaviors.
2003-10-27 05:06 | User Profile
An Army Of One ([B]IQ[/B]). Shouldn't surprise anyone.
2003-10-27 06:35 | User Profile
They're going to be pissed when the music stops, all the Humvees are in Iran, and they're getting shot at for whatever reason the jews think of.
2003-10-27 13:51 | User Profile
"But critics say that the Army's co-optation of hip-hop in its streetwise campaign is misleading, because it markets a life-changing and possibly life-threatening commitment as a fun, cool consumer choice."
Seems to me many of the hip hop songs already promote a life-threatening commitment to sex, drugs, and violence.
2003-10-28 04:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE]some, like Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), who argued for a reinstatement of the draftlast January, voice concerns about the overrepresentation of people of color in the Army. [/QUOTE]
Actually, most blacks in the military aren't in combat positions:
[url]http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2003/01/mil-030113-dod03.htm[/url]
All-Volunteer Force: Proven Quantity in the Persian Gulf War and Beyond
[QUOTE]A Defense Department report from the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, which was distributed at this briefing, explains that most blacks in the military serve in administration and other support jobs. They make up only 15 percent of the combat arms positions. [/QUOTE]
2003-10-28 04:28 | User Profile
Actually, most blacks in the military aren't in combat positions:
Anecdotal....as a former cannon-cocker, it was pretty dark in the firing batteries. But there were plenty of blacks in the support units too. Some would say it's so they can get marketable skills....perhaps, but I also think the higher ratio of females (of all races) among the REMFs was an attraction to the horny buggers too.