Still going on: racism in the UK military

[h=1]'It wasn't just Army banter - it was racism'[/h]
When David Nkomo joined the Army in 2009 he was full of ambition. Awarded best recruit when he passed out of training age 23, he served one tour in Afghanistan with the Rifles. But four years later the career he had hoped for was over because he says he could no longer tolerate the racial harassment he'd been subjected to.
"I packed my bags and said I'm leaving. Getting out of the Army. I don't want to be here."

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In recent years the Army has launched multiple public drives to recruit more minorities. It recruits heavily from the Commonwealth and two thirds of soldiers that identify as black were born abroad.
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Link

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Wow, nearly 25-30 years after I quit for very similar reasons, nothing has changed for the better. Instead, the military has to now go out into the Commonwealth to bring in people who will still get the same abuse as ethnic minority British recruits. Not because they want Commonwealth recruits but because not enough white or black recruits exist in the UK. The small pool of candidates who do join includes people drawn to groups like National Action and worse.

Personally, I can't see this ever changing - existing regiments will always have people saying "tradition" and "history" when you try and shake things up so what is needed is a brand new regiment. Not a conversion or melding of different regiments as has happened in military cuts but a brand new regiment from scratch. If you do the latter, you just bring over existing hidden nazi recruits who undermine the effort.

For me, something like a UK Foreign Legion where from the outset and inscribed into the regiments' ethos is that your cap is what matters, not your skin colour. Officers and enlisted men could and should come from anywhere in the UK and it should also have as tough an entry test as the Marines or the Paras have - or the French Foreign Legion's test.

We need to rethink the way we do things as a collective species. Nation-states have certainly overstayed their welcome, for one.

Infinite Chaos said:

Wow, nearly 25-30 years after I quit for very similar reasons, nothing has changed for the better. Instead, the military has to now go out into the Commonwealth to bring in people who will still get the same abuse as ethnic minority British recruits. Not because they want Commonwealth recruits but because not enough white or black recruits exist in the UK. The small pool of candidates who do join includes people drawn to groups like National Action and worse.

Personally, I can't see this ever changing - existing regiments will always have people saying "tradition" and "history" when you try and shake things up so what is needed is a brand new regiment. Not a conversion or melding of different regiments as has happened in military cuts but a brand new regiment from scratch. If you do the latter, you just bring over existing hidden nazi recruits who undermine the effort.

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esprit de corps:roll:

Spirit arising out of existing structures does indeed not change without destroying the structures.

Abbazorkzog said:

~ Nation-states have certainly overstayed their welcome, for one.

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That is true but a whole lot of people will die before they accept that and move on.