Discrimination in the Military? - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Discrimination in the Military?

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As the Army makes an effort to promote more qualified blacks up the military ... There definitely is discrimination in the way the army promotes black officers ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Discrimination in the Military?


1
Discrimination in the Military?
  • Bill Gordon
  • Gabriel Kwofie
  • Jeff Parks
  • Tom Yoo

2
What We Did
  • We looked for empirical and statistical evidence
    in the US Army in order to determine whether or
    not there is substantial evidence to support the
    claim that discrimination exists within the US
    Army.

3
Is there Discrimination in the US Army?
  • Blacks make up a smaller percentage of high
    ranking officers than lower ranking officers
  • Blacks are not being promoted up the chain of
    command as fast as other racial groups

4
Blacks as Percentage of Total Personnel by Grade
Source U.S. Department of Defense
5
Source U.S. Department of Defense
6
Enlisted Attrition (at 36 months)
Source U.S. Department of Defense
7
Statistical Support for Discrimination
  • Empirical evidence shows statistically
    significant evidence for discrimination in the
    way blacks and minorities are promoted in the
    Army
  • Black males are promoted from stage two 2.2
    slower than their white counterparts
  • All other minorities are promoted 2.9 slower
    than their white counterparts from stage two

8
Minority Male Promotion Rates
  • Evidence supports the notion that minorities have
    a difficult time getting promoted within the
    ranks of the military
  • There are statistically significant differences
    in retention and promotion rates amongst white
    males, blacks and other minorities.

9
Female Promotion Rates
  • Evidence also supports the notion that women have
    a difficult time getting promoted within the
    ranks of the military
  • There are statistically significant differences
    in retention and promotion rates amongst white
    females, black females and other minorities.

10
Summary of Promotion Rates
  • Below we see the overall situation facing
    minorities and
  • women in the military.

Promotion and Retention rates for 1977 Cohort
11
Chances for Early Promotion
  • It is statistically more likely for a white
    officer to be promoted more quickly on average
    than it is for a minority
  • For a white officer, the probability of early
    promotion is .509
  • For a minority officer, the probability of early
    promotion is .434
  • These results are statistically significant

12
Performance Appraisals
  • We found strong evidence that performance
    appraisals, which are very
  • subjective at the early stages, are biased
    against minorities.
  • Below is data on early promotion recommendations
    by race.
  • Minorities are given early promotion
    recommendations much less frequently than whites.
  • The difference is statistically significant

Performance Appraisals for early-stage white and
minority officers
13
The Question of Human Capital?
  • Empirical evidence that is statistically
    significant suggests that the differences in
    promotion rates between blacks and whites are not
    due to a lower rate of human capital for blacks

14
Promotion Appraisals (Cont.)
  • It is surmised that the differences could be due
    to human capital
  • characteristics.
  • The data suggests that human capital corrections
    do eliminate some of the
  • disparity.
  • Attending a selective college and GPA brings the
    coefficient on
  • Minority down from -.090 to -.051 (.064
    -.115).
  • The variable is still statistically significant,
    suggesting some other factors, possibly
    discrimination

15
Promotion to 4th Level
  • Below we see three models for predicting
    promotion to the 4th Level
  • Model 1 suggests that being a minority is highly
    detrimental to this
  • accomplishment
  • However, when corrected for GPA, the variable is
    not significant
  • And, when corrected for GPA and early promotion
    recommendation,
  • the variable is not significant.
  • This suggests that promotion is probably fair at
    the 4th level, but the effects of
  • discrimination in prior appraisals impacts
    promotion in subsequent levels.

16
Why promotional differences Discrimination in
Job Assignment?
  • NAVAL CASE STUDY
  • The COMBAT models below predict the probability
    of being assigned to a combat
  • ship. Even when corrected for GPA, minority
    status is significantly negative.
  • The CRUDES models predict how many combat ships
    were served on by applicants
  • for 4th level promotion.
  • Both of these suggest that minorities are being
    discriminated against in job
  • assignment. This leads to less acquired skills
    and lower overall human capital for
  • minorities.

17
The Military Academies
  • At both the US Military Academy at West Point and
    the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, blacks are
    admitted at the lowest rate among all studied
    ethnicities
  • However, the blacks that apply to these academies
    do have a lower average SAT scores than do
    whites.

18
Admission Rates
  • At both the U.S. Naval and Military Academies,
    blacks are admitted at the lowest rate (1995)

Blacks Hispanics Asians Whites
US Military Academy 9.5 11.3 15.5 14.0
US Naval Academy 11.2 19.6 13.1 14.9
19
Discrimination at West Point?
  • Case Study
  • 1995 entering class at the U.S. Military Academy
    at West Point

20
Comparison of SAT Scores
Verbal SAT Scores Verbal SAT Scores Verbal SAT Scores Verbal SAT Scores
Blacks Whites Difference in Median Score
MA 510 550 40
NA 510 580 70
Math SAT Scores Math SAT Scores Math SAT Scores Math SAT Scores
Blacks Whites Difference in Median Score
MA 590 650 60
NA 590 670 80
High School Rank High School Rank High School Rank High School Rank
Blacks Whites Difference in Median Score
MA 18 14 4
NA 36 15 21
21
What Does Affirmative Action Accomplish?
  • There have been suggestions that had race not
    been a factor in admission, fewer blacks would
    have been admitted into West Point.
  • Statistics support the fact that Affirmative
    Action is helping blacks gain admission to the US
    military academies

22
Affirmative Action in Favor of Blacks
Odds of Admission
US Military Academy US Naval Academy
Black to White 1.94 to 1 4.44 to 1
Hispanic to White 1.20 to 1 3.32 to 1
Asian to White 0.68 to 1 0.67 to 1
This table shows the odds that the school will admit black, Hispanic or Asian applicant instead of a white one, when the applicants are equally qualified and the school has only a single spot for them. Statistically significant at plt.0.05 or better. This table shows the odds that the school will admit black, Hispanic or Asian applicant instead of a white one, when the applicants are equally qualified and the school has only a single spot for them. Statistically significant at plt.0.05 or better. This table shows the odds that the school will admit black, Hispanic or Asian applicant instead of a white one, when the applicants are equally qualified and the school has only a single spot for them. Statistically significant at plt.0.05 or better.
23
What Does this Mean for the Future?
  • Blacks are slowly beginning to increase their
    percentage representation in officer positions
    towards the top of the command chain
  • As the Army makes an effort to promote more
    qualified blacks up the military ranks, blacks
    will slowly have a higher representation in the
    higher ranks of the military

24
Conclusion
  • There definitely is discrimination in the way the
    army promotes black officers
  • The army is making a concerted effort to
    eradicate this problem
  • Trends predict that in 25 years, statistically
    the problem of racial discrimination in the
    military will have been eradicated
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