DADT was a blessing in disguise
Last semester, students tabled on College Walk, encouraging their peers
to lobby for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). On Dec. 22,
when President Obama signed the repeal into law, these students got
their wish. In so-called ‘liberal’ circles, this measure was touted as a
victory for equality, one that would benefit people of color in
particular. For instance, a piece by Jamilah King, published in the
online magazine Color Lines, titled “Black Women Win in Repeal of DADT,”
cited a report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force that found
that DADT had disproportionately affected black women. According to this
report, black women were discharged under the policy “at three times the
rate that they serve in the military.”
In selling the repeal as a victory for black lesbians, King overlooked
the nature of what these soldiers would actually be engaged in. The
American Army is first and foremost an aggressive imperial force. It is
true that, in theory, it is necessary that a nation has a defense force
and that this force be comprised of any willing individual fit to serve.
But we do not live in a vacuum populated with such theories. The reality
is that the American military is not merely a “defense force” whose sole
purpose is to shield the domestic realm from incursion. Its battles
beyond the home front are not the valiant liberating ventures that
colonial fairy tales are made of.
Its better-publicized imperial projects set aside, the American Army has
been directly involved in over 50 interventions in Latin America since
the Spanish-American War. Currently stationed in over 130 countries, the
American military is actively engaged both in its latest acquisitions,
Iraq and Afghanistan, and in an old (though scarcely acknowledged)
favorite, the Philippines. By its own estimates (which are presumably
conservative), it has directly killed 98,170 to 107,152 Iraqi civilians
since 2003. Forget closets—throughout its imperial domain, the American
army puts queers of color in coffins.
To extol the repeal on any terms is necessarily to disregard or
otherwise dehumanize victims of these imperial ventures. If any of us
smiled to ourselves when we caught wind of the repeal, it is only
because we forgot that, when all is said and done, guns for equal
opportunity hire are still hit men. It is only because King forgot that
these guns for hire would have real victims that she could present the
repeal as a “win” for people of color. This “forgetting,” in turn, was
allowed for by two phenomena that her blog is designed to highlight and
combat: first, by the ethnocentrism that prompted her to look to the
suffering of black American lesbians rather than to that of their Iraqi
counterparts and second, by the pervasive racism that devalues Arab
lives in the public sphere to the extent that they can be disregarded
with such ease.
Because DADT hurt the military, it was a blessing for subjects of the
American empire. Most obviously, the repeal has the potential to
facilitate American imperialism because it is apt to increase military
retention rates, given that those who “tell” will no longer be
discharged. If the next 16 years will resemble the past 16, the army
just gained over 13,000 troops into 2026 (the number of troops
discharged due to DADT since 1994).
There is also reason to suspect that the repeal will aid the military in
addressing its dwindling enrollment rates. The repeal stands to further
recruitment in portraying the military as an inclusive,
non-discriminatory body. The effects of this “good PR” on recruitment
initiatives can already be seen on college campuses that had previously
banned ROTC because of DADT. As a result of the DADT repeal, Yale and
Harvard are reinstating ROTC and, as students are likely aware, similar
moves are being made at Columbia pending community consensus.
The fact that repealing DADT has long been a priority for the American
gay movement reflects the movement’s leadership. Overwhelmingly white
and male, those dominating this cause are far more caught up in their
marriage status than in the fact that up to 40 percent of homeless youth
are LGBT (though they comprise only 5 to 7 percent of the overall youth
population).
Moving forward, then, Columbia students ought to take two lessons from
this experience. The first is that the poor direction of the mainstream
American queer movement need not be reflected on our campus. For
instance, alleviating homelessness is a cause worth fighting
for—allowing for greater participation in imperial wars is not. The
second is that we ought to spend less time celebrating the repeal and
more time combating the repeal’s fallout. Now is the time for our
community to consider how shallow our rejection of ROTC was. As
anti-racist youth, we ought to focus, not on fighting inequality within
the military, but on fighting a military whose very purpose it is to
perpetuate inequality the world over.
Yasmeen Ar-Rayani is a Columbia College junior majoring in Middle
Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. Color in Colonial College
runs alternate Mondays.
Tags: Opinion, Yasmeen Ar-Rayani, DADT, LGBTQ, racism
--
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/01/23/dadt-was-blessing-disguise
Via InstaFetch
Last semester, students tabled on College Walk, encouraging their peers
to lobby for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” (DADT). On Dec. 22,
when President Obama signed the repeal into law, these students got
their wish. In so-called ‘liberal’ circles, this measure was touted as a
victory for equality, one that would benefit people of color in
particular. For instance, a piece by Jamilah King, published in the
online magazine Color Lines, titled “Black Women Win in Repeal of DADT,”
cited a report by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force that found
that DADT had disproportionately affected black women. According to this
report, black women were discharged under the policy “at three times the
rate that they serve in the military.”
In selling the repeal as a victory for black lesbians, King overlooked
the nature of what these soldiers would actually be engaged in. The
American Army is first and foremost an aggressive imperial force. It is
true that, in theory, it is necessary that a nation has a defense force
and that this force be comprised of any willing individual fit to serve.
But we do not live in a vacuum populated with such theories. The reality
is that the American military is not merely a “defense force” whose sole
purpose is to shield the domestic realm from incursion. Its battles
beyond the home front are not the valiant liberating ventures that
colonial fairy tales are made of.
Its better-publicized imperial projects set aside, the American Army has
been directly involved in over 50 interventions in Latin America since
the Spanish-American War. Currently stationed in over 130 countries, the
American military is actively engaged both in its latest acquisitions,
Iraq and Afghanistan, and in an old (though scarcely acknowledged)
favorite, the Philippines. By its own estimates (which are presumably
conservative), it has directly killed 98,170 to 107,152 Iraqi civilians
since 2003. Forget closets—throughout its imperial domain, the American
army puts queers of color in coffins.
To extol the repeal on any terms is necessarily to disregard or
otherwise dehumanize victims of these imperial ventures. If any of us
smiled to ourselves when we caught wind of the repeal, it is only
because we forgot that, when all is said and done, guns for equal
opportunity hire are still hit men. It is only because King forgot that
these guns for hire would have real victims that she could present the
repeal as a “win” for people of color. This “forgetting,” in turn, was
allowed for by two phenomena that her blog is designed to highlight and
combat: first, by the ethnocentrism that prompted her to look to the
suffering of black American lesbians rather than to that of their Iraqi
counterparts and second, by the pervasive racism that devalues Arab
lives in the public sphere to the extent that they can be disregarded
with such ease.
Because DADT hurt the military, it was a blessing for subjects of the
American empire. Most obviously, the repeal has the potential to
facilitate American imperialism because it is apt to increase military
retention rates, given that those who “tell” will no longer be
discharged. If the next 16 years will resemble the past 16, the army
just gained over 13,000 troops into 2026 (the number of troops
discharged due to DADT since 1994).
There is also reason to suspect that the repeal will aid the military in
addressing its dwindling enrollment rates. The repeal stands to further
recruitment in portraying the military as an inclusive,
non-discriminatory body. The effects of this “good PR” on recruitment
initiatives can already be seen on college campuses that had previously
banned ROTC because of DADT. As a result of the DADT repeal, Yale and
Harvard are reinstating ROTC and, as students are likely aware, similar
moves are being made at Columbia pending community consensus.
The fact that repealing DADT has long been a priority for the American
gay movement reflects the movement’s leadership. Overwhelmingly white
and male, those dominating this cause are far more caught up in their
marriage status than in the fact that up to 40 percent of homeless youth
are LGBT (though they comprise only 5 to 7 percent of the overall youth
population).
Moving forward, then, Columbia students ought to take two lessons from
this experience. The first is that the poor direction of the mainstream
American queer movement need not be reflected on our campus. For
instance, alleviating homelessness is a cause worth fighting
for—allowing for greater participation in imperial wars is not. The
second is that we ought to spend less time celebrating the repeal and
more time combating the repeal’s fallout. Now is the time for our
community to consider how shallow our rejection of ROTC was. As
anti-racist youth, we ought to focus, not on fighting inequality within
the military, but on fighting a military whose very purpose it is to
perpetuate inequality the world over.
Yasmeen Ar-Rayani is a Columbia College junior majoring in Middle
Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies. Color in Colonial College
runs alternate Mondays.
Tags: Opinion, Yasmeen Ar-Rayani, DADT, LGBTQ, racism
--
http://www.columbiaspectator.com/2011/01/23/dadt-was-blessing-disguise
Via InstaFetch
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