COUR
TESY OF A. WILLIAMS
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February 12, 2022
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metropolitan areas in the country, according to
a 2021 report by researchers at the University of
California, Berkeley. To identify segregated pock-
ets within a larger geographic area, the report
compares the proportion of racial minorities in
a smaller area, such as a neighborhood, with its
larger region, such as a county.
Integration in Killeen is evident in everyday
life, Williams says. Her neighbors come from
many different backgrounds, and her children
have had several Black teachers, even though the
vast majority of U.S. public school teachers are
white. Most of her friends in Killeen, also current
or former military, are in interracial relationships.
Killeen is not an anomaly. The UC Berkeley
researchers found that the most integrated places
in the country have a strong military presence,
including larger cities such as Fayetteville, N.C.,
and Colorado’s Aurora and Colorado Springs. “The
biggest players for effective integration ended up
being these military towns,” says social psycholo-
gist Lindsey Burnside of UC Berkeley, who worked
on the report.
Integration in these places is no accident. By
the late 1940s, the military was starting to real-
ize that segregation threatened troop cohesion
and efficiency, says economist Chantal Smith of
Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va.
What’s more, military leaders could enforce
desegregation efforts much more aggressively
than leaders in civilian institutions due to the
notion of rank over race, Smith says. “The military
is on some level color-blind. Orders are orders.
You follow the orders.”
That hierarchical structure can lead to abuses
within the institution, such as leaders ignoring
reports of mental health problems and sexual
violence. But that same structure translates to
service members of all races gaining equal access
to education benefits, housing, pensions and
health insurance.
The body of research available today, which
largely focuses on the Black-white racial divide,
shows that compared with Black civilians, Black
service members fare better on numerous
metrics, including household income and home-
ownership rates.
As a result, many Black people, especially
women, see enlisting in the military as one of the
clearest routes to a better life. Even though Black
people account for roughly 14 percent of the U.S.
population, over 17 percent of active duty service
members are Black. And Black women make up
26 percent of female active duty service members.
Enlisting in the military for opportunity
involves a trade-off, though, Williams says.
She credits the institution with instilling in
her a discipline and drive to get ahead in life.
But she also acknowledges the loss
of autonomy. In the military, she
says, “your time is never really
your time because you’re always on
Uncle Sam’s clock.”
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