Military Offers Blacks Good Opportunities, Powell Says
Gen. Colin L. Powell, the first black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the military offers minorities opportunities denied them elsewhere in American society.
“I ain’t done bad,” he said.
Powell, testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, was asked about the role of minorities in the all-volunteer military and the impact of proposed troop cuts in coming years.
“I wish that there were other activities in our society and in our nation that were as open as the military is to upward mobility, to achievement, to allowing them in,” Powell said.
“I wish that corporate America, I wish the trade unions around the nation would show the same level of openness and opportunity to minorities that the military has.”
Powell offered no apologies for the disproportionate number of minorities serving in the military. Blacks make up about 12% of the U.S. population and 25% of the fighting force in the Persian Gulf.
“The fact that we have a higher percentage than the percentage that exists in the general population doesn’t trouble me at all,” Powell said. “That’s why I came in--to get a job. $222.30 a month.”
“You’ve done well,” Rep. Beverly B. Byron (D-Md.) said.
“I ain’t done bad,” Powell responded.
Powell, the son of Jamaican immigrants, is the fourth black to achieve the rank of four-star general. He is a former White House national security adviser and is credited with helping restructure the National Security Council after the Iran-Contra scandal.
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