A Narrative Inquiry of Recently Separated African American Army Enlisted Soldier's Experiences on Racism
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Authors
Singletary, Leander M.
Issue Date
2020-08
Type
Dissertation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Dissertations, Academic--United States , Microaggressions , Race discrimination , Racism in the workplace , Racism , Soldiers , United States. Army
Alternative Title
Abstract
The United States Army (U.S. Army) is the oldest and a leading public organization in the U.S. that has challenged racism with attempts to remove many barriers that did not allow for workforce equality and unlimited growth (Moskos & Butler, 1996). Even so, the U.S. Army struggled for years with institutional racism and issues of discrimination. Understanding how systemic racism and acts of racism affect the core of the U.S. Army organization is important in the 21st century and may assist other organizations and leaders in understanding how African Americans experience institutional racism.
Many studies on racism and race issues in the U.S. Army use a quantitative lens. Furthermore, most research, books, and news articles center the research on the U.S. Army officer. That presents a gap in the understanding of how racism affects the U.S. Army as a total force. A narrative inquiry using enlisted soldiers with a Critical Race Theory framework adds to the limited research and may fill the gap in understanding institutional racism.
Eight participants volunteered for three 90-minute interviews that produce five themes of qualitative data. The themes that emerged were (1) The premilitary racial bubble, (2) In-service game-changers of racism, (3) Post military polarization, (4) The overt and covert nature of racism, (5) Challenging core values. The themes provide a unique voice of color that adds to the knowledge of racism of marginalized voices that were brought forward when narrating through four questions. The questions asked were how the participants experienced racism (1) before, (2) during, and (3) after serving in the understanding about racism?
Keyword 1: Critical Race Theory; Keyword 2: Microaggressions; Keyword 3: Enlisted Soldier; Keyword 4: US Army; Keyword 5: Institutional Racism;
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.