Diversity Committee

[Flying Pig]

I have told many people that if they want to join, fine.  We are not social workers, psychologists or probation officers.  The program stays how it is.  If you want to join your welcome as long as you meet the requirements.  Beyond that, you dont play nice or try to make the program something its not, there is the door.

[alamrcn]

Does CAP need to be more diverse?  Unquestionably.

I ask this in a philosophical, not judgemental mannor... Why?
How would targeting groups that lack numbers in our membership benefit our program? I understand how this may be important in other things, but I'm wondering about Civil Air Patrol's specifically.

We need to focus on recruiting more socio-economically challenged individuals, particularly from urban areas.

When we recruit, we target high probability groups of like-minded people with similar interests related to Civil Air Patrol's programs. People at airshows, military related events, schools and community service events are all potential members. Where could we focus on minority and urban recruiting? The YMCA and Boys and Girls Club are two places I can think of where there are fewer white suburbanites than the other places I mentioned.

[High Speed Low Drag]

I have told many people that if they want to join, fine.  We are not social workers, psychologists or probation officers.  The program stays how it is.  If you want to join your welcome as long as you meet the requirements.  Beyond that, you dont play nice or try to make the program something its not, there is the door.

Absolutely.  We should not compromise who we are - at all. Nowhere have I said that we should change the program at all.  I have not made a singe change in the program for our new Black & Hispanic cadets.  What I am saying is that CAP should at least make efforts to diversify - which means we have to figure out why CAP is 78% Caucasian when America is not 78% Caucasian. 
FlyingPig - have you reached out to the youth pastor of the inner-city church next to your squadron about holding a recruiting presentation at the church?  When you were still pushing a sled around the city, did you not see some diamonds that would have been wonderful cadets if they only knew about the program?  I know I did - hundreds of them. 

I've had cadets with similar attitudes to that culture. They were nothing but trouble and actually caused harm to my unit by driving off other cadets. If a cadet would like to join us as a way to get out then I welcome them. I will not change my values nor compromise the program to do it though.

Are all inner-city youth bad?

I ask this in a philosophical, not judgemental mannor... Why?
How would targeting groups that lack numbers in our membership benefit our program? I understand how this may be important in other things, but I'm wondering about Civil Air Patrol's specifically.

Really???  Would not CAP be better if our cadets were exposed to people of different cultures / ethnicities?  How would that exposure be bad?  Can we not learn from these cadets of color just as we learn from Caucasian cadets?  Isn’t our job to prepare cadets for the future – which includes interacting with people of all races, creeds, religions, etc? 

**Comment redacted due to emotional content **

And we don’t need a Diversity Committee?  I’m beginning to think that CAP needs Diversity Training.

[Eclipse]

With help & training from NHQ, this can be spread out to all the squadrons; an example of something they have already done is print the Parents Guide in Spanish for Hispanics.  That's an obvious.  What isn't so obvious would be an example of emphasizing the Moral Leadership portion when speaking with Blacks over saying the cool summer activities they can do.  Or being sure to address the majority of conversation with the male head-of-household when speaking with a Hispanic family, emphasis how the cadet would learn skills (leadership, exposure to different careers, etc) for job opportunities.

Its called "Character Development" now, and while I'm certainly not one to be PC about these things, I believe the preferred term is "African American".

Absolutely.  We should not compromise who we are - at all. Nowhere have I said that we should change the program at all.  I have not made a singe change in the program for our new Black & Hispanic cadets.  What I am saying is that CAP should at least make efforts to diversify - which means we have to figure out why CAP is 78% Caucasian when America is not 78% Caucasian.

As of 2008, the US population is 75% white, I'd say that's pretty close.

Frankly, your attitude, or at least the way you are coming off in these threads, is exactly the concern - you're assuming "diversity" means ethnicity, and I'd be willing to be that isn't what NHQ is about either.

CAP is local, and my units represent their local demographics, with a skew towards male, because for the most part, males are interested in the military, aviation, and things with lights and buttons.  The opportunities are available to all, and those opportunities dried up in many areas because there simply was no interest in them, and with CAP especially, the effort and initiative to be successful.  My wing has had more units dry up near military bases and in traditionally WASPish areas as in the "inner city" you keep referring to.

Why?  Because there is no culture of public service and effort anymore, we have built an entitlement society and we are reaping what we have sown.  We all want badges for showing up, and anything that takes two thoughts or can't be done "online" is "too much hassle".

"Diversity" means a lot more than ethnicity, and CAP isn't going to fix the culture of the military, aviation, industry, and inter-gender relations with some posters and a committee.

[alamrcn]

Really???  Would not CAP be better if our cadets were exposed to people of different cultures / ethnicity's?

I consider Civil Air Patrol to be a culture, and a member's color or other social difference outside the CAP program irrelevant. Is a cadet's CAP experience with a member of another race going to be any more or less beneficial than with one of his own race? Let me be VERY clear, I am NOT talking about separatism at all! I'm just trying to figure out exactly what would actually be the benefit of intentionally trying to diversify recruitment rather than just let it happen on its own.

Can we not learn from these cadets of color just as we learn from Caucasian cadets?

Of course we can! We can learn to march, use a compass, or build a model rocket from a member of any color... Or am I missing that a member of a different race would do these things differently?

Not understanding why we should purposefully seek out diversity in membership, rather than just let it happen naturally, doesn't make me a biggot in need of special "training". I just don't care about a member's race or culture or sex... I care about how they can set that stuff aside and just do their CAP duty along side me.

[High Speed Low Drag]

Frankly, your attitude, or at least the way you are coming off in these threads, is exactly the concern - you're assuming "diversity" means ethnicity, and I'd be willing to be that isn't what NHQ is about either.

CAP is local, and my units represent their local demographics, with a skew towards male, because for the most part, males are interested in the military, aviation, and things with lights and buttons.  The opportunities are available to all, and those opportunities dried up in many areas because there simply was no interest in them, and with CAP especially, the effort and initiative to be successful.  My wing has had more units dry up near military bases and in traditionally WASPish areas as in the "inner city" you keep referring to.
...

"Diversity" means a lot more than ethnicity, and CAP isn't going to fix the culture of the military, aviation, industry, and inter-gender relations with some posters and a committee.

Yes – Diversity does mean more than that – but that is not what NHQ is looking at.  Here is paragraph three of the Diversity Committee Charter (emphasis mine):

3. Objectives and Scope of Activities: The committee shall conduct a comprehensive evaluation and assessment of CAP's current demographics and its policies and practices that provide opportunities or erect barriers to the recruitment, retention and advancement of women and minorities. The committee shall produce a plan with specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time sensitive goals to achieve a diverse membership and leadership in the Civil Air Patrol.

I understand that squadrons are local, and some squadrons may not have a diverse population to recruit from; but let's take a look at the pictures used in NHQ publications:
Great Start: 8 cadets, 1 of whom is a minority
Cadet Staff Handbook: 3 cadets, 0 minority
Respect on Display (the most diverse publication): 11 cadets, 2 of whom are a minority
Investing in America's Youth: 38 cadets, 2 of whom are a minority

Let's say you use Investing in America's Youth as a recruiting tool.  What do you think a prospect (who is a minority) thinks when they see there are only two minorities out of all those cadets? 
They DON'T think "Hmm, there are only two minorities in this publication.  I don't think I'll join because there aren't more pictures of minorities." 
They DO think "Hmm, I don't see hardly anybody like me, so I probably won't like CAP."  People join organizations because they can see themselves in them.  When presented with pictures that don't show people like them in the picture, they will subconsciously not want to join becasue they can't see themselves in the picture.

Conversely, look at all the females in the pictures.  They are well represented and therefore davidsinn has a squadron of almost all girls. 

All I am saying is that Blacks and Hispanics are under-represented in CAP.  We need to look at why that is.
Should we change the program – No. 
Should we change what CAP does – No. 
Should we change the CAP culture – No. 
Should we abandon or ignore our current recruiting "pool" – No.
Should we change anything about CAP - Yes, but not for the sake of race or gender. 
However, I know there are youth and adults in the community that would benefit CAP that are of non-Caucasian descent that CAP is currently not reaching.  Like Eclipse said –

Why?  Because there is no culture of public service and effort anymore, we have built an entitlement society and we are reaping what we have sown.  We all want badges for showing up, and anything that takes two thoughts or can't be done "online" is "too much hassle".

He's right - there is not a culture of public service anymore.  Do we not try to influence that through our organization?  We may not be able to fix it, but do we still not make a difference by instilling some sense of public service in our youth?  So what is wrong with making a targeted attempt at recruiting, retaining, and working with minority groups that are under-represented in CAP?  Is it because the issue of race and gender are taboo in America?  Is it because people don't deem the results worth the energy expended?  WHY?
Our core values are INTEGRITY (to act on a conviction in the belief of this country that all people are worthy of RESPECT), VOLUNTEERISM (to give of oneself for the betterment of the community), RESPECT (to recognize each person's fundamental worth and value diversity), and EXCELELNCE (to surpass what is expected and strive for better results).  Can someone tell me how some of the previous thoughts expressed in this thread do not violate our core values?

I'm sorry, but I just do not see why a lot of people are so against the idea of actively working to make CAP a more diverse organization.

[Eclipse]

...but I just do not see why a lot of people are so against the idea of actively working to make CAP a more diverse organization.

Its not that people are "against it", its that mandates from on high like these tend to be more chaff than wheat, but cause a lot of extra work for everyone.

[RiverAux]

I suppose that I'm for any initatives that might help us recruit more members, but why not focus on a major problem that we have right now? 

CAP is critically short of mission pilots on a nationwide basis.  We have only 3.8 mission pilots per corporate aircraft, which puts us in the "Red" zone according to our readiness standards (Red<4, Yellow 4-4.9, Green >5).  We don't have a single region in the Green and most are in the Red. 

While I am never shy of giving CAP a hard time for focusing too much on pilots, even I recognize that we barely have enough to guarantee mission availability.  If we need any special committee to focus on recruitment issues, it should focus on why we barely have enough pilots to take care of business.  I suspect the increasing focus on regional response is primarily because so many wings no longer can handle their own missions due to lack of mission pilots. 

[AirAux]

The diversity thing just hasn't worked out for America.  If you look at stats, since the civil rights movement started, the percentage of young black men serving time in prison has continually increased and is many times the rate of young white or even latino, which has also increased.  The percentage of black, unmarried females has likewise increased.  Many, many latinos are here illegally and are therefore criminals.  With the new cadet standards regarding social security number proof and higher scrutiny on cadet arrests it would be hard to cater to some of these groups.  It's all about values and the values of our minorities have sunk since the beginning of civil rights and the sense of entitlements.  Blacks have a much higher percentage of recipients than others on government giveaway programs, such as supplemental security income. Many of these have to do with a failure of family values and it is not CAP's responsibility to attempt to instill these in a group of 12 year olds.  Sounds racist.. only reality.. Unfortunately, these are not opinions, just statistics..   Oh, by the way, learning to speak more to the male figure of a latino family is reinforcing their cultural differences, not reinforcing the concept that this is America and if you want to be here, you should do it our way and not the way it is back home.  We can't be everything to everybody.. Maybe we should all learn to speak Spanish so we can better recruit them??  I guess we will then change all of our material to Spanish so they feel right at home..Oh, wait, this isn't home.  This is America..

[JayT]

Yup, that was as ignorant, racist, and disgusting as you thought.

The diversity thing just hasn't worked out for America.  If you look at stats, since the civil rights movement started, the percentage of young black men serving time in prison has continually increased and is many times the rate of young white or even latino, which has also increased.  The percentage of black, unmarried females has likewise increased.  Many, many latinos are here illegally and are therefore criminals.  With the new cadet standards regarding social security number proof and higher scrutiny on cadet arrests it would be hard to cater to some of these groups.  It's all about values and the values of our minorities have sunk since the beginning of civil rights and the sense of entitlements.  Blacks have a much higher percentage of recipients than others on government giveaway programs, such as supplemental security income. Many of these have to do with a failure of family values and it is not CAP's responsibility to attempt to instill these in a group of 12 year olds.  Sounds racist.. only reality.. Unfortunately, these are not opinions, just statistics..   Oh, by the way, learning to speak more to the male figure of a latino family is reinforcing their cultural differences, not reinforcing the concept that this is America and if you want to be here, you should do it our way and not the way it is back home.  We can't be everything to everybody.. Maybe we should all learn to speak Spanish so we can better recruit them??  I guess we will then change all of our material to Spanish so they feel right at home..Oh, wait, this isn't home.  This is America..

[AirAux]

Always a great idea to personally attack when you can't argue the facts.  Well done, and so classical.  Get your head out of the sand and admit what isn't working.  Then and only then will you be able to look for new and better solutions to an evergrowing problem..

[RADIOMAN015]

The diversity thing just hasn't worked out for America. 

We can't be everything to everybody

At the squadron level there's only some much resources that can be allocated to any new program implementation (e.g. cadets in inner city have no transportation to meetings so you are picking them up and returning them home for EVERY activity).   

My guess is that this program will likely be an ATTEMPT to diversify the membership a bit more and ensure compliance with federal funding diversity mandates.  Hopefully it won't be another report or answering queries from high headquarters as to why the squadron membership doesn't mirror the minority population in the squadrons' operating area.  I just sense that at many squadrons there isn't an interested in this type of "targeted" recruitment.  There's just too many other issues that come up that is begging for volunteers' time.

Again we can't save everybody and there's plenty of other programs for minority inner city youth (funded by grants & us taxpayers) than CAP and are much easier for those inner city youths to participate in versus CAP very strict cadet program that is costly to the cadets' parents/guardians (check out the price of dress black shoes for the cadet uniform). (If there's local ROTC programs in schools that will also affect any minority teenagers recruitment).  As far as senior members go if you have the appropriate aptitude & attitude, I think that regardless of ethnic background, race,  or gender you can advance in the program.

I never seen any push back in my unit if a minority joined/wanted to join.  We've had minority members drop out of the program and the commander/deputy commander for seniors/cadets have done followups to find out why (as is done with any non minority member that drops out).

RM   

[cap235629]

At the squadron level there's only some much resources that can be allocated to any new program implementation (e.g. cadets in inner city have no transportation to meetings so you are picking them up and returning them home for EVERY activity).

If this committee allocates money to drive the vans to pick them up, I would volunteer in a second to drive...

[Nathan]

So I think that we definitely need to keep something in our minds that we tend to forget whenever talking about "equality."

http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2000/dp1/2kh00.pdf

In 2000, on 12.3% of blacks returned the census, while 75.1% of the population returned the census with "white" marked. I said it that way to account for the fact that many did not return the census.

However, this makes an important point. Why, exactly, is it realistic for us to go for the idealized "30% white, 30% black, 30% Hispanic" demographic for our organization when the country as a whole would not support that? If every squadron in the country was expected to maintain that level, it would probably be impossible due to the simple fact that there are a LOT more white people here than there are people of other races.

That doesn't mean that we should turn our heads away from the race issue. But recruiting and promoting people of different races in CAP isn't going to make them have more babies. We are still going to have the same percentage of people to work with that we always have.

In order to get above that 12.3% (ish, since we can assume some sampling error), we would actually have to go above and beyond in order to recruit black people at the EXCLUSION of other races, since we would somehow have to make the organization more attractive to blacks than to other races in order to ensure that the percentages were skewed in favor OPPOSITE to the entire US population.

As long as we are within the same percentages as the US population, I really don't think that a diversity program should even be an issue for us. It's not like a smaller percentage of the CAP population being minority status in relation to whites is keeping the minority population percentages down...

[Al Sayre]

Just as an interesting side note, here in MS where all us racist rednecks live, out of our MP's, about 10% are black, out of all pilots in the wing, it comes out to about 8-9%. While it doesn't reflect the state general population numbers, I'm pretty sure it exceeds the % population of minority pilots living in the state.  I'd be curious to see what the nationwide FAA stats are, i.e. what % of all pilots are members of a minority.  Every airport I've ever been to in the U.S. the vast majority of pilots I see are white guys.  I think maybe the right question to ask is what are our current numbers, and do they reflect our target recruiting population? How do we even know what our actual minority membership population is?  The data section on the application is voluntary, so some folks may not have even filled it out.

[Eclipse]

Nathan,  you hit on a good point, and something CAP generally doesn't do very well - i.e. work from data instead of assumptions.

If this committee is coming in the door with the intention to see where CAP stands in terms of diversity, and then work from there, I'd support it.  IMHO, I believe they will find that for the most part we reflect the population of the areas our units serve, at which time
someone can decide if that's actually an issue, where the issue is, and solicit ways to fix it.

However if they are walking in with the assumption that "CAP's diversity is broken", despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, well we're cooked before we start.

[brasda91]

...I'm certainly not one to be PC about these things, I believe the preferred term is "African American".

That's the problem with us today, trying to be PC.  You're either a black American or African.  The vast majority of black people in the US have no ties to Africa.  That would be like you moving to Africa.  Are you going to call yourself an American African?  When we open our doors for recruiting, we open them to everyone.  We don't target a particular person based on the color of their skin.  It's not our fault if the majority of our members is one color or the other.  I'm not going to try and force someone to join CAP, based on the color of their skin, just so my squadron has a more diverse membership.  people will join CAP based on our program, regardless of the color of their skin.  It's our responsibility to try and present the organization everywhere, which in turn will give us the opportunity to be more diverse in our membership.

[RADIOMAN015]

...I'm certainly not one to be PC about these things, I believe the preferred term is "African American".

I'm not going to try and force someone to join CAP, based on the color of their skin, just so my squadron has a more diverse membership.  people will join CAP based on our program, regardless of the color of their skin.  It's our responsibility to try and present the organization everywhere, which in turn will give us the opportunity to be more diverse in our membership.

I would agree.  Locally, relatively recently the AF Reserve Base held a "Hispanic Youth Leadership Symposium" to expose them to the USAF Reserve, and I'm sure as potential recruits.   Of course this was held during the weekdays, by fulltime paid Air Reserve Technicians, and we didn't know about it at CAP.  HOWEVER, most of the unit's senior members are working during the weekdays and cadets are in school, so staffing any type of information booth would be a real challenge
RM

[Nathan]

Nathan,  you hit on a good point, and something CAP generally doesn't do very well - i.e. work from data instead of assumptions.

If this committee is coming in the door with the intention to see where CAP stands in terms of diversity, and then work from there, I'd support it.  IMHO, I believe they will find that for the most part we reflect the population of the areas our units serve, at which time
someone can decide if that's actually an issue, where the issue is, and solicit ways to fix it.

However if they are walking in with the assumption that "CAP's diversity is broken", despite anecdotal evidence to the contrary, well we're cooked before we start.

I think we could also make these same trends if we were to take data on the religious preferences of all members.

I don't have the data in front of me, but it's common knowledge that Christianity is by far the most popular religion in the US. I don't know where the other religions and atheism rank, but I doubt it's within the range of Christianity.

So... if we end up with a predominantly Christian CAP, does that mean that CAP is run by a bunch of Christians who are insensitive to other religions or to those who don't follow a religion? Of course not. It just means that out of our selection pool, if we were to assume that religion plays no part in the willingness to join CAP, that there are a lot more Christians that are going to join simply because there are a lot more Christians in the pool of potential recruits.

I like to think that CAP is as blind to religion as it is to race, so I would think that to prove that there is an issue with unfair recruiting practices in relation to race, we would first have to show that CAP recruiters in some given area actually are somehow taking religion into account during recruiting.

I'm going to use the term "target race" to indicate some race that CAP feels is underrepresented in the organization and would like to see with higher numbers. Please don't take it to mean anything more than that.

1) Is the squadron away from a particular area (schools, neighborhoods) that has a high demographic of the "target race" that we want to better represent?

2) Is some cultural or social aspect competing with us for time or niche in the recruits life? For instance, do gangs in the area recruit primarily from the "target race"? Is there a race-specific organization or club in the area, possibly hosted through a school?

3) Do members of the "target race" often correlate highly with members of a certain religion that may have practices that conflict with CAP, either on a moral basis (joining any military organization) or simply a time basis?

4) How many members are actually in the squadron? If there are only five cadet members, then not having 0% of them being back cadets is not nearly so suspicious as a squadron that has 100 cadets having 0% black cadets.

After that, we can start looking toward the squadron.

1) Is the squadron ensuring that they market themselves honestly, as an organization with no direct ties or commitment to military service?

2) Is the percentage of the "target race" members that visit the squadron approximately the same as the number that actually sign the papers to join?

3) Is there a "problem member" in the squadron, such as a locally-known racist that may be a passive deterrent to "target race" membership?

4) Is the squadron engaging in activities that may seem to segregate certain races? This is where being politically correct weighs in either too much or too little. I've heard of blacks in a squadron getting angry because a squadron worked a St. Patrick's Day parade, but not an event during MLK day.

5) Could the squadron be intentionally not recruiting in some areas? If not, why? I know in one unnamed state that a squadron wouldn't recruit in what they deemed to be "dangerous parts of town", despite the fact that these parts of town had a much higher demographic of blacks than the schools they usually recruited from.

And so on and so forth.

Most of these issues can be solved fairly easily by having a recruiter you trust in position and, MOST IMPORTANTLY, calling each member who either quits or stops showing up to see WHY they stopped showing up. If a prospective member chooses not to join, have someone candidly ask them what would have changed their mind.

If the problem is that the squadron doesn't have any members of the "target race", then that may or may not be something that can be solved. But if the member says that he/she felt uncomfortable because of, using the above example, the St. Patrick's day parade issue, then that MIGHT be something that can actually be rectified.

I'm not in favor of going above and beyond to appease everyone. However, I also know where to draw the line when there is a good change that can be made. For instance, in most cases, not working an event on MLK day isn't really a problem with racial stereotyping. It's just not something that someone things about. And if I have a black officer who wants to work an event on that day, and can tell me an event that would be beneficial to get involved in, then why not work it?

Which is why I think that some sort of national oversight of diversity isn't really going to accomplish anything. Nationally, I can't think of a single policy that would benefit every squadron without hurting another one. If I were to see anything like this happen, I would much rather see it happen at the wing level alone, and only really as a safety net to make sure that there actually isn't anything suspicious going on with racial demographics. So, if the Wing Diversity Officer (ha) decides that a squadron having 10% less black members than the percentage of blacks in the state, then the squadron would get an inquiry about their recruiting practices and follow-ups to members who chose to leave. If there is an issue to fix, then the squadron is asked to fix it, and the Wing Diversity Officer's job is complete.

I honestly don't think even a special title is needed as long as squadrons have the proper oversight from their commanders in the first place, but if we have to have SOMETHING, then the more local, the better.

[High Speed Low Drag]

Good points, Nathan. 

Here is a copy of a post I made in April in a different thread - with data.

Of course, with the Census this year we will get more accurate data, but based on the U.S. Census estimates from July, 2008 (latest available), the break down is like this:

General Population         USAF                                         CAP                     
White:  65.6%                  White:  73.3%                           White:  78.2%
Black: 12.2%                    Black: 14.6%                             Black: 6.5%
Asian:  4.3%                    Asian: 2.6%                              Asian: 3.0%
Hispanic 15.4%                 Hispanic 10.7%  (Approximate)     Hispanic 10.1%

Gen Pop Source: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population by Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin for the United States: April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2008  Column: July, 2008
USAF Source:  Air Force Personnel Statistics
CAP Source:  Cadets: By the Numbers


So, based on that, it looks like Hispanic cadets 2:3 of Hispanic general population and Black cadets are 1:2 of Black general population and the Asian cadets are almost 1:1 of Asian general population.  (Remembering of course that Hispanics are technically an ethnicity, not a race and are categorized under race by skin tone)

In my opinion (and mine only), this data tells us that CAP needs to actively target Black & Hispanic audiences.  Which (in conjunction with another thread) means that we need to develop some PSAs and recruiting material specifically targeted towards those groups.

What do you guys think would be the best way to target these audiences and what do you think are the biggest reason we do not have a strong showing by these groups / how do we overcome that?