Search the Fresh Air Archive

Close Search

How Civilian Inequalities Lead African Americans to the Military

Ed Dorn, a senior staff member of the Brookings Institution, considers the question, "Does the US military really provide equal opportunities for African Americans?" Dorn points to the fact that blacks make up a disproportionately large percentage of the Armed Forces, in part because many African American recruits have fewer economic opportunities in the civilian world.

21:28
Queue

Guest

Host

Related Topics

Other segments from the episode on January 29, 1991

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, January 29, 1991: Interview with Diane Pinderhughes, Damu Smith, and Muhammad Abdul-Aleem; Interview with Ed Dorn.
Queue
21:10

Black Perspectives on the War in Iraq

Terry speaks with three guests about how African Americans are engaged with the Gulf War. Diane Pinderhughes is a professor of Political Science at the University of Illinois and the author of a new report for the National Urban League on the role of blacks in the Gulf War. Damu Smith, the founder of the peace group, the African-American Network Against US Intervention in the Gulf, talks about the social forces that lead many African American to military service. Muhamad Abdul-Aleem is resident Imam of a Philadelphia Mosque.

Interview

Transcript

Transcript currently not available.

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.

You May Also like

Queue
26:51

Clay Blair on "The Forgotten War."

Military historian Clay Blair. His new book is titled The Forgotten War: America In Korea. As a reporter in the Fifties, Blair was the Washington correspondent for Time and Life magazines. He later wrote for The Saturday Evening Post. For the last 23 years, Blair has been writing military histories. In The Forgotten War, he tells how warfare changed during the Korean War, and how this war, a war that the United States didn't win, affected our military strategy.

Interview
Queue
14:23

'Sand Cafe' Offers Fictional Take on Gulf War Reporting

Journalist Neil MacFarquhar is a veteran Middle East foreign correspondent and was Cairo bureau chief for The New York Times. Next, he will cover Islam in North America for the Times. His new novel The Sand Cafe is set in Saudi Arabia and examines the day-to-day reporting life of foreign correspondents in the Middle East during the Gulf War.

Interview

Did you know you can create a shareable playlist?

Learn How
Advertisement

Recently on Fresh Air Available to Play on NPR

52:30

Daughter of Warhol star looks back on a bohemian childhood in the Chelsea Hotel

Alexandra Auder's mother, Viva, was one of Andy Warhol's muses. Growing up in Warhol's orbit meant Auder's childhood was an unusual one. For several years, Viva, Auder and Auder's younger half-sister, Gaby Hoffmann, lived in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. It was was famous for having been home to Leonard Cohen, Dylan Thomas, Virgil Thomson, and Bob Dylan, among others.

Queue

Related segments from the Fresh Air Archive:

43:04

This fake 'Jury Duty' really put James Marsden's improv chops on trial

In the series Jury Duty, a solar contractor named Ronald Gladden has agreed to participate in what he believes is a documentary about the experience of being a juror--but what Ronald doesn't know is that the whole thing is fake.

Queue

Related segments from the Fresh Air Archive:

See All Recent Segments

There are more than 22,000 Fresh Air segments.

Let us help you find exactly what you want to hear.
Just play me something
Your Queue

Would you like to make a playlist based on your queue?

Generate & Share View/Edit Your Queue