Coast Guard Scholarship? In Your Face Discrimination

S

seeknulfind

New member
My youngest son is aiming to join the Coast Guard after we met a recruiter at a military recruiting event, where my eldest was exploring a possible application to West Point.

The CG recruiter was an interesting guy. They've got a great program. In addition, the CG boasts an extraordinarily high retention rate. This year, I encouraged my son to explore his college options as he is now a junior and should graduate with a HS diploma and an Associates degree in 2016. After dragging his feet, he finally talked to someone online and said the guy was "vague" about college. I decided to look up some stuff myself. What I found shocked me.

While the Coast Guard's scholarship program is excellent - one can only attend a "minority" college. You heard right - with a couple of exceptions (colleges in Guam and Hawaii) the list of CG approved colleges is entirely black, hispanic or "tribal" institutions. That's right, if a student plans to go to a "white" college - don't bother applying.

I'm not kidding. Here is page for the program

Of course my first thought was to bring this up to my elected representatives, but they already know all about it as this was brought to light in 2013. I found this World Net Daily article.

I have not been able to find out when this policy was put in place, but I have my suspicions. What sickens me is if the situation were reversed and these same colleges were excluded, the uproar would deafen us all.

With all this talk of racism, how can such policies be justified?
 
The more I think of this the madder I get. If it were me I'd stir the pot and not quit stirring until I was satisfied. I would enroll and if/when things go as you expect I'd hunt the best civil rights lawyer I could find and then proceed to sue the living shiz out of them. This crap needs to stop and stop now. If I can help you in any way please let me know.
 
Hi Slim,

Thank you for your thoughts and offer. Fighting this on an individual level will take a great deal of commitment and energy. My son would have to bear the brunt of that. I'm not sure he can or would do that. And when you think about it - this would be one heck of a sacrifice on his part. Even if he won, he would lose. He would be labeled as "that officer". The lawsuit would follow him everywhere. He's not a "limelight" kind of guy either.

In addition to this, think about what the overall effect of this program will be. The CG's intent is to swamp the guard with non-white officers. If they succeed they will create an environment hostile to all sides. I'm not sure I would want to be a part of such an organization, much less encourage my boy to enter that fray, much less fight his way in.

I did a bit more research on this. A historical perspective on the program is not easy to uncover. However it looks like this all started with GW Bush. He wrote the original executive orders directing the government to promote "diversity" (EO 13256 and others). It was the Admiral James Milton Loy, Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard from 1998 to 2002, who is credited by the NAACP for implementing this program.

It is wrong, immoral and illegal but it is merely a hint of what is wrong with our country. Anyone who suggests that the grand jury in Ferguson was correct is a racist as well as anyone who objects to this CG program.

Somehow the world has been turned upside down and inside out.
 
I tried to get help financially for school.I was finally told point blank that as a white young man I would never get help.I was told if I had been a Black woman they could have given me a full ride. This was in 1975.The race relations folks you see a lot on the news now are right.Not much has changed.
 
TH: Went through the same thing when looking for scholarships for my daughter(YEARS ago). You could get a free ride if you were black - period. White? forget it. They wanted us to sell our house to put her through college!!! Well, we got her through, debt free, on beans and weenies. It wasn't just one college doing this either. Listening to all this crap of woe is me and you owe me really dampens the relations when the above stuff still continues today - only worse.

We don't have issues with minorities. We DO, however, have major issues with allll that free stuff and the you owe me mentality. Its getting worse and not better!
 
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^All of the above.

My son graduated 11th in his HS class w/a 3.8 average. During his senior year, an announcement on the PA asked all minority students interested in a scholarship to a couple of Ivy League colleges to report to the office.

Well, since we lived on the border in a town which was about 85 % Hispanic, my son reported to the office. After all, his best subject was math.

Well, you guessed it, he was sent back to class because he was not considered a minority.

This BS of favoring ANY one race over another sucks!

Andy, if we could just figure out how we could get all of the above links posted somewhere w/o any link to your son and get folks from as many states as possible to send those links to their congresscritters maybe we could start something that had a chance to change this discriminatory practice??

Maybe get someone like Megan Kelly, Hannity or Bill O'Reily to report on the situation??

Just thinking out loud, but I'd sure spread the word and I'm sure others would, as well.

Regards,
hm
 
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You have misread the requirements.

Quote: Education: Be a sophomore or junior undergraduate student enrolled or accepted for enrollment in a bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university designated as: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
University of Guam
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu
Argosy Universtiy - Hawaii
Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Culture
Online degrees do not qualify.
CGRC may consider, on a case-by-case basis, schools not included in this section that have had a minority student population averaging at least 50% of the total student enrollment for the past three years.
 
Originally Posted By: dogcatcherYou have misread the requirements.

Quote: Education: Be a sophomore or junior undergraduate student enrolled or accepted for enrollment in a bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university designated as: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
University of Guam
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu
Argosy Universtiy - Hawaii
Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Culture
Online degrees do not qualify.
CGRC may consider, on a case-by-case basis, schools not included in this section that have had a minority student population averaging at least 50% of the total student enrollment for the past three years.



I think that last line indicates pretty clearly, given its context, that the Coast Guard is saving this scholarship explicitly for minorities. Or, at least those indoctrinated and sensitive to the minority way of thinking by association with large numbers of minorities or attendance of minority schools.
 
Originally Posted By: Rocky1Originally Posted By: dogcatcherYou have misread the requirements.

Quote: Education: Be a sophomore or junior undergraduate student enrolled or accepted for enrollment in a bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university designated as: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)
Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI)
Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU)
University of Guam
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Hilo and West Oahu
Argosy Universtiy - Hawaii
Institute of American Indian and Alaskan Native Culture
Online degrees do not qualify.
CGRC may consider, on a case-by-case basis, schools not included in this section that have had a minority student population averaging at least 50% of the total student enrollment for the past three years.



I think that last line indicates pretty clearly, given its context, that the Coast Guard is saving this scholarship explicitly for minorities. Or, at least those indoctrinated and sensitive to the minority way of thinking by association with large numbers of minorities or attendance of minority schools.

Our neighbor's grandson just started under this program in September and he is not a minority. I think if you go to the source you will understand it better.
 
Originally Posted By: Rocky1So which minority college does the neighbor's grandson plan to attend DC?

None, there is no requirement to attend a minority college. It is that big word OR that allowed him in to the program.
 
I wonder if you changed your name to Ali and claimed there was a 'ancestor' in the woodpile if you could claim minority status. Kind of like Warren claiming to be Cherokee. Even if your ancestor wasn't legally in your lineage you could claim to be a basteerd , who could prove otherwise?
 
Originally Posted By: dogcatcherOriginally Posted By: Rocky1So which minority college does the neighbor's grandson plan to attend DC?

None, there is no requirement to attend a minority college. It is that big word OR that allowed him in to the program.



OK... That's the catch. It has to be an "accredited college", or just any old college that favors minorities, regardless of whether they are accredited or not. That is likely how it should be interpreted, but it is written in such a manner it could easily be misconstrued; at least I can certainly see where a recruitor might interpret it otherwise.

Seek have you contacted the CGRC (Coast Guard Recruiting Command) for clarification on this?

Officers are usually liberal in nature, often don't have a clue what's going on, especially those in personell. You might want to look up the Master Chief linked on this page - http://www.uscg.mil/psc/ - and see if you could borrow a little of his time to chat about this, and find out who to talk too. There is also a Coast Guard Recruiting Command link bottom of the page there, and a Chat Link on that page.

Also found the link below if he wants to pursue officer status, there's quite a bit of info therein, along with several other links on scholarships and acceptance to the Coast Guard Academy.

http://www.gocoastguard.com/sites/default/files/uploads/o-jak_26april2014_1_0.pdf
 
Thank everyone here for their thoughts on this.

Dogcatcher, I understand what you pointed out and I can see this sentence can be read a couple of different ways...

Quote:student enrolled or accepted for enrollment in a bachelor degree program at an accredited college or university designated as: Historically Black Colleges and Universities

This is a complex sentence, however I believe the very beginning of the list is clarification enough.

First it says an "accredited college or university designated..." and you suggest this means (any) "accredited college OR a university designated as...."

Sorry, this does not say that at all. If it did, the sentence would make zero sense after "Historically Black Colleges and Universities"

It would be interesting to know what school this student is attending. If it is not one of the ones described above, it would be even more interesting to find out how he got there.

Rocky,

My son did try to talk to a recruiter but he was rather clueless. This seems to be the norm among military and the Coast Guard, we had similar issues getting straight answers when my eldest was looking at ROTC. Different questions, of course, but a certain lack of understanding and/or the ability to communicate their understanding.

HM,

Media scrutiny may well be a force here. I doubt the politicians will do anything without it. However considering Benghazi, the IRS, Immigration, Cuba, O's unilateral climate concessions to China, Fast and Furious, and so on... how much play can one expect this to get and why should be expect anything more than the admin to turn up their collars and weather this squall?

Andy
 
Well one thing that keeps jumping out at me is the line that reads, "CGRC may consider, on a case-by-case basis..." Meaning that Coast Goard Recruiting Command may have some room for discretion in this matter, and if you show enough interest they might find a little more room.

Were it me, I'd definitely sit down and drop that Master Chief a line and see what his take on that mess is. All you're out is the time to draft the letter, if you CC a copy to your Congressman and Senator, you'll be more inclined to get a reply, although the Master Chief will be more inclined to cite the book if you do that. I'd start with a personal letter to him, and if it seems to get lost on his desk, then I'd CC a copy to your representatives. Can't hurt anything, and if the cost of the stamps and envelopes opens the door...

As for the recruiter, most are yo-yos! They put them through a 16 week sales course. Same crash course in sales Used Car Salesmen go through. Met a bunch of them in life, and not very [beeep] many of them know much of anything about cars except what the sticker on the window says. Anyone with even a little knowledge can weed out the BS in their sales pitch. Same holds true on recruiters. I'd dig a little harder before giving up altogether, and if you don't find the answers you want, I'd climb square in the middle of my Representatives' collective asses and ask why this discrimination is allowed to take place.
 
Hi Rocky,

The line you pointed out is one I did not see. Thanks for directing my attention to it and for your wise advice. I will do exactly that.

Andy
 
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