Minorities pay heavy toll in Iraq
It is unfortunate that 38 young New Yorkers have already been killed in the Iraq war.
And now that, in full electoral mode, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are again trying to put the blindfold back over the eyes of Americans, only God knows how many more will be lost.
That is why a three-part series by Eva Sanchis, a reporter for the Spanish-language daily El Diario-La Prensa, published last month, is so important.
Sanchis shines a powerful light on the disproportionate contribution in blood and guts of immigrant and minority communities to this senseless war. According to her second article, dated Aug. 29, of the 38 New Yorkers killed, 21 were Hispanic, eight black, four Asian and five white.
"The impact of the war on minority communities has been brutal," Sanchis said. The figures "confirm that minorities are making a greater sacrifice."
A large number of the dead are immigrants, although the rabid anti-immigration crowd conveniently ignores this fact. Directly related to this tragic toll are Sanchis' findings about how intense recruitment efforts are in minority communities.
"An analysis of the location of the Armed Forces' 26 recruitment centers in the city, listed in their Web page, show that most are located in the poorest neighborhoods."
Recruiters find fertile ground there.
"Poor young people need work, training, scholarships, but these are so scarce that they join the military not realizing that this is an institution created for war and not an employment program," said Anne Durston, of the pacifist organization American Friends Service Committee.
Three of the five recruitment centers in the Bronx are in the South Bronx; six of eight in Brooklyn are in Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Fort Green, East New York and Greenpoint, and the four in Queens are in the immigrant neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Flushing, Jamaica and Long Island City. In Manhattan, three of six centers are in Hispanic and black areas.
In Morris Heights, in the South Bronx, 58 people joined one of the three branches in 2004.
"Yet, in the upper East Side, the richest neighborhood in the city, which is 77% white and has a per-capita income of $67,010, only seven people enlisted in 2004," Sanchis said. Not one center is located in this area.
An Armed Forces spokesperson told Sanchis that they "are not trying to go after any specific ethnic groups."
But Sanchis disagrees. She quotes 2004 Defense Department statistics published by the American Friends Service Committee's Peacework Magazine: Although 51% of city residents are Hispanic and black, a whopping 70.4% of the recruits in 2004 belonged to these two groups. Hispanics made up 37% of the recruits and blacks 33.4%.
The series struck a nerve with El Diario readers. Sanchiz has received an inordinate amount of e-mails and phone calls. Some, like a Dominican father who we will not identify, shared their own bitter experience with the recruitment tactics.
"My only son was seduced three months ago and joined, but by what I read in his letters he is tired of the Army. I don't know where they are sending him. The sergeant who recruited him told me that it would be for only three months.
"From the day he left I have been in great pain, he is my only son. I would like to get in touch with some groups that oppose this kind of recruitment. Please, send me their addresses if at all possible. Thank you."
Let Sanchis' findings be a wakeup call for immigrant and minority young people and their parents all over the city.
It is unfortunate that 38 young New Yorkers have already been killed in the Iraq war.
And now that, in full electoral mode, President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld are again trying to put the blindfold back over the eyes of Americans, only God knows how many more will be lost.
That is why a three-part series by Eva Sanchis, a reporter for the Spanish-language daily El Diario-La Prensa, published last month, is so important.
Sanchis shines a powerful light on the disproportionate contribution in blood and guts of immigrant and minority communities to this senseless war. According to her second article, dated Aug. 29, of the 38 New Yorkers killed, 21 were Hispanic, eight black, four Asian and five white.
"The impact of the war on minority communities has been brutal," Sanchis said. The figures "confirm that minorities are making a greater sacrifice."
A large number of the dead are immigrants, although the rabid anti-immigration crowd conveniently ignores this fact. Directly related to this tragic toll are Sanchis' findings about how intense recruitment efforts are in minority communities.
"An analysis of the location of the Armed Forces' 26 recruitment centers in the city, listed in their Web page, show that most are located in the poorest neighborhoods."
Recruiters find fertile ground there.
"Poor young people need work, training, scholarships, but these are so scarce that they join the military not realizing that this is an institution created for war and not an employment program," said Anne Durston, of the pacifist organization American Friends Service Committee.
Three of the five recruitment centers in the Bronx are in the South Bronx; six of eight in Brooklyn are in Crown Heights, Flatbush, East Flatbush, Fort Green, East New York and Greenpoint, and the four in Queens are in the immigrant neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Flushing, Jamaica and Long Island City. In Manhattan, three of six centers are in Hispanic and black areas.
In Morris Heights, in the South Bronx, 58 people joined one of the three branches in 2004.
"Yet, in the upper East Side, the richest neighborhood in the city, which is 77% white and has a per-capita income of $67,010, only seven people enlisted in 2004," Sanchis said. Not one center is located in this area.
An Armed Forces spokesperson told Sanchis that they "are not trying to go after any specific ethnic groups."
But Sanchis disagrees. She quotes 2004 Defense Department statistics published by the American Friends Service Committee's Peacework Magazine: Although 51% of city residents are Hispanic and black, a whopping 70.4% of the recruits in 2004 belonged to these two groups. Hispanics made up 37% of the recruits and blacks 33.4%.
The series struck a nerve with El Diario readers. Sanchiz has received an inordinate amount of e-mails and phone calls. Some, like a Dominican father who we will not identify, shared their own bitter experience with the recruitment tactics.
"My only son was seduced three months ago and joined, but by what I read in his letters he is tired of the Army. I don't know where they are sending him. The sergeant who recruited him told me that it would be for only three months.
"From the day he left I have been in great pain, he is my only son. I would like to get in touch with some groups that oppose this kind of recruitment. Please, send me their addresses if at all possible. Thank you."
Let Sanchis' findings be a wakeup call for immigrant and minority young people and their parents all over the city.
