US Army explodes stereotypes.

In 1961, after his obligatory service, Colin Powell could have left the US Army. He didn't, the General writes in his autobiography, My American Journey, because `for a black no other avenue in American society offered so much opportunity'.

That still applies. There are, for instance, 8,000 black officers including 24 generals in the US Army, with another 11 generals in the Reserve and the National Guard. In civilian life the homicide rate for blacks is 12 times higher than in the army. Most significantly, observers are noting that the army--with its absolute commitment to non-discrimination, coupled with uncompromising standards of performance--has something to teach the rest of the country about race relations.

In 1948 President Truman signed an Executive Order ending segregation in the armed forces. `Beginning in the Fifties, less discrimination, a truer merit system and leveller playing fields existed inside the gates of military posts than in any southern city or northern corporation,' writes Powell. `The army, therefore, made it easier for me to love my country with all its flaws and to serve her with all my heart.'

However, in the 1970s, after the Vietnam War, when army morale was at a low point, racial strife reached epidemic proportions. Realizing that solving the race problem was critical to its survival, the military set in motion steps that have led to dramatic change. At that time only three per cent of officers were black. In the next 20 years this grew to 11 per cent.

The details of how the army changed conditions can be gleaned from an important new book, All that we can be--black leadership and racial integration the army way, by Charles C Moskos and John Sibley Butler, two of the foremost authorities on the subject. Published by Basic Books, it should be required reading for those involved in race relations.

`Over the past two decades,' they write, `the army has become the most successfully integrated institution in America--from the ranks of the lowliest privates to the highest level of command ... achieved without resort to numerical quotas or manipulation of test scores, nor has the promotion of blacks engendered the racial resentment that has become common in business, government and higher education.' Even the description sometimes applied to 11 o'clock Sunday morning, `the most segregated hour in America', does not apply to the army.

The authors say that the army is the only place in America where blacks routinely boss whites around. They make the interesting point that black advancement does not depend on the absence of racists in an organization, so long as channels of opportunity exist for minorities. One of the Army's most significant lessons for race relations, they add, is that disadvantaged youths can be made to meet demanding standards.

They record the fact that even in the gruelling deployments to the Gulf, Somalia or Haiti there was not a single racial incident severe enough to come to the attention of the military police. And they recommend the introduction of some kind of national service which could replicate the benefits in race relations that are now largely limited to the military. They even suggest that the growth of a black underclass might in some way be connected to the end of conscription.

Both authors were draftees and are professors of sociology. Butler, who is black, is the fourth generation of his family to receive a college degree; Moskos, who is white, is the first in his family to complete secondary school.

So much for stereotypes!