Inequality and the Military

MPRC faculty associate David Segal (Sociology) argues that ignoring military employment has ramifications for understanding racial inequality both inside and outside the military. Over 1.4 million people serve in the military and the military provides benefits for an additional 1.9 million dependents. In his Population Bulletin published by the Population Reference Bureau, Segal documents the disproportionate presence of racial and ethnic minorities in the military with African-American men being over-represented in the military by a factor of two and women by a factor of three. While African-American’s remain under-represented in the officer class, there has been growing equality in rank between African-Americans and whites in the military. Segal argues that the military is seen as one of the few employers in the U.S. with relative equality in economic outcomes. This has attracted increasing number of African-Americans, and more and more African-Americans with higher levels of skills. In more recent work, Segal considers what effect the increasing presence of African-Americans in the military has on estimates of racial disparities on civilian labor force statistics such as racial differences in young adult unemployment rates. He finds that the skimming of more talented African-Americans into the military over the past 35 years accounts for a substantial amount of the rise in measured racial differences in unemployment rates in the civilian labor force statistics.