A study done in 1980 found that Blacks were less likely to join the US military than Whites from 1940 -1973. In fact in 1940 Blacks made up only 1% of the US military. It does not take a study or great deal of imagination to figure out why this was the case.
The percentage of Blacks in the military reached a high of 28% in 1979 and was around 24% in 2000. By 2006 the number had dropped to 13%. This number was back up to 17% in 2010.
There appears to be some pretty wild fluctuations in the percentage of Blacks in the US military and these changes may correspond to how Blacks feel about their place in the country at a particular time.
Many military age Black people, including some enlisted now, may not feel very good about their place in the US now given this Zimmerman verdict and also the recent Supreme Court's Voting Rights act decision. The Zimmerman case has become a cause celebre.
I already heard two Trayvon Martin themed songs on the way to work this morning. We can expect to hear many Hip Hop songs dedicated to Trayvon in the coming weeks and months. There may be some anti-US songs also. The people who will be most affected by this coming new music will be military aged .
If "what is past is prologue" we could be at the beginning of another precipitous drop in Blacks who are willing to join or reenlist with the US military and if so someone will have to take their place on the battlefields.