Ashley Mcentire Yesterday Sep 15 at 6:59pm Manage Discussion Entry Dr. Stubbs and Class, Good evening. I pray all is well with each of you as we continue to move through this course. We are getting...

Dr. Stubbs and Class,

Good evening. I pray all is well with each of you as we continue to move through this course. We are getting closer to starting our other journey. Rooting for you all! My area of interest honestly is equality for women and minorities in all areas of careers especially in the military. This is important to me because I have experienced sexism and racism in the military where I thought everyone would be accepted regardless of who they are and where they come from. That is something that I loved when I joined. We all got issued the same thing and we knew what our paycheck would be. Little did I know that there were people in the military who did not want women in the military and for sure certain ethnicities. The more I get promoted the more I have experienced it all the more, I do not know if the issue is that I am in charge and I can communicate effectively with them and sometimes run circles around them about topics that they think I should not know. I used to want to have some other goals, but each year I am more reluctant to continue after 20. I am truly grateful that everyone is not like that and that I am able to make a difference where others are not able to. I just pray that eventually it gets better. To be honest I am very passionate about anyone being discriminated against because life is hard for everyone. We do not need or want people not giving people a fair shake from the beginning because of their gender or because of their ethnicity. The question that I have is what and how do we identify these people that are racist and sexiast and not allow them to be in the military or serve the military in any capacity? The experts in this field are people who receive complaints such as the Inspector General Office and Equal Opportunity Office. The best resources honestly would be the military personnel that are minorities for sure and women, but this might not apply to all women or minorities in the military. I think asking those questions that not many want to talk about because of the fear of reprisal or backlash that comes with it. For instance, men reply when asked to be in a man’s job now. First of all I never asked for some of the things that women are now allowed to do such as Ranger, infantry, Field Artillery, or anything else. I think that some are at the point where they feel like they are being replaced and feel weak compared to some women. I believe that we just have to meet people where they are and if women want to do a job that involves heavy lifting and other things let them. If men want to do things that were once viewed as feminie let them. If more people focused on where we are now and not the past I truly believe the military would be better and us as a country would as well. I apologize if my discussion went long, but this is the truth and I am speaking it. I look forward to a conversation with anyone.

Ashley-Chrisitna