Army Unit Has 'Racial Thursdays' Tradition To Relieve Stress Of Not Being Racist The Other Days

Who is in trouble for racism this time? Oh, hello, it is a platoon of soldiers at Fort Wainwright in Alaska who have allegedly been holding an unauthorized "Racial Thursdays" event, where everybody gets to say all the awful racist shit that they've been thinking the whole week, but have had to swallow, due to the pressures of being civilized human beings:

The Army is investigating allegations that a platoon of soldiers was given a free pass to use racial slurs against each other during what was known as "Racial Thursdays."

[...]

"When I first got to my unit, someone said we should do 'Racial Thursdays' because it's been a tradition," said the soldier, who asked to remain anonymous. "It's something they made up where you can say any racist remark you want without any consequences. The platoon sergeant said no, but the shit is still going on."

The soldier, a staff sergeant, added: "It's degrading to the soldiers. We've had soldiers almost fight over the crap that's going on here."

The NCO, who is black, said no one has directed any racial slurs towards him because he made it clear he would not participate or put up with the practice.

But he also said he felt compelled to bring the issue to the media because the unit "has a bad habit of sweeping things under the rug."

Now look, we know that the military is kind of a place with Different Rules when it comes to what can be said in mixed company. They are all packed in there together, sometimes in war zones, and from hearing stories from many soldiers and Marines and Navyboys and what-have you, we know that often what flies within their little spaces would never fly in the real world. But really, guys, RACIAL THURSDAYS? Especially when you have black folks in there who are saying, "No, actually, this is not cool, this is not in fact contributing to good morale, it makes us hate it here"?

Jesus.

Also, too, the Army Times points out that this is the very same unit where a Chinese-American soldier actually killed himself, due at least in part to racist hazing at the hands of the men with whom he was supposed to be building camaraderie:

The unit where "Racial Thursdays" allegedly took place is the same unit that Pvt. Danny Chen belonged to.

Chen, who belonged to C Company, committed suicide Oct. 3, 2011, while deployed to Afghanistan. Authorities said Chen killed himself because he was hazed over his Chinese ancestry.

Chen was called names while in training, then was subjected to hazing after he was deployed to Afghanistan, according to his family. On the day of his death, Chen was forced to crawl about 100 yards across gravel carrying his equipment while his fellow soldiers threw rocks at him, the family said.

A spokesman for the group claims that the two are not related, but also points out that this tradition of "Racial Thursdays" has the full support of the platoon leader, who actually thinks it's a Good Thing for the troops' morale, though all interviewed for the article who happen to be minorities seem to disagree. Huh! Perhaps there is a pattern of racism in this chain of command that needs to be addressed, and maybe they could come up with some morale builders that don't only apply to the White Dudes? Just asking.

Maybe Macaroni and Cheese Fridays or something? Everybody likes mac 'n' cheese! Or this one game we heard about that's played in the Navy (true fact, according to our Wonkette secret Navy veteran operative) called Gay Chicken, where they aggressively bump dudes' hands with their crotches, or otherwise find a way to place their junk in another dude's soft hands, and then say "HEY WHAT THE FUCK BRO?" Apparently this game could get very predatory, but at least it was consensual and AT LEAST THE BLACK GUYS COULD PLAY TOO.

[ Army Times ]