A lot of racism

I have told some stories where I ended up living my values, which was often hard when they clashed with those of my coworkers. The racism part I will always hang my head about. I wish I could have done something.

Early in my career, as a new member of the regiment, I started noticing antisemitism that I was too naive to understand. People would make gross holocaust jokes, and everyone would laugh, so I just thought of them as really gross jokes. Anyways, there was leadership present, so I figure it’s not too bad if my leadership doesn’t say anything.

I started seeing guys do nazi salutes in uniform. This was more hidden. What scared me was the fact they were doing it with snappy drill. Practiced.

I said nothing because I was frankly frightened. I knew that if I said something, I would be marked as untrusted, not part of the team. I knew that in a combat situation I would have to rely on these people, and I was scared of rocking the boat.

I was on tour in Afghanistan, in an artillery battery. There were three troops of guns, and one of them was way outside of the Canadian area of operations. They have a guy roll an ankle and I had to replace him for a few months. I get into my vehicle for the road move out to the FOB and start talking to one of the soldiers working with those guns. A young black man. He tells me that the warrant officer there is calling him Dan. Why, I asked? That’s not your name.

He tells me that Dan is the warrants way of calling him and Dumb Assed N*****. Dan for short. I think that I actually flinched. I’d heard rumours throughout the tour that there was a racism problem out there, but it was so hurtful to hear it from this guy.

I swore that if I saw something that I would say something. I never saw the two of them interact, so I never spoke up.

I went back to my usual position at the Kandahar airfield. A few weeks later this warrant officer, the one being accused, is taken from his troops, and placed at my desk. He’s now my immediate supervisor.

I never got the full story as to why he had to be replaced. Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding on my part, but I relate those events. In my mind he got fired from supervising troops over his racism. I totally understand that might not be the truth.

The guy being called Dan? Quit the army almost immediately after getting back.

The warrant officer? Put in charge of troops again like nothing ever happened.

There was never disciplinary action taken against anyone.