Race Bias Alleged in Army Sex Probe

The investigations into sexual misconduct in the Army have taken an unexpected turn over a second anguishing issue: race.

Black leaders in Maryland are objecting that all 13 men facing charges in the scandal at Aberdeen Proving Ground are black, while the great majority of their accusers are white women. They contend that black men also have been disproportionately accused in the Army cases pending elsewhere around the country, although no official racial breakdowns are available to corroborate this.

The highest-profile sexual misconduct case, concerning Sergeant Major of the Army Gene C. McKinney--the most senior enlisted man in the service--does involve a white woman’s accusations against a black man.

“This raises the old images of black men and white women that we just don’t need in this day and age,” said Janice E. Grant of the Harford County, Md., NAACP, who has called for a civilian investigation. “The numbers here just don’t add up.”

The allegations of racism are likely to further complicate the Army’s efforts to resolve the sexual harassment investigations in a way that is politically, as well as legally, satisfactory. Top Army officials have vowed to make every effort to show that the institution has “zero tolerance” for misconduct against women, who now make up 20% of recruits.

The race issue is likely to be raised in some of the specific Aberdeen cases, Army sources said. Some of the men accused of sexual misconduct there believe that the Army has overlooked similar infractions by white men.

Army officials Monday denied all suggestions that their actions were influenced by race. They said that the charges against the accused were based on the Army’s interviews with nearly 1,000 women stationed at Aberdeen, as well as on the allegations of other women who telephoned an Army hotline set up to handle complaints of sexual misconduct in the service.

“The only thing the Army targets are enemy soldiers,” said one Army officer.

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A large share of the Army’s noncommissioned officers are African American. And although the Aberdeen ordnance school has a particularly large share of black NCOs, the fact that all the accused men at Aberdeen are black does appear to be disproportionate.

About 30% of enlisted soldiers and more than one-third of sergeants are black. At the Aberdeen school, where soldiers learn to handle munitions, heavy trucks and other gear, more than half the drill instructors and faculty members are minorities, the Army said.

Army officials said that, although most accusers are white, that mirrors the racial breakdown of soldiers at the school: Trainees are about 58% white, 30% black, and 12% Latino and “other.”

The only Aberdeen accuser who has gone public, former private Jessica Beckley, is white.

In addition to the 13 men formally accused at Aberdeen, seven more are under investigation. NAACP officials said that none of these men is white; Army officials declined to comment.

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Officials said that at Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo., two sergeants have been jailed for sexual misconduct and a third has been acquitted of charges. One of the jailed sergeants is white and the second is Latino. The acquitted man is black, officials said.

Leroy Warren Jr., an NAACP national board member from Montgomery County, Md., said that the group “isn’t in the business of protecting people who have committed crimes.” But he said the authorities “aren’t getting the white guys. There’s a dual system of justice at the Pentagon and in this country.”

Warren also accused military authorities of trying to keep female soldiers from backing away from some allegations that they know are founded on faulty information.

Some women activists said they believe the NAACP’s charges are worthy of further investigation.