thedrifter
04-19-08, 08:26 AM
Marine tells story of racism in the Corps
By: Ryan Sullivan
Posted: 4/18/08
Capt. Bruce Yama****a spent five years waiting to be a Marine.
Yama****a, a third generation Japanese American, had to rally a team of lawyers and citizens around him to do it.
He came to the University yesterday to discuss his struggles in the face of racial discrimination, a five-year court case and his eventual victory.
"In his case, it was a long and respectable fight, but he earned those things he worked for," said Timothy Messer-Kruse, the chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies.
The presentation began with a screening of "A Most Unlikely Hero," a film produced and directed by former CBS producer Stephen Okino, that told his story.
The film described Yama****a's decision to join the Marines and his fight to serve his country.
Yama****a, whose visit was part of the Department of Ethnic Studies' annual justice series, decided to join the Marines after graduating from law school. He then started facing harassment from staff and officials, dealing with such injustices as being told by a sergeant that they didn't want "his kind," being called names and people speaking to him in broken Japanese.
Before he went to be evaluated, a staff sergeant ordered him to change into a dirty uniform when he went to the review board so he wouldn't graduate. As a result of how he showed up, he was disenrolled from the program two days before graduation.
This left him in a "poor position" because he had spent nine months going through this training. Not only was he ordered disenrolled, he also wasn't a lawyer either because he never took the bar exam.
Unwilling to accept the injustice perpetrated against him, Yama****a used the Freedom of Information Act to get minority drop out rates for the previous eight years. He found statistics showing that minorities were more likely to drop out and were being disenrolled at significantly higher rates than whites.
With statistics in hand, he decided to file a lawsuit against the Marine Corps for institutional racial discrimination, eventually winning the case.
"It took so long, it just went on and on," Yama****a said. "There would be a flurry of activity and then nothing for, like, seven months. I just never knew when it was going to end."
He said that waiting was the hardest part of the ordeal, not only because of the mounting pressure on him but also because the military was stonewalling him and hoping he would eventually just give up and go away.
"We went through numerous lawyers and part of it was that everyone was working for free," Yama****a said. "If we had to pay, it would have probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if not a million."
There were fundraisers held to raise money but he said that if money needed to be spent for a plane ticket to New York on a given day, he was one of the people to put their money up for the trip.
He said the entire experience was a very long, difficult trip and he did feel like he learned a lot.
"It was kind of like guerilla warfare in a sense," Yama****a said. "We had no structure or funding and we had to be creative."
In the midst of the lawsuit, "60 Minutes" ran a segment outlining the policy. During the segment, there was a portion of an interview shown where a member of the Officer Candidate School talked about how minority candidates weren't as good as Caucasian recruits when it comes to shooting, navigation and planning.
The lawsuit ended up in favor of Yama****a and he said it was a tremendous relief when he was finally named a Captain in the Marine Corps.
Sophomore Chris Nguyen, president of Asian Communities United, said he felt empowered by Yama****a's presentation.
"It gives me a sense of relief and lifts a burden off me in a way," Nguyen said.
It's refreshing to know that Nguyen and his future children will never have to deal with the things Yama****a faced, the University sophomore said.
Editor in Chief Lisa Halverstadt contributed reporting.
Ellie
By: Ryan Sullivan
Posted: 4/18/08
Capt. Bruce Yama****a spent five years waiting to be a Marine.
Yama****a, a third generation Japanese American, had to rally a team of lawyers and citizens around him to do it.
He came to the University yesterday to discuss his struggles in the face of racial discrimination, a five-year court case and his eventual victory.
"In his case, it was a long and respectable fight, but he earned those things he worked for," said Timothy Messer-Kruse, the chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies.
The presentation began with a screening of "A Most Unlikely Hero," a film produced and directed by former CBS producer Stephen Okino, that told his story.
The film described Yama****a's decision to join the Marines and his fight to serve his country.
Yama****a, whose visit was part of the Department of Ethnic Studies' annual justice series, decided to join the Marines after graduating from law school. He then started facing harassment from staff and officials, dealing with such injustices as being told by a sergeant that they didn't want "his kind," being called names and people speaking to him in broken Japanese.
Before he went to be evaluated, a staff sergeant ordered him to change into a dirty uniform when he went to the review board so he wouldn't graduate. As a result of how he showed up, he was disenrolled from the program two days before graduation.
This left him in a "poor position" because he had spent nine months going through this training. Not only was he ordered disenrolled, he also wasn't a lawyer either because he never took the bar exam.
Unwilling to accept the injustice perpetrated against him, Yama****a used the Freedom of Information Act to get minority drop out rates for the previous eight years. He found statistics showing that minorities were more likely to drop out and were being disenrolled at significantly higher rates than whites.
With statistics in hand, he decided to file a lawsuit against the Marine Corps for institutional racial discrimination, eventually winning the case.
"It took so long, it just went on and on," Yama****a said. "There would be a flurry of activity and then nothing for, like, seven months. I just never knew when it was going to end."
He said that waiting was the hardest part of the ordeal, not only because of the mounting pressure on him but also because the military was stonewalling him and hoping he would eventually just give up and go away.
"We went through numerous lawyers and part of it was that everyone was working for free," Yama****a said. "If we had to pay, it would have probably cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if not a million."
There were fundraisers held to raise money but he said that if money needed to be spent for a plane ticket to New York on a given day, he was one of the people to put their money up for the trip.
He said the entire experience was a very long, difficult trip and he did feel like he learned a lot.
"It was kind of like guerilla warfare in a sense," Yama****a said. "We had no structure or funding and we had to be creative."
In the midst of the lawsuit, "60 Minutes" ran a segment outlining the policy. During the segment, there was a portion of an interview shown where a member of the Officer Candidate School talked about how minority candidates weren't as good as Caucasian recruits when it comes to shooting, navigation and planning.
The lawsuit ended up in favor of Yama****a and he said it was a tremendous relief when he was finally named a Captain in the Marine Corps.
Sophomore Chris Nguyen, president of Asian Communities United, said he felt empowered by Yama****a's presentation.
"It gives me a sense of relief and lifts a burden off me in a way," Nguyen said.
It's refreshing to know that Nguyen and his future children will never have to deal with the things Yama****a faced, the University sophomore said.
Editor in Chief Lisa Halverstadt contributed reporting.
Ellie