No component of government has a better affirmative action record than the United States Army. But that may change, making it more difficult to fulfill the Army’s motto: Be all you can be in the Army.

A federal judge ruled recently that the Army’s affirmative action program, long considered a model for government agencies and private corporations, “undeniably establishes a preference in favor of one race or gender over another, and therefore is unconstitutional.”

U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lambert, based in the nation’s capital, issued the ruling in a case brought by Raymond Saunders, a White retired lieutenant colonel who complained that he had been passed over twice for the rank of full colonel while he was on active duty. Several other cases of so-called “reverse discrimination” are pending.

Unless the ruling is overturned on appeal, it will have a major impact on the number of Black and female officers in the military. Largely because of affirmative action, Black and female representation throughout all service branches has increased. From 1977 to 1997, officers of color doubled from 7 percent to 15.3 percent. Over that same period, women officers jumped from 5.9 percent to 14.1 percent.

The recent decision underscores the role of federal judges as George W. Bush moves to pack the courts with Right-wing ideologues, many of them affiliated with the doctrinaire Federalist Society.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired Army general, says affirmative action helped him rise through the ranks and has also strengthened America’s military forces.

Writing in a book I edited, titled “The Affirmative Action Debate,” Charles Moskos, a Northwestern University professor who is an expert on military affairs, states: “There is an institution where affirmative action works, and works well – the U.S. Army. Not that the army is a racial utopia by any means. But nowhere else in American society has racial integration gone as far or black achievement been so pronounced.”

Moskos continues, “In no other organization are whites routinely bossed around by blacks. Affirmative action has been crucial in bringing about this positive state of affairs. It has also been key in our military’s unquestioned effectiveness.”

Although there has been major progress in the military, Blacks and women officers tend to be concentrated in the administration and supply areas rather than tactical operations, which supplies two-thirds of the generals and other top officers.

Unquestionably, some Whites who are passed over for a promotion, whether it’s in the Army or corporate America, figure the only reason they didn’t make it was because a “less qualified” person of color or woman got a promotion that should have gone to them. It’s hard for some White males to accept the reality that African-Americans and women may often be better qualified for a job than they are.

In virtually every case where a White male complains of “reverse discrimination,” other White males were also promoted ahead of those passed over. Yet, those left behind don’t file complaints against the White men, only Blacks and women, as though, by definition, we could not possibly be better qualified.

For the record, there is no such animal as “reverse discrimination.” Either a person is discriminated against or not. As Blacks who were so eager to serve their country during World War II and II that they were willing to fight in segregated units know, discrimination against Black soldiers was in “forward” gear, not reverse. And when those decorated African-American soldiers returned home, they still had to go to the back of the bus, be relegated to second-class citizenship and forced to live on the other side of the railroad tracks. Despite such gallantry in the early years of this nation, the military was not desegregated until President Harry S Truman signed an executive order in 1948.

Affirmative action was never designed to punish Whites for America’s sordid past. Rather, affirmative action is a conservative remedy to help compensate for decades of government-sanctioned negative action. It does not include quotas and merely considers race, gender or national origin, along with other factors, when evaluating qualified applicants for jobs, admission to college or to obtain tax-supported government contracts.

The Army’s affirmative action program, which has been modified – some would say made weaker since the time the White litigants served — seeks to have the ranks of its officers be as diverse as the troops they command.

As Professor Moskos notes, race and gender are among many factors considered by Army promotion boards.

“The board takes into consideration past assignments, physical standards, evaluation ratings, education and promotability to the next level after the one under consideration,” Moskos writes. “The strongest candidates are promoted quickly; the weakest are eliminated quickly.”

And when the strongest candidates are Blacks or women, the weaker White candidates attribute their failure to get promoted to “reverse discrimination.” That’s not “reverse discrimination,” it’s a process of reversing discrimination.