Army Master Sgt. Marvin B. Morgan, the 504th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade’s equal opportunity advisor, is a full-time soldier — and a football coach when he is not soldiering.

Currently deployed to Afghanistan, the Killeen, Texas, resident already is planning the next big move in his coaching career.

Morgan, who has coached 9- to 11-year-olds in Killeen since 2001, said he has wonderful memories from his time on the sideline and feels his time as a coach has been successful.

“Success for me isn’t necessarily measured in wins and losses,” Morgan said. “It’s being able to watch a kid who doesn’t know how to play at first, and by the end of the year, you see they have a skill set they can build upon.

“Last year, we had 23 kids on the team, and 15 of them had never played football in their life. Of the eight other players, only five of them had played more than one year,” he continued. “To bring them together and try to build a cohesive team and win a game, … that’s the challenge I like.”

Morgan said he likes to instill qualities in his young players that many do not see until they are much older. His message goes beyond football.

“You aren’t just an athlete, you are a student-athlete,” he said. “To play for Coach Morgan, you are a student first. If you can’t get it right in the classroom, you’re not going to be able to get it right on the football field. Therefore, you can’t play for me.”

When children learn about the student-athlete concept early on, Morgan said, they will be better able to handle it when they get to the level where it is required, such as high school and college.

Another area he focuses on as a coach is discipline. “To know the right snap count, to be able to know and run the right plays, it all takes discipline,” he said. “It’s hard to be disciplined in that if you aren’t disciplined at home or in the classroom.”

Morgan said he has had a lot of rewarding experiences, but the most rewarding he has had as a coach, so far, is to hear about how his players have matured academically and socially.

“To see a kid who I had at 9, 10 and 11 years old, and now they are 14 to 16 years old and they still remember what you did for them when they played for you,” he said, “those kids will always remember what Coach Morgan taught them: to play like a champion.

“But to play like a champion, you have to practice like a champion, you have to think like a champion, and you have to act like a champion,” he added. “You can’t just go play like a champion. There are things a champion does to become a champion.”

When Morgan returns from his deployment, he said, he hopes to coach one more year at the 9-to-11-year-old level, then move up to middle school football. “I feel like I’ve mastered the age group I coach now, so I’d like to see what I can do with older kids,” he said.

Morgan, who has a master’s degree in education, said that when he decides to retire from the military, he would like to apply to become an assistant principal at a middle school and coach football at the school, which he said would help him to positively influence the students on and off the football field.

His objective as a leader and football coach, he said, is to “ensure that each child underneath the reflection of my voice becomes a better person, student, and player of the best game ever played.”

As I was eating my kids’ Count Chocula cereal today, I opened my newspaper to this article. The article stated that it identified a whopping 40 personal profiles “of people who list the military as their occupation” on the site “New Saxon.” The website – which I won’t link to – defines itself as:

New Saxon is a Social Networking site for people of European descent where users may enjoy many great features which will enable fun interaction among members. Hot topics of interest include defending the rights of white people, preservation of European culture and heritage, reform of illegal immigration policies, workers rights, withdrawal of our military from an illegal Middle Eastern occupation and promotion of white separation.

Now, barring those last two words, is this such a bad thing? Granted I disagree, but I don’t see this as extremist. If that were the case then our President is an extremist. Remember, he belonged to a church for 20 years whose vision contained “a non-negotiable COMMITMENT TO AFRICA.” For 20 years, Obama subscribed to the school of thought that “the highest level of achievement for any Black person must be a contribution of strength and continuity of the Black Community.”

Black Entertainment Television (BET) defines itself as “the leading provider of media and entertainment for African Americans and consumers of Black culture globally.” Nothing in there about European Americans, Caucasions, Hispanic Americans, etc. Meanwhile, New Saxon describes itself as an “online community for whites by whites.” Can someone please tell me how one is extremist and one is not?

Looking through the message boards on BET, I see black people referring to white people as “the Devil.” There is a long dissertation of how the white man came to being on “the black man’s planet.” Yet another poster calls white people “a virus on the planet.” However, nowhere in this article do I see Morris Dees (interestingly a white person) complaining about BET or BlackPlanet.com, another online community strictly for black people. Dees is probably wrapped in some unfounded guilt about being a white person and trying make reparations.

The military is not a breeding ground for racism. When we find it within the military, we quickly get rid of it. The military is the one place I’ve seen where whites, black, hispanics, etc co-exist peacefully and on equal footing. I don’t see color in the military and I don’t think most people do. Growing up in a military environment, people were people regardless of their skin color. Our members are free to have their own opinions on any wide range of topics. Some belong to all white sites and some belong to all black sites. There are black people who can’t stand white people and white people who can’t stand black people. Both types of people are wrong in their thoughts and behavior. Being a cross section of this country, it’s bound to happen. Yet, those feeling projected outward are not welcome within our ranks.

LTC Les Melnyk, a Pentagon spokesman, spoke correctly when responding to Dees on this issue. The current policy is cut and dry and Congress does not need to meddle further in troop level policies.

“We believe the policy…is broad and inclusive in its definition of ‘active participation,’ and encourages commanders to pursue and weed out service members who actively participate in these types of groups,” Melnyk said.

The problem, I think, is that “white-only” groups are being perceived as racist and extremist while “black-only” groups are not. Where is the equal opportunity in that?

Today my brigade EO Advisor held a large-scale EO class in one of the base gyms. The theme of the EO class: White people are the root of all evil and minorities are God’s chosen people. OK that was a bit exaggerated. Or was it?

In any case, the EO Advisor presented numerous vignettes that the class had to determine if the vignettes contained EO violations. As I suspected, every one of the vignettes dealt with white Soldiers as the adversary and minority Soldiers as their victims. In my 15+ year military career, without exception, I have never had an EO class present vignettes that dealt with white Soldiers as victims of an EO violation. But then again, the Army’s definition of racism is written in such a way that only white Soldiers can be racist anyway. So it makes perfect sense.

This EO Advisor loves to pat himself on the back as he enlightens me about his quest for diversity and EO issues. I told him on several occasions that he should diversify his training by including some minority on majority examples of racism but he refused to do it as demonstrated by his class today.

If the Army’s EO Program focuses so much attention on teaching minority Soldiers that they are powerless victims of racism at the hands of white Soldiers, then this becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. I feel this is exactly what the Army’s EO Program wants. Over a year ago I had two black Soldiers in my shop that would complain whenever it was their turn to vacuum the office floor. A common complaint I heard from them was, “I have to vacuum the floor because I am black.” They failed to realize that all the other Soldiers in the office shared the responsibility. They failed to see this because the Army’s EO Program teaches them that they are victims. I am sure that the NCOIC would have fried if the two black Soldiers made an EO complaint about vacuuming the floor.

How are white Soldiers affected by this self fulfilling prophecy? Many white Soldiers start to believe that they are the root to all evil and all minority deviant behavior is actually caused by whites. A white Soldier once said in an EO class, “I wish I can take off my white skin and give it to the black Soldiers in the class.” I am sure the EO Advisor running the class was very proud to know that his tactic is working. I brought this theory of mine up to my brigade EO Advisor and all he could say was, “White Privilege.” So therefore, the Army’s EO Program is the antidote for white privilege.

Where does the Army EO Program get the idea of white privilege? Where does the Army EO Program get this twisted form of minority victimhood? Where does the Army EO Program get the idea that only whites can be racist? Does it come from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI)? DEOMI is the institution where the Army’s EO Advisors become qualified to be EO Advisors. Earlier this year, DEOMI invited me to their 7^th Biennial Equal Opportunity, Diversity, and Culture Research Symposium to speak about the Army’s Un-Equal Opportunity Program. I thought the school and attendees of the symposium was set out to tar and feather me for speaking so harshly about their beloved EO Program. But that was not the case. DEOMI and all but one attendee were very receptive. One of the instructors told me he understood my frustrations with the Army EO Program but he insured me that DEOMI does not teach the idea that only whites can be racist. I tend to believe him. Maybe I am suffering from a form of Stockholm Syndrome.

Is the Army EO Program the antidote to white privilege? What are your thoughts?

So what is my interpretation of the Army’s Equal Opportunity Program? Simple: the Army’s Equal Opportunity Program, as it is being applied currently in the Army, is illegal and itself is reminiscent of an extremist organization.

For example, critical terms such as “racism,” “prejudice,” and “discrimination” are defined in such a way that only white Soldiers can be racist, prejudice, and act out discrimination; minorities are completely exempt. According to several equal opportunity advisors in Korea, and the numerous equal opportunity-related publications, minority Soldiers cannot be racist because they do not have power to be racist. A brigade equal opportunity advisor once told me that, “Blacks cannot be racist because it isn’t in their nature to be racist.” The Equal Opportunity Representative Course even writes, “minorities, who lack power and institutional support, cannot practice racism…”

Even though minorities do not have “power”, they do have special privileges that white Soldiers do not have. For example, minority Soldiers are allowed to celebrate their heritages while white Soldiers cannot celebrate their heritage. There is Black History Month, Asian History Month, but no White History Month. The closest there is to that is Saint Patrick’s Day, but that isn’t an official celebration like all the other minority celebrations are. There are also official military awards for minorities such as the Blacks in Government Meritorious Service Award, the DoD National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Roy Wilkins Renown Service Award, and the DoD League of United Latin American Citizens Excellence in Military Service Award. Even though the criteria does not specifically require a Black-American or Latino-American winner, I think it is pretty evident who they want to receive the awards.

One more example. I, a white male, a member of the group that has all the “power” was not powerful enough to file a formal equal opportunity complaint and my two Inspector General (IG) complaints were “unsubstantiated.” Portions of one of my IG complaints (which is considered to be protected speech as per the Military Whistleblower Protection Act) was read out loud during the 7th Biennial EO, Diversity, and Culture Research Symposium sponsored by the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (DEOMI) in Florida. The LTC that read my complaint was not disciplined.

Throughout the whole dilemma, a lot of people stonewalled me and when that wouldn’t work, they chose to move on to harassment and threats. The question to ask here is why? Because rather innocently and because I stumbled on a political policy imbedded in Army training policy that no one wants to address or even acknowledge? And they certainly don’t want to publicize my concern. Why? Because doing so would cause potentially disruption of morale in the ranks that the Army simply can’t tolerate. Thus, my claim and even my career, is expendable in favor of a larger cause or “good” as the Army sees their policy. I may indeed have stumbled upon and researched something even more important for the county and its race relations and political agendas and practices. This kind of thinking and regulation that I found is a political strategy that can benefit certain people who do not want equality, but rather want the “power” they believe they deserve. If this policy is imbedded in the Army, the question I ask is where else is it also embedded quietly and with no recourse? Is there a broader re-education attempt going on in other government agencies and institutions?