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?