Well, although the military may have not always been inclusive, people of color and white women have helped in the development of this country, and did fight and die for our freedoms, even though it wasn't on the battlefield. For that reason, I can read it symbolically as their acknowledging now what they failed to acknowledge in the past. However, though, yeah...if someone didn't "read as far into it" as I am, they might just see implication that there were women and non-white people fighting alongside the white men.

I think this part of a larger trend to "sell" the military to women...though the black man is the "star" of this poster. Certainly, our current military doesn't run without women (and minorities). I almost with I could have gone to the "live action show" to see what it was all about.

"They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place in trying to bring together ideology and reality."

They sure are. I can imagine an almost identical but opposite post if this ad displayed only white men.

The show is in DC, where the largest demographic is African American. It is only natural that the poster would be inclusive in respect to that.

Not entirely fair. The U.S. Military, since it was integrated decades ago, has been a powerful force for racial integration and the advancement of racial minorities in this country. Secretary of State Powell is one living example of this. Women still do not enjoy full equality in the Army, I am perfectly willing to acknowledge, but have far more opportunities today than even a few years ago.

Honestly, I think it's a little churlish to scold them for foregrounding women and minorities in their outreach. It is historically silly to have a woman wearing an 18th-century uniform (for what unit, I have no idea--when did we wear red coats with blue facings?), but what complaint can be leveled at the other two persons in the image? The African-American man is wearing a modern uniform (though it would have been neat if he had been dressed as a soldier of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteers). I don't really follow your argument on this one at all. You'd have preferred nothing but white males?

Well, people who are black and people who are female have fought for American patriotism since before the United States existed. Society did not honor them at the time, but they did sacrifice for the American spirit along with those with greater social privilege.

Of course it's good to have a message of inclusiveness, but the point here is that it's disingenuous. Why not simply have men and women in uniforms they actually wear?

This is hardly relevant to the point that you're trying to make, but I find it very odd that a show being marketed as "The U.S. Army's Spirit of America - A free, patriotic, live-action show" is being shown on September 11th. Personally I find this a little disrespectful.

hm. Well, what I find the most disturbing about this is the idea that dressing up people in costume, singing some songs, and briefly mentioning that slavery was bad counts as historical and even educational. History should be a challenging reflection on the past and on our present situation and not a "patriotic, live action show."

Framing the question like this allows us to take the focus away from the choice of models (which is a symptom of the problem, I will admit) and shift it to the problem itself-- our weird relationship with our own history.

I have some sympathy these yanks. Isn't this draconian spirit the sole thing that boils down the USA as a whole? I guess they just now have to update the history according to status quo. And really, who cares about some trivial facts, especially in a poster that perhaps is not meant to be historically accurate portrayal of anything. The thing that matters is that in this great multicultural society now a black guy, white woman and a white male can join murdering and torturing foreign people hand in hand. The U.S. Military has been a powerful force for racial integration and the advancement of racial minorities in this country and that is a great thing. This is the american spirit.

Without getting into the politics of everything else, I do want to add that I like that the black man is front and center, as opposed to him and the woman flanking the white man.

This does, however, suffer from missing black woman formation.

I think there is just no winning with you sometimes. How should they have promoted this event instead?

I agree with several of the comments above. Had the poster featured only white men, I am certain there would be a similar post on this blog. I wonder what you would want the Armed Forces to do for this advertisement? Include an essay acknowledging the past segregation and sexual barriers of the past?

It's kind of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

*All White Men on the banner.

"So no African-American or Women Soldiers have ever died fighting for America?"

*All inclusive banner.

"So America has ALWAYS been a bastion of tolerance and acceptance? Come on."

The important thing is that NOW we realize how bad we've been in the past, the great thing about the United States is not where we've been and what we've done, but what we're capable of changing and where we're headed, which has the potential to be brighter and better than anything that came before it. We CAN be better, and it all starts with little things.

This is a good little thing, that is a part of building less exclusive tomorrow, a wider-American dream, that realizes that anyone can be a hero that can defend and fight for that dream.