Deep-Rooted Racism, Discrimination Still Permeate US Military The military’s judicial system has no explicit category for hate crimes, making it difficult to quantify crimes motivated by prejudice. Kat Stafford, James LaPorta, Aaron Morrison and Helen Wieffering via AP Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Stephanie Davis holds a U.S. flag in the cargo area of a KC-135 airplane while flying over Pakistan/Afghanistan. For Davis, who grew up poor, the military was a path to the American dream, a realm where everyone would receive equal treatment. But many of her service colleagues, Davis says, saw her only as a Black woman. Or for the white resident colleagues who gave her the call sign of ABW â it was a joke, they insisted â an âangry black woman,â a classic racist trope. (Courtesy Stephanie Davis via AP)