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![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WYvSW.jpg)
Scared the hell out of me. The thumbnail version looked like my brother.
SOURCE
NEW YORK (AP) — Even before the Army sent him to Afghanistan, supporters say, Pvt. Daniel Chen was fighting a personal war.
Fellow soldiers at a base in Georgia teased him about his Chinese name, crying out "Chen!" in an exaggerated Asian accent. They called him "Jackie Chen," a reference to the Hollywood action star Jackie Chan. People would ask him repeatedly if he was Chinese, even though he was a native New Yorker.
At one point Chen wrote in his diary that he was running out of jokes to respond with.
Then he was sent overseas, and the hazing began: Soldiers dragged him across a floor, pelted him with stones and forced him to hold liquid in his mouth while hanging upside down, according to diary entries and other accounts cited by a community activist.
On Oct. 3, the 19-year-old Chen was found dead in a guardhouse in Afghanistan with what the Army said was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Those of us who've been bullied would probably agree with me that the part I bolded is never a good idea. In fact, I'd say it only encourages the bullies to continue their shenanigans.
Anyways, I would like some insight from former/current U.S. military members if they've been exposed/witnessed to these incidents, and how frequently they occur.
My brother never mentioned about any sort of hazing or racial bullying when he was stationed in one of the most redneck states, Oklahoma, or in any other places.
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This is terrible thing and shows how hazing can go to far. I've heard of very disgusting and repulsive hazing in frats but never knew it was so serious in the army.
I respect people that go to the army, but the ones that are simple meatheads piss me off
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On December 22 2011 17:19 Headlines wrote:Scared the hell out of me. The thumbnail version looked like my brother.SOURCEShow nested quote +NEW YORK (AP) — Even before the Army sent him to Afghanistan, supporters say, Pvt. Daniel Chen was fighting a personal war.
Fellow soldiers at a base in Georgia teased him about his Chinese name, crying out "Chen!" in an exaggerated Asian accent. They called him "Jackie Chen," a reference to the Hollywood action star Jackie Chan. People would ask him repeatedly if he was Chinese, even though he was a native New Yorker.
At one point Chen wrote in his diary that he was running out of jokes to respond with.
Then he was sent overseas, and the hazing began: Soldiers dragged him across a floor, pelted him with stones and forced him to hold liquid in his mouth while hanging upside down, according to diary entries and other accounts cited by a community activist.
On Oct. 3, the 19-year-old Chen was found dead in a guardhouse in Afghanistan with what the Army said was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Those of us who've been bullied would probably agree with me that the part I bolded is never a good idea. In fact, I'd say it only encourages the bullies to continue their shenanigans. Anyways, I would like some insight from former/current U.S. military members if they've been exposed/witnessed to these incidents, and how frequently they occur. My brother never mentioned about any sort of hazing or racial bullying when he was stationed in one of the most redneck states, Oklahoma, or in any other places.
The bolded part is the best idea. Never give in to the fuckers. Hate them or love them learn to not care about what they do, what they say is irrelevant anyway, just words, no value. And as much as possible mock them, screw with them, make them angry. Best thing in life is having the opposite reaction to what some of these idiots expect, the red on their faces is worth some punches in or out :D
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There's very little emphasis in the source article on racial motivation, and even less evidence for it. As in the quoted segment in the OP, first it says he was verbally teased for his race at a base in the U.S., then later hazed overseas - by the same soldiers? It doesn't say. Nor does it say if he was the only target of the hazing, or why.
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I don't mean to detract in anyway from the personal tragedy of the story, but your thread title is quite misleading in that it implies racial hazing is rife throughout the US army, while the article appears to imply that this is more of a one off.
On a different note, I'd imagine that racism is almost certainly an everyday presence in a large organisation like the military, but I'd also doubt that it's as big as problem as in the outside world.
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On December 22 2011 17:19 Headlines wrote:
This man is a better American than any of those assholes will ever be.
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How is part one of this story (which is not "that bad") connected to part 2?
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I am half Asian/half Caucasian in the military. I look a lot more Asian than I do white, and the most racism I ever experience are joking references to my predispositions to doing anything technically-related, or how I might not be able to work a mechanical piece of equipment I have never seen before until I get my hands on a calculator. Stuff like that.
Hazing exists where I come from, but we consider ourselves a different breed from the rest of the 'regular' army (though who doesn't in the military?) and 'keep it real.' When you're the new guy where I'm from, you're liable to be smoked (forced physical exercise for extended periods of time while being negatively berated for your shortcomings, with sometimes elements of hazing sprinkled in) for any arbitrary reason for any unforeseen period of time. This is seen as normal, and as the new guy 'paying his dues.' It isn't until you've deployed and conducted combat operations with us, and until you've graduated Ranger School, that you're accepted entirely as One of the Boys.
As the brand new private, you're also subjected to all sorts of humiliating 'fuck-fuck' games. These games include 'Private Idol' (gather all the privates in a room and have them all sing a particular song, with the NCO's and Ranger-tabbed specialists acting as the judges), 'Medal of Honor drills' (throw random object, yell 'GRENADE!' and every private has to lunge on it), and other 'know-your-role' type drills like being forced to call a senior individual in the platoon a bitch or having to paint a cherry on a particular piece of gear so that everybody knows you are the inexperienced piece of shit (the cherry stems from the phrase 'popping the cherry,' which for you foreigners is slang for losing one's virginity. You're a 'cherry' until you're 'popped.' For example: you're a combat cherry until you've been in a firefight.), and that any and all snide comments and insults are to be directed to you.
This type of stuff happens all the time, especially in combat units. The Army has really been cracking down on it the past couple of years, though, and (at least in my unit) you can see it slowly vanishing. I hated this shit when I was going through it, though in hindsight I'm glad it happened. It acted as the grand unifier for us new guys, compelled us to work harder and faster to prove our worth, developed tolerance for bullshit, and instilled in us a sense of really belonging when we 'got our shit' (earned the Ranger tab) and came back with the platoon from deployment. Hazing has the unlimited capacity and potential to get wildly out of control, and it really did at times for us (I think I've been closer to dying getting smoked than I have when I was being shot at), but when done right it does wonders for esprit de corps.
I had to live with about a year of hazing, and though it at times got personal between the veterans and the new guys, literally none of it was racially-fueled (outwardly, anyway). We attract all sorts of bigoted and conservative people, but even they had the taste and decency to leave the racial comments to themselves (save for Arabs and others in the Middle East, but that's a different subject altogether). The Army makes it very fucking clear and LOUDLY ADVERTISES help and means of getting help to everybody, in tune with the new-age mindset of spoiling everybody and having people live comfortable lives even though they're soldiers (wtf?).
It could very well be that this is one of those unfortunate extreme and isolated cases, but I highly doubt that he killed himself because of racially-fueled hazing. This Yahoo! story sucks and much of it is unfounded.
I didn't intend to ramble this much when I was writing this. Thanks for reading it all if you did. It's admittedly pretty therapeutic to write out experiences I don't share with people normally
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On December 22 2011 17:27 dakalro wrote:Show nested quote +On December 22 2011 17:19 Headlines wrote:Scared the hell out of me. The thumbnail version looked like my brother.SOURCENEW YORK (AP) — Even before the Army sent him to Afghanistan, supporters say, Pvt. Daniel Chen was fighting a personal war.
Fellow soldiers at a base in Georgia teased him about his Chinese name, crying out "Chen!" in an exaggerated Asian accent. They called him "Jackie Chen," a reference to the Hollywood action star Jackie Chan. People would ask him repeatedly if he was Chinese, even though he was a native New Yorker.
At one point Chen wrote in his diary that he was running out of jokes to respond with.
Then he was sent overseas, and the hazing began: Soldiers dragged him across a floor, pelted him with stones and forced him to hold liquid in his mouth while hanging upside down, according to diary entries and other accounts cited by a community activist.
On Oct. 3, the 19-year-old Chen was found dead in a guardhouse in Afghanistan with what the Army said was apparently a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Those of us who've been bullied would probably agree with me that the part I bolded is never a good idea. In fact, I'd say it only encourages the bullies to continue their shenanigans. Anyways, I would like some insight from former/current U.S. military members if they've been exposed/witnessed to these incidents, and how frequently they occur. My brother never mentioned about any sort of hazing or racial bullying when he was stationed in one of the most redneck states, Oklahoma, or in any other places. The bolded part is the best idea. Never give in to the fuckers. Hate them or love them learn to not care about what they do, what they say is irrelevant anyway, just words, no value. And as much as possible mock them, screw with them, make them angry. Best thing in life is having the opposite reaction to what some of these idiots expect, the red on their faces is worth some punches in or out :D
I have to say, this is the worst fucking advice I've seen anybody give on the internet in the past week (and I've been browsing the SC2 strategy section a bit the last week, too). This is like gold-league IRL advice. If you're a meek person and honestly can't stand up for yourself physically and verbally, you're asking to have your ass beat. Real bullies, those people that take take legitimate satisfaction in the pain in others, will turn your strategy around and make you eat your words and actions (among other things). Life isn't a movie, and people are willing go out of their way to fuck your shit up if provoked enough, especially if that sociopathic base is already there and cultivated
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On December 22 2011 17:27 dakalro wrote:
The bolded part is the best idea. Never give in to the fuckers. Hate them or love them learn to not care about what they do, what they say is irrelevant anyway, just words, no value. And as much as possible mock them, screw with them, make them angry. Best thing in life is having the opposite reaction to what some of these idiots expect, the red on their faces is worth some punches in or out :D
This is probably the worst advice I've ever read on the internet. I hope no one reads this and thinks this is an acceptable response to bullying or hazing.
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Whoa, guys... in no way was I trying to incite any kind of hatred for the military, nor was I trying to put them in a derogatory light. I was merely wanting to ask community members who are currently or veterans in the military if hazing new recruits is frequent.
This incident may not entirely be about his race, maybe it was just a normal hazing gone bad. But the fact that he got bullied for his race before he got shipped out, and the fact that he is of a different ethnicity, implies that... yes, he may have been specifically hazed because of his race.
I was looking for comments like what Bobo_XIII wrote. I really didn't know about that. Thanks! 
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Being white in the Singapore local school system, then army, I got tons of jokes/nicknames about my race. Never had a real issue with it. Doesn't really say much about this case, but it's a universal thing to deal with.
The hazing part is a whole different matter, and needs a lot more detail to explain it fully.
edit: post above covered it pretty well, gives a clearer picture
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EPT
