Researchers Say Black Veterans Received Less Benefits Than White Veterans Due To Racism

A study released on Veterans Day shows Black veterans receive fewer benefits than their white counterparts due to racism.

The Washington Post reports the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center’s “Discretionary Injustice” study analyzed more than 1 million military releases, finding Black veterans are much more likely to be given a less than honorable discharge.

According to the report, veterans who receive less than honorable discharges can be denied access to housing, education, career training and healthcare assistance programs. The Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged the racial bias in a statement and promised to make changes.

“We fully understand that there are disparities in discharge status due to racism, which unfairly disadvantage Black Veterans and, sometimes, wrongly leave Black Veterans without access to VA care and benefits,” VA Press Secretary Terrence Hayes told The Post in an emailed statement.

Hayes added the Department of Defense is in the process of reviewing its procedures for dealing with veterans who have wrongfully received other discharges and is working to end institutional racism in the claims process.

The Legal Center’s researchers examined all Defense Department discharges from the 2014 fiscal year through the 2022 fiscal year for the report and discovered Black Veterans receive less than honorable designations 1.5 times more than white veterans. Researchers also noted there was no pronounced gap across other racial and ethnic groups.

The study comes on the heels of a report by the Brandeis Institute for Economic and Racial Equity released earlier this year asserting the GI Bill, which was once celebrated for helping World War II veterans, actually contributed to America’s racial wealth gap and hurt Black veterans financially.

According to the Brandeis study, Black veterans received 40% of the benefits white veterans received due to local discriminatory policies as well as segregation and systemic racism.

“Black people could not use their money to buy education in White-only schools or real estate in White-only neighborhoods,” it read, according to The Post. “Money is only valuable because it can be used to buy things, and Black veterans could use their money to buy fewer things.”

Democratic lawmakers are trying to correct the situation with The Sgt. Isaac Woodard, Jr. and Sgt. Joseph H. Maddox GI Bill Restoration Act, which would grant African American veterans and their families additional benefits if they could demonstrate how racism influenced those benefits.