Like many black Americans, Joyceline Gray has relatives stationed in the Persian Gulf. And her brother, a student at a college in West Virginia who joined the Army reserves to help pay for school, could be the next to go.

Gray said she opposes war and thinks all African-Americans should oppose it because the war will hinder their progress in an already oppressive society.

"When African-Americans come back over here, they're still going to be discriminated against," Gray (senior-history) said. "Many of them don't have the money for college and join the reserves or enlist, because they don't want to be out on the streets facing a life of crime and drugs."

As reported in a Jan. 25 article in The New York Times, U.S. Defense Department statistics show that black Americans comprise 25 percent of American troops in the Persian Gulf and almost 30 percent of all Army troops. Black Americans make up only 12 percent of the United States' population.

Some University staff members, students and leaders agree that black Americans will be shortchanged by serving in the gulf war, reasoning that in the past the federal government did not fairly compensate the veterans and failed to resolve problems in their communities.

"I think we have a lot of problems at home that we should be fighting, like homelessness, crime and drugs," said Laverne Gyant, director of the Black Studies Program.

Though Gyant and other African-Americans feel better about their role in the gulf war because Gen. Colin Powell is Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staffs, they are apprehensive about what will happen when the war ends.

"It is a fact that every war that the United States has engaged in so far, African-Americans have come up short on rewards," Gyant said. "Colin Powell is a plus, but there is still a minus factor. What rewards will they receive when they come back home?"

Llmon Wilkes, a Naval ROTC student at the University, disagrees with black Americans who are anti-war and wary of black Americans joining the military.

"If we are going to become economically equal there must be blacks in every walk of life," Wilkes said.

He said black Americans will benefit from their presence in the military because many of them were experienced when the war began and will earn better positions.

Wilkes also said he does not believe that African-Americans are taking on a disproportionate amount of responsibility in this war.

"It has been mostly an air war to date and officers are pilots. Blacks have a low officer ratio and are not in great danger in this war," Wilkes said.

During the kickoff speech for the campus celebration of Black History Month last Monday, Na'im Akbar, a prominent psychologist, said black Americans need to organize protests to ensure that they can be effective members of society following the gulf war.

"There is no reason for people to be dying for that situation," Akbar said. "We need to prepare and organize to protest that the United States does not repeat what it has done before in all of its wars. They've cut programs and benefits that stopped veterans from becoming effective members of society."

He also said African-Americans should not fight in a war against other people of color.

Gray, who attended Akbar's speech, said she agreed with him. "I don't think African-Americans should be fighting a white man's war, and it is a colored war," Gray said. "This isn't a war about getting Iraq out of Kuwait. It's all about capitalism and oil profits."

Gyant also said she believes black Americans face a difficult situation when forced to fight against people of color.

"Our culture and people are linked to the Middle East, and it's a fact that the Muslim religion is one of the major faiths among blacks," Gyant said. "(In the Vietnam War) we were fighting people of color who were just as oppressed as we were."