The number of African-Americans among troops deployed in the Persian Gulf is alleged to be excessively large.

Congressional representative Eleanor Holmes Norton was quoted in USA Today as saying she is offended by the “extraordinary disproportion of blacks” in the Gulf.

“I think it unseemly that a largely white country would be defended so disproportionately in the event of war,” she said.

According to figures released by the National Alliance of Third World Journalists, African-Americans make up about 12 percent of the American population. The Pentagon stated African-Americans make up about 22 percent of the U.S. military.

Rev. Benjamin Chavis, executive director of the Commission for Racial Justice for the United Church of Christ said, “Many are asking why we’re called to fight abroad for democracy and freedom abroad yet are still discriminated against in our own country.”

Chavis said African-Americans and Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the U.S. forces currently in the Persian Gulf, a number he and other critics find to be too high.

Gen. Colin Powell, the first African-American ever to be named Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said to White House reporters, “Nobody drafted them,” referring to all-volunteer armed forces.

Powell also said, “It’s the choice of the American people to have a volunteer armed force.”