No Niggers In My Corps: The true story of how a group of racist white high school JROTC cadets plotted to drive their black instructor out of their school
Cardelle Anthony Hopkins grew up an "Army brat." He followed in his father's footsteps spending 23 years in service of our country, in his case in the USAF. In his powerful memoir, he tells his story of an alarming encounter with blatant racism.
"I was shielded from a lot of the racism that existed in the United States. I thought that all Americans were proud and patriotic like our family. I knew there were some Americans out there who hated the country. However, I thought they were just misinformed. Like many, I turned out to be the one who was uninformed about just how vile and disgusting racism can be, especially when it happens to you."
While teaching Air Force JROTC (AFJROTC) at a school in Florida, Cardelle was introduced to racist behavior firsthand. It was a wake-up call that forced him to take notice of the change occurring within our country at many levels, a shift towards white nationalism, even among high school students.
Cardelle wrote this book to shed a light on his personal encounter with racism as a Veteran and an AFJROTC instructor. His hope is to prevent what happened to him from happening to any other JROTC Instructor or any teacher at all.
"As a country, we are better than the racists who bring us down. The men and women who sign up to defend this country are doing so regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, or ethnicity. If we can teach tolerance in places like high school JROTC, we will continue to rise and be all that we can be as a nation. I believe we are stronger as a country when we are more accepting of others who are different than us. America is stronger when we stand side by side as Americans."