That's a pretty simplistic and needlessly confrontational summation of what's actually a very nuanced and well-researched article. I didn't read anything there that said the Marine Corps "wasn't playing nice." In fact, the article specifically says racial hostility and tensions are not the issue, but communication recruiting, and perhaps a bit of empathy are.
I'm playing well behind everyone else in time here. But I suppose this post is my microphone so everyone has to hear what I have to say!
The best NCO I had the opportunity to work with, both in the military and later civilian world, is a black man from western Virginia who was really smart, but also an above average high school football player. He was good enough at his sport to be on the ESPN/NFL top ten prospect running back list.
But then he got his girlfriend pregnant. (She's his wife and an awesome woman).
He didn't know what to do, so he joined the Marine Corps.
Everything this dude touches turns to gold. He knocks the UAV/RPA school out of the park, he's an all star dad, NCO of the quarter, year, century, early promote, completes his bachelors degree in his off time while completing enlisted WTI type stuff.
Dude gets accepted to Cornell's post grad engineering department while we're working for the same civilian company. Of course he goes to Ithaca. He's now a foremost expert on human interaction with automation and AI. He's also kept up with his pilot hours and has his commercial rating.
Why is this important?
So I asked him one more than a few times, "Hey buddy, you're way smarter than I am and are way better at leadership than I am, why didn't you think to go get your degree and be an officer and a pilot?"
His response, " My dad had an 8th grade education and drove a cab. Once I was in 9th grade I knew more than my dad. I didn't even know what an officer was, much less what a pilot was. I knew they existed, but they weren't me." He told me, "You know what Swammi, guys like me simply don't even consider being an officer and a pilot as an option, not because we don't know that they exist, but because I didn't know any officers or pilots, and everyone told me that I could be a great running back in college. No one told me that I could be a pilot. It just didn't exist in my world."
When you look around a flying squadron in the military you see a very middle class, white, male person, who probably has some type of military connection in their family. We all look the same. Why is that?
So yeah, that article and your comments are pretty correct in my limited experience.