Why didnt you meet a lot of blacks a/o hispanics in the service? Some of the most aggregious racism was done in rural areas
But you should have been able to interact with a great many while in. Perhaps you have other issues you arent revealing?
Hmmm... At that time, in the Marine Corps, there was not a lot of mixing: the Blacks who did mix with Whites were shunned by the other Blacks (called 'oreos'), and the Whites, myself included, were not given much in the way of encouragement, even if we had wanted to crash a race barrier, which most, myself included, did not. This was a time when racial tensions on bases often escalated to violence, and when you get Marines violent, it gets nasty pretty quickly. Also, and probably most importantly, I was new to America and Negroes, still full of my father's ideas, and couldn't see the percentage in going out of my way to befriend the hostiles, even if it had been possible. The approachable, shunned Blacks didn't seem very different from me: small town, Mid-Western upbringing, decent educations (this was during Vietnam, and the Corps would take folks who couldn't even read: believe me, education made a BIG difference. We had Marines, White and Black, from the most disadvantaged, nasty, crime-ridden areas you can imagine, and I didn't associate with any of that class, of either color). I was on good terms with a few Black Marines, but never good enough terms to actually discuss racial issues.