With All Due Respect: Why I Believe 100% VA Claims Are Justified—Especially for Vets of Color

IMHO every vet’s got a right to go after the benefits they earned—period. As a Black Latino who served, I don’t just see 100% as something I both deserve and unfortunately earned, I see it as honoring all the Brown and Black brothers who served, bled, and died without ever seeing what they were owed. A lot of them were experimented on, ignored, forgotten—Tuskegee, Vietnam—you name it. While others came home to college and clean slates, our people came home to struggle.

It's not about gaming the system—it’s about using the system that used us. And look, I’ve served alongside white brothers and sisters I respect deeply—this ain’t about hate, it’s about truth. Whether you served behind a desk or on the front lines, we were all government property. If you walked away with pain—physical or mental—you earned every damn dollar the VA can give you. Don’t let anyone shame you for claiming what’s yours.