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» How the U.S. Military Came to Embrace the Confederate Flag - The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/how-us-military-came-embrace-confederate-flag/613027/
As American forces took over Pacific Islands or European towns, the troops would sometimes raise the Confederate flag alongside or instead of the U.S. flag to celebrate their victory.
In the Pacific, Marine Colonel William O. Brice of South Carolina dubbed himself the “commander of Confederate forces” in the Solomon Islands and flew the Confederate flag on the islands’ base.
The white troops who raised the Confederate flag during World War II argued that they were honoring the military service of their forefathers.
The embrace of the Confederate flag by white troops, politicians, and civilians made it clear to black Americans that many of their fellow citizens understood the goals of the war in very different terms.
Edward Moe, a federal investigator who surveyed racial attitudes during the war, found that many white people believed that World War II was about preserving things “as they have been in America.”
While white soldiers were given tidy, marked graves in well-kept cemeteries, scores of Africans were buried without markers in overgrown unkempt bush. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/13/monuments-white-supremacy-obscure-history-colonial-crimes-thats-why-they-must-come-down/
“Most of the natives who have died are of a semi-savage nature and do not attach any sentiment to marking the graves of their dead,” one British officer, Maj. George Evans, wrote during the 1920s.
Black Americans served in the same proportion as their numbers in the population, ultimately forming about 10 percent of American troop strength.
They were organized into separate units, training centers and clubs.
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/second-world-wars-legacy-racism
They were organized into separate units, training centers and clubs.
https://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/second-world-wars-legacy-racism
After the war, politicians put trumped-up stories about the rape of white European women by men of color to political use.
Rape allegations in the hands of white supremacists served to underline the unsuitability of black Americans for full citizenship.
Rape allegations in the hands of white supremacists served to underline the unsuitability of black Americans for full citizenship.
The military scapegoated black soldiers for rape while downplaying or ignoring the crimes of many white soldiers.
The American war effort was undermined repeatedly by race riots: whites attacking blacks at a shipyard in Mobile, white servicemen beating up Mexican Americans in Los Angeles, to name two examples. https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/bal-the-world-has-already-had-a-race-war-20150731-story.html
Some three million American service personnel came to the British Isles during WWII.
Among them were more than 130,000 African-Americans who were segregated and subjected to the discrimination that crossed the Atlantic with their white countrymen. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02619280701337146?journalCode=fimm20
Among them were more than 130,000 African-Americans who were segregated and subjected to the discrimination that crossed the Atlantic with their white countrymen. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02619280701337146?journalCode=fimm20
During World War One, African Americans fought a war within the war, as white supremacy proved to be harder to defeat than the German army was. https://time.com/5450336/african-american-veterans-wwi/
The Churchill Government and the Black American Troops in Britain during World War II
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679179
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3679179
What alarmed the British and American governments was the generally welcoming attitude of British civilians to the black troops.
Britain's black population then was minimal (no more than 8,000 in 1939).
Most people also thought that their stay would be temporary.
Most people also thought that their stay would be temporary.
The British government said it was against racism, even though it supported segregation within the US Army.
The assumption of aggressive black sexuality was deeply ingrained in the British psyche.
Much of the debate took place in a fraught atmosphere.
Protests in U.K. Spark New Scrutiny of British Empire - The Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/protests-in-u-k-spark-new-scrutiny-of-british-empire-11592242370
Unlike most other countries in Europe, Britain hasn’t undertaken any systematic reassessment of its past.
There have been no revolutions, dictatorships or foreign occupations to prompt a wholesale dismantling of public monuments.
There have been no revolutions, dictatorships or foreign occupations to prompt a wholesale dismantling of public monuments.
"A different sort of politics has emerged around identity…in which empire is almost the original sin of Great Britain, because it’s inherently racist and it embodies all the authoritarian masculine values that the left is now in revolt against.”
Jan Smuts, the South African leader and British ally during World War II, supported racial segregation through most of his life.
Oliver Cromwell is reviled for his role in the 17th century conquest of Ireland in which hundreds of thousands died.
Oliver Cromwell is reviled for his role in the 17th century conquest of Ireland in which hundreds of thousands died.
Minorities in the U.K. don’t have the story of heroic resistance of the civil-rights struggle.
Americans’ education also allows them to harshly criticize the past without being seen as unpatriotic.
Americans’ education also allows them to harshly criticize the past without being seen as unpatriotic.
Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of the Labour Party, had said he wanted the history of colonialism, including the “unbelievable levels of brutality” committed in the slave trade, to be something children were taught all year.
For many, the slave trade, famines, massacres and land grabs that the British were responsible for around the world are evils that can’t be excused whatever some may see as the positive side of the ledger.
While the British Empire is taught in schools, it makes up a tiny part of the high school syllabus.
Of 15 heads of school history surveyed by one academic in 2016, only one taught the Empire as a study of exploitation. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-15/u-k-should-tear-down-churchill-s-statue
Of 15 heads of school history surveyed by one academic in 2016, only one taught the Empire as a study of exploitation. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-06-15/u-k-should-tear-down-churchill-s-statue
"Any country’s history is what they make of it.
A history that remembers how unimportant many of Churchill’s constructive acts were, and how awful his destructive ones, would better fit the Britain of the 21st century."
Well said, @mihirssharma.
A history that remembers how unimportant many of Churchill’s constructive acts were, and how awful his destructive ones, would better fit the Britain of the 21st century."
Well said, @mihirssharma.
