Memories of listening to my folks talking about World War II
As a little boy, I heard and mentally recorded the many stories and tales of my dad, his relatives and their friends/coworkers.
Our early dinner discussions were responses to garden variety racism, and war-reports, which were by radio and a little on tv when we we able to afford one.
One Black family on our street owned a tv and we were allowed to watch it if we sat still and did not fidget.
The Black elders constantly spoke of the shortages of certain foods and other household goods affected by the “War Effort.”
My relatives were some of the returning troops. Here are some of the things I heard them say:
- President Truman’s integrating the military changed everything and changed nothing.
- White military leaders offered the opinion that Blacks would not match up in the face of the enemy. The contrary came to be true. Overall, Black soldiers were prideful Americans who fought ferociously and were fearless in battle.
-On the war fronts, initially Blacks could only transport and handle dangerous munitions. Due to the heavy losses of the allied forces, Blacks were pressed into duty on the front lines, something that they had longed for from the start of the wars.
Sadly, when they came home, they learned that the GI Bill benefits were for their White comrades, not them. Educational loans, business loans and home mortgages were steered away from Black veterans and given to the White veterans.
The discussions in my house centered around no Blacks being featured in the movie house “shorts,” which showed the images of American men at war.
I know these “facts” must support the stories that we tell, but it’s hard to read about Hollywood and it’s stars going off to battle and my folks talked about the faces of “White” heroes. Many of the war hero films recruited many young men thinking they were going to be like John Wayne and Audie Murphy against our Asian foes.
The folks who made it back from the war saw nothing like these Hollywood presentations.
The racism of Walt Disney and Hollywood came up all the time around my dinner table. Disney had a group of black crows speaking in “Black” jargon. One crow asked the others did they ever see an elephant fly. The group of crows responses were:
“I seed a rubber band.”
“I seed a band stand.”
"I dun seed most everythin when I seed an elephant fly!"
Abbot and Costello used rolling eyed, Black southern twang speaking actors to out run cars when ghosts appeared in haunted houses.
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