I have often wondered along similar lines and wonder if FDR’s Four Freedoms speech was utter hypocrisy when America’s black citizens did not enjoy those “freedoms” themselves.
Overcoming racism is not (as people seem to think these days) doable with the stroke of a pen, or outlawing words or people of the past. People have to be convinced of racial equality. It takes a long time. But to think it could be done instantly is to impose today’s intellectual fascism thinking on the past’s. Just doesn’t work that way.
You can think your grandparents and great-grandparents in some way inferior to yourself. I choose not to do so.
FDR, and Truman before him, put down markers that lead, for instance, to the integration of the military, and the country. The “FF” were such a marker, not just for this country, but the world.
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I have been reading most of the comments through out the post and thought I would share this video that was taken a few days prior to my grandfather’s death.
I personally don’t think my grandfather was “racist” but was a product of his environment where he lived his entire life “except 1942 to 1945” in an all white community of about 2,000. This community wasn’t really open to anyone outside of the small town even if you were white.
He only started to talk about the lynching of this black soldier just prior to his death, so I didn’t really speak to him about the specific outside of this video which was taken a few days before he died of cancer.
I have been wondering recently if the time ghost army could confirm the lynching death of this soldier. I am specifically interested in what that soldier family was told, and I am guessing it was not the full truth and if we could get this officially corrected.
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Hi Plamen,
Will you managed to go to Normandy next week. You are very welcome if you can. Although I know it is a loooooooong way from Bulgaria.
I went to a meetup in 2017 (WW1 Stow Maries) and Indy was great fun. But yeah pretty expensive. I will be coming by car but for me it is only a 7 hour drive.
Anyway all the best and I enjoyed our discussions.
Marc/Chew
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Fighting a war is hard enough. Attempting embedded cultural change is not best done in a war when distractions may cost lives. Save it for peacetime, such as when it actually happened under Truman.
It’s not fair, especially given the contributions to winning the war made by minorities, to wait so long. But war doesn’t usually make decisions easy or neat
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This is very true. War has a way of bringing people together to work collectively even if they are socially segregated in peace time.
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Also back in 1939 even the Encyclopaedia Brittanica stated that black people were less intelligent than whites. The brilliant 
Neill De Grasse Tyson mentioned this in Star Talk as a warning Academics can be wrong and change opinions over time.
Bada Bing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORvK0_7oQn0
Oh and a Big Bang Sheldom who doesn’t like Neill. 
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Imagine as individuals, 50 years after our passing, people still in this world, reviewing our every thought while alive, and condemning us for not being perfect with every notion. It’s easy… and unfortunate.
Good post Chewy.
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Ok than why didn’t the United States do this after the Civil War in which African-Americans clearly distinguished themselves? Or after WWI? Equality for blacks kept getting pushed back, because it was an avoidable headache? Or convenient? Leaders did not have the guts to do what was right which was bring Jim Crow to an end and institute equality throughout the land.
If we bash Germans and Japanese for their appalling crimes against humanity and obvious inequality in their Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, why do we not criticize the US during the 1930’s and WWII years? We could have done a lot better about Civil Rights during this time that’s for sure. Also we didn’t have time for Civil Rights and more equality but we did have time to intern Japanese Americans? Bit of a sad double standard.
The “we” is the point. In Germany German nationalist were excluded by the nazis because of a esoteric race theory.
So what is your point?
The Japanese Americans had not been part of the “we”. My point is, excluding humans from the “we” is the problem.
What are you talking about? Everyone criticized Nazi Germany and Japan for their crimes against humanity and inequality. At the least anyone who was truly paying attention. The Japanese treatment of the Chinese starting in the 30’s and treatment of POW’s during WWII was appalling to say the least. My point is here in America we criticized Nazi Germany and Japan for their awful behavior but failed to look inwards and create more equality in our society before and during WWII. African-Americans had proved themselves in combat since the Civil War and deserved desegregation in the military long before WWII.
If you think I was excluding anyone in my points I’m not, I’m including everyone in the failure to desegregate the US military before and during WWII.
But, as a German I can tell you other nations have done much worse. The US armend forces had becomme after the second world war a force of desegregation and fighingt racism (to Americans).
Yeah but that’s not addressing the topic. And obviously other nations have done much worse, hence Nazi Germany… I’m just saying it’s a double standard to say the least that my country the US was fighting against inequality and for Justice when we were treating people so bad at home. Long before WWII the military should have been desegregated and the Japanese Americans never should have been interned. FDR definitely could have done better on these two things.
Your Granddad may did not knew what you think he should have known. But it is 2022, take care about the future, you can not chance the past.
Excuse me, lets not bring up family please, try answering the question at hand. But for the record my grandfather and father would definitely have agreed with me that it was a big double standard for the US to be fighting tyranny and for equality and justice when a bunch of inequality was going on here at home. You cannot argue facts, FDR and US society could have done a lot better from 1865 to 1945, if you can’t see that that’s ignorant on your part and others. This topic is on why the US didn’t combat racism in their armies or military segregation, discuss that please. Don’t tell me how to interact on here or anywhere thank you very much.
The US was very much racist at this time, but a lot of Americans had been working agaist that. END OF thank you very much.