In the book Allies by Alan Gratz, Henry, a black medic, says, “I’m going to patch you up and get you back in the fight. And yes, I already noticed that I’m black.” This quote really shows how people didn’t (and still don’t) accept black people for who they were. Instead, they judged them by the color of their skin.
During World War ll, like World War l, the military was segregated, meaning that African Americans could still fight (at the end of the war), but they couldn’t fight with the whites. Henry is not a soldier, he is a medic, meaning that he could help white soldiers. Actually, African Americans were given non-combat roles in the military at the beginning of the war.
So my question is: Why was Henry racially abused, or simply overlooked because of his color?
My other example wasn’t that good, so here is a prime example: In the book, Henry finds two soldiers. One of them is burned, while the other one has a collapsed lung that Henry discovered, yet Henry is black, so the soldiers don’t think he is right. The soldier with burns calls over another white medic, who comes to the same conclusion that Henry had. The white medic, angry, says to the soldier:
“Private, I want you to take a good look around this beach. Do you see the explosions? The bullets? The bodies? Do you see the boats that are dumping hundreds more soldiers into this meat grinder every minute? There’s maybe one medic for every fifty wounded soldiers on this beach, for every hundred, and you call me over to get a second opinion? What makes you think this man knows anything more or less about what he’s talking about than I do?”
“Bourke didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. They all knew why. Because Henry was black.”
This quote is a prime example of what was happening in World War ll because many black people who were in the army (and even those who weren’t) were disrespected for one thing and one thing only:
Because of their skin color.
That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading!!
Source: Military Times. 2020, www.militarytimes.com/military-honor/
black-military-history/2018/01/30/
african-american-gis-of-wwii-fighting-for-democracy-abroad-and-at-home/.
Accessed 24 Apr. 2020.