I honor and respect all the first responders who answered the call on September 11, 2001. We all saw the events of that day, with the firefighters, NYPD, FBI, CIA, volunteers, ect. But, all those heroes were white. Some time later I saw an article in a Harlem newspaper that showed pictures of 15 Black firefighters who also died answering the call on 9/11. Never saw or read anything about them in the national or local news.
That reminded me of an old B&W newsreel I saw years ago of the D Day ticker tape parade through the streets of NYC, celebrating victory at the end World War II in the mid forties. That film showed legions of troops, proudly marching before the reviewing stand, with countless spectators waving flags all around. But, again all the troops were white, even though Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians fought and died in that war. The narrator of the film indicated that a U.S. Army officer had instructed the camera crew filming the parade to turn the cameras away when when the Black troops of the 82nd Airborne approached the reviewing stand. The Black troops, who also fought the Nazis and Fascists of Hitler ans Mussolini were not filmed.
Don't all American heroes deserve the same recognition? Actions like this only help to fuel racist claims that Blacks were afraid to fight and die for America. Something they have been doing since the Revolutionary War against the British more than 250 years ago. In fact, the first American to die in that war was an African named Crispus Attucks. He was killed when British troops fired on a crowd of protesters in Boston in 1770. That event is known as the Boston Massacre, three years before the Boston Tea Party, a tipping point that started the war. In reporting this incident Bostonians of European descent refused to describe him as a person of African descent, rather stating that he was of, "mixed race". Later in death, Crispus Attucks became a symbol of the anti slavery, Abolitionist Movement.*
*Wikipedia
That reminded me of an old B&W newsreel I saw years ago of the D Day ticker tape parade through the streets of NYC, celebrating victory at the end World War II in the mid forties. That film showed legions of troops, proudly marching before the reviewing stand, with countless spectators waving flags all around. But, again all the troops were white, even though Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans and Asians fought and died in that war. The narrator of the film indicated that a U.S. Army officer had instructed the camera crew filming the parade to turn the cameras away when when the Black troops of the 82nd Airborne approached the reviewing stand. The Black troops, who also fought the Nazis and Fascists of Hitler ans Mussolini were not filmed.
Don't all American heroes deserve the same recognition? Actions like this only help to fuel racist claims that Blacks were afraid to fight and die for America. Something they have been doing since the Revolutionary War against the British more than 250 years ago. In fact, the first American to die in that war was an African named Crispus Attucks. He was killed when British troops fired on a crowd of protesters in Boston in 1770. That event is known as the Boston Massacre, three years before the Boston Tea Party, a tipping point that started the war. In reporting this incident Bostonians of European descent refused to describe him as a person of African descent, rather stating that he was of, "mixed race". Later in death, Crispus Attucks became a symbol of the anti slavery, Abolitionist Movement.*
*Wikipedia
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