The Coalition of Teachers and Staff for Peace and Justice stood in the rain the other day with pictures of all the men and women in U.S. services who’s lives ended in Iraq. My heart immediately reacted to the display.
I looked into the eyes of a man who looked just like me in a picture pasted on the poster board one teacher held. He was the same age as me and only in his second year of service. I quickly tried to calm myself down as I tried to think of a justification for this black soldier’s service.
It saddened me that I couldn’t think of any real legitimate reasons. I mean, the American military spending is completely out of control. The body count is rising everyday. The American military service men and women are dying in combat. Isn’t time for the troops to come home?
I have to commend the teachers and staff that have committed their physical presence against this war. My stance is firm alongside you against the war.
Why are black men and women still supporting this war? Why should black people have to liberate Iraq? They currently make up 22 percent of the enlisted soldiers, a disproportionate amount compared with the their percentage of the national population.
Looking at the past examples of black support of an American led war proved not to be very rewarding. During World War II the black media devised a strategy to support the war and troops abroad, and at the same time demanding for civil rights at home. The strategy was called the Double V; a victory abroad would allow for victory at home. Activists in the states would both promote and support the war. At the same time they demanded for equal rights domestically. The idea was clever, but only had minimal results for some privileged black people.
The dual problems still fresh in my memory are examples of reasons why black people need to think twice about enlisting. The prison industrial system in America and South Africa’s apartheid system have taken many black activists to the grave, fighting for justice. World War II should have been a lesson to black Americans to only fight collectively against oppression. Black Americans are still fighting against oppressive systems in America. I suggest that before the Pentagon sends any more of the American blue collar coalition to fight in Iraq, it should address some of its own problems first. Enlistment will not work against these systems of oppression. Why you ask? Because this country doesn’t care one bit about African people domestically or abroad.
Black Americans, along with all other prisoners, are being exploited and disenfranchised in the prison industrial complex. In 2004, 12.6 of black males in their late-20s are incarcerated, according Prisonsucks.com, and 2.5 percent of all black Americans are imprisoned.
With 22 percent of the world’s imprisoned population of 2.23 million people in the U.S. prison system, America is imprisoning its own citizens at a rate faster than any country on Earth. I’m not arguing to get rid of all jails, I am just observing the disproportionate amount of black males incarcerated.
On a more international note, why did the American public and military choose Iraq to liberate? I notice that there doesn’t seem to be the same compassionate foreign policies for African countries.
America didn’t do anything when it was South Africa that needed liberating. The Afrikaners ruled brutally under a strict system of apartheid that lasted for almost 50 years, until 1994. Eighty percent of blacks became foreign “guest laborers” when the minority of whites implemented apartheid laws in 1948. The white population controlled more than 87 percent of the land and 75 percent of the income. In the Soweto Uprising in 1976, more than 10,000 school children were murdered by police for refusing to learn the Afrikan’s language in boarding schools.
Something tells me that President Bush wouldn’t put South Africa on his “Axis of Evil” list today. Instead he might call it his “home base.” In fact, the U.S. assisted in the control of black Africans. By supplying IBM computers to the government of South Africa despite U.N. embargoes, starting in the early 1970s.
America has done a good job of looking the other way when it’s black people who are being murdered and oppressed. It seems to support policies to keep blacks oppressed all over the world. Black people have no choice but to organize resistance against this, or the survival of the black race may be the next question for activists.
America has barely been concerned with international injustice in the past. It presently is running the booming prison system. Therefore it has little ethical ground to claim to be the world’s policeman. It is time to stop supporting the war financially and physically. Bring the soldiers back and let’s start fixing the problems at home.