Why we
need to continue working to remember a particularly impressive group of
American soldiers.
I don’t
see many movies these days (something about two little action films of mine
that take up most of my free time), and so I’m not usually very invested in
which ones do well and which don’t. Moreover, my general fan boy frustration
with George Lucas over his increasingly mercenary endeavors with the
Star Wars franchise, one of this American
Studier’s foundational childhood texts, makes me even less likely to root for
a Lucas film to succeed. Yet despite those factors, I’l l freely admit that I
was hoping for much bigger box office performance and buzz for Lucas’s
latest movie, Red Tails, a
historical action film based on the lives and World War II experiences of the Tuskegee Airmen.
It’s
important to note, as that TAI website does in its opening description, that
African American soldiers have been a part of every U.S. military effort; since
Harry
Truman desegregated the army after World War II, in 1948, it’s fair to say
that the Tuskegee Airmen were thus in one sense not pioneering but rather
culminating, the final impressive African American service in the face of a
segregated and circumscribed military role. But in other important ways the
Airmen did represent a significant step forward: created as a
result of extended pressure and work by African American civil rights and
media organizations and allies, the squadron performed prominently
and heroically, contributing directly to the changed climate that made
Truman’s actions possible at all. In many crucial senses, then, the Airmen’s
legacy is overt and indisputable, whether our national narratives or histories
do full justice to their efforts and impacts or not.
Yet as
anyone who has read this blog for more than a couple minutes knows, I think
more full and accurate national narratives and histories are pretty important
too. Partly that’s just because the Airmen deserve to be better remembered, to
have their contributions recognized for the amazingly meaningful American
histories and stories they were and are. Partly it’s because our national
narratives about African Americans still
tend to break down into either victims (of slavery, of Jim Crow, of racism in
general, and so on) or threats (too many contemporary narratives to cite, but
here’s one
good example), and the Airmen provide a welcome alternative to either role.
And partly it’s because they offer all of us a rare and crucial combination: the
opportunity to remember with more accuracy and complexity some of our more
painful American histories, and at the same time to be inspired by the best of
what America has been and can be. Lucas
may have stated that second point most clearly when he said that young
black kids “have a right to have their history … made corny and wonderful just
like anybody else does.” Word, George.
Unfortunately
Red Tails didn’t do as well as it
should have (yet—it can and hopefully will have a post-theatrical afterlife),
so that important American work continues. Final Memorial Day post this
weekend,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Any inspiring American war stories we should better remember?
6/1 Memory
Day nominee: John
Marshall Harlan, the Civil
War veteran and long-serving Supreme
Court Justice whose greatest legacy lies in his inspiring dissents on the Civil
Rights Cases (1883) and Plessy
v. Ferguson (1896).
No comments:
Post a Comment