A few weeks ago we had a discussion in class that was about what person or group changed a game or culture. The first thing I thought of were the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee
Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in the United
States armed forces. During World War II, African Americans in many U.S.
states were still subject to the Jim Crow laws The American military was racially segregated,
as was much of the federal government. The Tuskegee Airmen were
subjected to racial discrimination, both within and outside the army.
Despite these adversities, they trained and flew with distinction.
Primarily made up of African Americans, there were also five Tuskegee
Airmen of Haitian descent.
If the Tuskegee experiment wasn't a success, I honestly do not think African-Americans nor minorities would have the opportunity to be in the Air Force flying planes or being on the ground working as engineers. Also, there is a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen that I highly recommend called Red Tails.
The Tuskegee Airman were in essence the Jackie Robinson of baseball. That is to say that they were directly responsible for the eventual collapse of the color barrier in the United States Air Force. Their story can be viewed as a racial and/or political game if one looks deep enough into the program, and their success in these games is undoubtable. I do disagree with one point of your post, however. I am very surprised that you believe African-Americans would STILL not be able to be in the air force had it not been for the Tuskegee Airmen. While they were the driving force behind the destruction of the color barrier, the notion that the U.S. would elect an African-American as president before allowing African-Americans to serve in the military is one that i find, respectfully, absurd. Yes it would have taken much longer for integration to occur, but a projection of the 1960s during the civil rights movement would be a much more reasonable approximation.
ReplyDeleteHey Dustin, I completely agree with you and I did misspeak. But I do think that if the experiment had failed then it would have been a longer time span in which African-Americans had the opportunity in serving equally along side white Americans in the Air Force. As a result prolonging the election of an African-American male to presidency.
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