When conservatives speak of Black authors as an unpatriotic threat to the very concept of the United States, I suspect they have articles like Richard Wright’s “Not My People’s War” in mind.
His 1941 essay is a provocative declaration that the premise of World War II being a battle for democracy was flawed, given that Black people in the U.S. still weren’t being granted equality.
Today, when political figures like Donald Trump speak of Black authors as insufficiently patriotic, they’re trying to delegitimize and warp the unique relationship that many Black people have with the United States of America, a nation whose laws once considered us virtually inhuman. But in many cases, Black patriotism means offering the sort of cutting criticism Wright provides in his essay.
That’s why Wright is the focus of today’s installment of “Black History, Uncensored,” our ongoing series focused on Black creators targeted by right-wing bans. Wright’s novels, including “Native Son,” are frequent targets for Republicans. But his nonfiction work would likely roil them, too.
For example, in “Not My People’s War,” Wright highlights a 1918 memo from white U.S. military officials to France’s military during World War I, warning that the French — that is, America’s allies during the war — were becoming too friendly with Black U.S. soldiers.
Fundamentally, “Not My People’s War” countered right-wing talking points framing the United States — and more specifically, the U.S. military — as an inarguable force for good.
“We must prevent the rise of any pronounced degree of intimacy between French officers and black officers,” the memo said. “We may be courteous and amiable with these last, but we cannot deal with them on the same plane as with the white American officers without deeply wounding the latter.” (Slate’s Rebecca Onion has a good writeup on the memo here.)
Fundamentally, “Not My People’s War” countered right-wing…
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