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"white man's wages" was for some a convincing argument<br />
that loyalty to the U.S. Empire made sense. It allowed A.<br />
Philip Randolph and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. to<br />
"prove" that their leadership paid off in cash - and that<br />
imperialist World War was "good" for Afrikans. And, of<br />
course, this process once again rein forced the neo-colonial<br />
idealogy in which Third- World people are told that they<br />
must look to the Federal Government in Washington as<br />
their ultimate 'friend" and protector. Roosevelt just<br />
replaced Lincoln on the altar. The process sugar-coated the<br />
forced exodus from the Afrikan South, and even allowed<br />
pro-imperialist propaganda to assert that the depopulation<br />
of the Afrikan Nation was a "benefit" to<br />
Afrikans.<br />
This "integration" into the main industrial<br />
economy, however dramatic its effects, only directly reached<br />
a minority of the nationally oppressed. For the first<br />
time, however, some significant number of colonial<br />
workers could struggle for the "American" lifestyle, with<br />
houses, automobiles, appliances, consumer items, college<br />
education for the children, and so on. Again, this was a<br />
semi-European standard of living - a miniaturized version<br />
of that of Euro-Amerikans, but materially well above<br />
that of other colonial peoples in Latin Amerika, Asia and<br />
Afrika. Imperialism cared little that most of the nationally<br />
oppressed here did not have those middle-wage jobs or the<br />
new petit-bourgeois positions opened up by token integration.<br />
What was important to imperialism was that these inviting<br />
possibilities for some created ideological confusion,<br />
pro-imperialist tendencies, and social disunity. They also<br />
were a magnet to draw people to the Northern industrial<br />
centers and out of the National Territory.<br />
The Dislocation of Imperialist War<br />
Amerika's colonies were forced to bear a heavy -<br />
and often disproportionate - share of the human cost of<br />
World War II. This was no accident. The Roosevelt Administration<br />
promoted this "Americanization" of the nationally<br />
oppressed, pushing and pulling as many Puerto<br />
Ricans, Indians, Asians, Chicano-Mexicanos, and<br />
Afrikans as possible to become involved in the U.S. war effort.<br />
Not only because we were needed as cannon fodder<br />
and war industry labor, but because mass participation inthe<br />
war disrupted our communities and encouraged proimperialist<br />
loyalties.<br />
Close to a million Afrikans alone served in the<br />
U.S. military during the 1940s. When we think about what<br />
it would have meant to subtract a million soldiers, sailors,<br />
and airmen from the Empire's global efforts we can see<br />
how important colonial troops were. In many Third-World<br />
communities the war burdens were very disproportionate.<br />
The Chinese community in New York, being so heavily unmarried<br />
men due to immigration laws, saw 40% of its total<br />
population drafted into the military .(68) In colonial Puerto<br />
Rico the imperialist draft drained the island; many did<br />
not return. One Puerto Rican writer recalls of his small<br />
town:<br />
in by military vehicles and placed in living rooms where<br />
they were mourned and viewed. The mournings never ceased<br />
in Salsipuedes! Almost every day I was awakened by the<br />
moans and wails of widows, parents, grandparents, and<br />
orphans whose loved one had died 'defending their country.'<br />
" (69)<br />
The same was true in the Chicano-Mexicano<br />
Southwest. Acuna notes that: "The percentage of<br />
Chicanos who served in the armed forces was disproportionate<br />
to the percentage of Chicanos in the general<br />
population." He further notes: "Chicanos, however, can<br />
readily remember how families proudly displayed banners<br />
with blue stars (each blue star representing a family<br />
member in the armed forces). Many families had as many<br />
as eight stars, with fathers, sons, and uncles all serving the<br />
U.S. war effort. Everyone recalls the absence of men between<br />
the ages of 17 through 30 in the barrios. As the war<br />
progressed, gold stars replaced the blue (gold representing<br />
men killed in action,), giving the barrios the appearance of<br />
a sea of death." (70)<br />
Third-World people were told, in effect, that if<br />
they helped the U.S. Empire win its greatest war, then at<br />
long last they too would get a share of the "democracy" as<br />
a reward. In every oppressed nation and national minority,<br />
many elements mobilized to push this deal. We should<br />
note that those political forces most opposed to this<br />
ideological "Americanization" were driven under or<br />
rendered ineffective by severe repression.<br />
Civil Rights leaders fell all over themselves in urging<br />
their people to go kill and die for the U.S. Empire. The<br />
rhetorical contortions were amazing. A. Philip Randolph,<br />
the supposed socialist, said that Afrikans should enlist in<br />
the admittedly unjust war in order to reform it! He admitted<br />
that: "This is not a war for freedom ... It is a war hetween<br />
the imperialism of Fascism and Nazism and the imperialism<br />
of monopoly capitalistic democracy." But, he<br />
told Afrikan workers, by getting an integrated war effort<br />
"the people can make it a peoples' revolution." (71) An<br />
avowed pacifist and advocate of total Afrikan nonviolence<br />
in the U.S., Randolph nevertheless said that it was right<br />
for Afrikans to fight in Asia and Europe.<br />
Following the same "Two Front War" thesis,<br />
Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. enthusiastically agreed<br />
that the Japanese attack on "our" base at Pearl Harbor<br />
forced Afrikans to fight - so long as the Government was<br />
going to give them integration:<br />
"On December 7, 1941, America for the first time<br />
in its history entered upon two wars simultaneously. One<br />
was a world war and the other a civil war. One was to be a<br />
bloody fight for the preservation and extension of<br />
democracy on a world basis - the other a bloodless<br />
revolution within these shores against a bastard<br />
democracy.<br />
"The sneak attack of the Japanese upon our mid-<br />
Pacific base was no more vicious than the open attacks<br />
that had been waged consistently for four hundred years<br />
against the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution<br />
and the Bill of Rights." (72)<br />
"I saw many bodies of young Puerto Ricans in Taking part in the imperialist war was praised as<br />
coffins covered with the American flag. They were brought 123 patriotic - not only to the U.S. but to "the race." By