Where have all the black soldiers gone? African-Americans not in Eastwood's new WWII film

The Guardian (UK) ^ | October 21, 2006 | Dan Glaister

[EveningStar]

On February 19 1945 Thomas McPhatter found himself on a landing craft heading toward the beach on Iwo Jima...

Sadly, Sgt McPhatter's experience is not mirrored in Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's big-budget, Oscar-tipped film of the battle for the Japanese island that opened on Friday in the US. While the film's battle scenes show scores of young soldiers in combat, none of them are African-American. Yet almost 900 African-American troops took part in the battle of Iwo Jima, including Sgt McPhatter...

[SmoothTalker]

Not only that but the movie lacks gays, muslims, and puerto ricans.

[toddlintown]

Where were all the white people in "Barbershop?"

[PJ-Comix]

There will be a two hour History Channel special on the Iwo Jima Flag raisers tonight followed by an hour show about the Iwo Jima battle in general. I plan to watch it. I highly recommend "Flags Of Our Fathers." I didn't see the plight of Ira Hayes as being a PC attack on Whites. Knowing something of his story I think it was fairly accurate. Actually the guy who came off bad was Rene Gagnon.

[KellyAdmirer]

Come on, everybody knows that WWII was won by the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo code talkers, and a bunch of white guys on the fringes. What world are you living in, anyway? ;)

[Siena Dreaming]

Depressing, yes.

And horrible...I use that word because of the PC euthanasia message. Ugh.

[2nd Bn, 11th Mar]

Probably no BAMs had starring roles either.

Semper Fi,

[RaceBannon]

From what I read, The Rene Gagnon part was most likely the most accurate! :)

[Chewie84]

I just saw the film this afternoon, and I thought it was okay. The only small problem was that I thought it focused just a little bit too much on Ira and not enough on the three other flag- planting soldiers who died at Iwo Jima. For instance, "Iggy" Ignatowski was only actually seen in a few of the flashback scenes, and even then, he was portrayed as just a stereotypical dumb comic relief character up until his death.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Historical precedent. Scott's novel, Ivanhoe.

[sanjacjake]

As one who was on a Carrier off Iwo Jima..you are so
right...Blacks were not that involved because of the
separaton of Units,etc. Most people read this headline
and think that racism is the reason....so many that
don't know their a$$ about History, and that includes
WWll, and those that consider themselves experts....
Clint and his advisors would do well to ignore these
type of innuendos..let the bastards hang in the wind
before they get the rope cut...Jake

[Ax]

Watching WW2 unfold on the History Channel, I saw a lot of black soldiers manning "The Red Ball Express," running convoys of gasoline, ammo and chow up to the front. I'd say they did their part.

[CT]

Just saw the movie, and it showed only one scene with Black Americans.

Watched with my former WWII Marine Dad. He explained that Marines were late to integrate, and that the Army had a lot of blacks. As he recalled, many blacks were cooks, and not in combat role at time of Iwo.

I am also a former Marine, and just came back from my son's graduation from boot camp at MCRD San Diego.

One thing struck me as I watched over 500 new Marines last Friday was the clear absence of Black Americans in numbers similar to my time during Vietnam. Back then I estimate that Black marines were about equal to their proportion in the general population. Friday I was actually shocked at the absence of Blacks from the ranks. My estimate was there were less than 20 out of 576.

Anyone else have similar observations, or a possible explanation as to what might be going on?

[CT]

As he recalled, many blacks were cooks, and not in combat role at time of Iwo. Having now seen the original post more clearly, I stand corrected on the absence of Blacks at Iwo. I will also tell my dad, who was in the airwing and not on ground.

[Snoopers-868th]

I would be curious how many black marines there were in WW-II. I suspect none and that is the reason they are not in the film.

[Clemenza]

I live in a large urban area, and have noticed A LOT of Hispanics in the junior ROTC clubs at the local high schools, but not as many blacks (relative to the population at large).

I believe that black Americans remain present in large numbers in the Army and Navy. It would be interesting to see if their numbers have dropped or grown over the past 15 years.

[Plains Drifter]

No blacks in the USMC untill 1949, war was over.

[AnAmericanMother]

Ya don't even have to be in a war, you can be run over by a city bus.

My hubby was in the pipeline when the war ended, so he never went, but his driver managed to roll their jeep down a hill at Fort Drum NY during summer camp . . . landed upright and both of them were thrown clear. The jeep wasn't even injured, neither were they.

Took about 25 guys to drag it up out of the woods though.

[AnAmericanMother]

My dad was never fond of the Tuskegee Airmen, because they mistakenly bombed and strafed his unit's position in Italy.

But you can't talk about that . . .

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

Post #32 totally nailed it

[longtermmemmory]

Revisionist history has race quotas.

Remember what they tried to do to the 9/11 flag raising.

So much for the colorblind society.