"Semper novi quid ex Africa, cried the Roman proconsul; and he voiced the verdict of forty centuries. Yet there are those who would write world history and leave out this most marvelous of continents. Particularly today most men assume that Africa lies far afield from the centers of our burning social problems, and especially from our present problem of World War. Nearly every human empire that has arisen in the world, material and spiritual, has found some of its greatest crises on this continent of Africa, from Greece to Great Britain. As Mommsen says, 'It was through Africa that Christianity became the religion of the world.' In Africa the last flood of Germanic invasions spent itself within hearing of the last gasp of Byzantium, and it was through Africa that Islam came to play its great role of conqueror and civilizer." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, from the Atlantic Monthly, May, 1915.
These profoundly visionary words were written nearly 100 years ago, as the world struggled with the same painful questions that still haunt us a generation later.
Du Bois, the now-famous founder of the Niagara Movement, which would become the cornerstone for the NAACP, was commenting on what he called the "paradox" that put America at the helm of the ship of state, steering a rough course toward a "new democratic despotism," determined to impose its will on the rest of the world, whether the rest of the world wanted it or not.
Perhaps it is this perception that underlies the growing racial divide in America, a deepening rift between blacks and whites on the issue of the war on Iraq.
Could our different histories explain our divergence on this overwhelming issue? After all, we were on the receiving end of American-style "shock and awe" in Birmingham and Selma, in Texas and in Florida. We do indeed have different histories.
And our politics tend to be a tad different too. Most African-Americans are Democrats, and as such, few of us supported Bush for president, so it's no surprise that there might be a little disagreement, but the numbers are huge.
In a recent Gallup poll, 72 percent of the people interviewed endorse the war, while 25 percent oppose it. But of all of those interviewed, just 29 percent of African-Americans endorse it and 69 percent are opposed to the war. That's a HUGE difference!
According to Defense Department statistics, minorities represent about 37 percent of the military's 1.3 million troops. But as is the case among a large number of non-blacks too, many of the enlistees signed up as an alternative to poverty. For a lot of people, the military was the only way out.
All over the country, small farms are disappearing. The small towns that used to depend on those farms are drying up too. The families left out there are moving over to the next largest towns, which cannot absorb the influx of unemployed, untrained young men and women.
So they are like fresh new meat to the armed forces recruiters. From the farm to the Army they go like lambs.
The exact same thing is happening in the big cities, where major industry is laying off and shutting down faster than the economy can absorb the workforce. But in the cities and the South, the young unemployed are most likely to be black men and women.
It was this realization, that the poor and working-class kids are being forced into the military, that led Reps. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.) to ask the House to consider legislation to reinstate the draft. The United States has not drafted troops since 1973, but as Conyers said, "Once the conscription process for service in the military becomes universal and mandatory for all those who meet the criteria, it removes the long-held stigma that people of color and persons from low-income backgrounds are disproportionately killed and injured while serving as ground troops on the front line."
Black recruits do not tend to join the military to fight in the infantry. Historically, they have been clustered around the support services, such as field supplies, food preparation, medical support and, increasingly, computer technology.
In fact, Shoshana Johnson, the 30-year-old black woman shown all over the world as a terrified, captured soldier, was serving as a cook. Like tens of thousands of other poor and black recruits seeking training for skills they can use later when they are discharged and sent back out to compete in the economy, Johnson did not sign up to go to war with Iraq.
Of course, black America is no monolith. There are plenty of blacks, especially veterans, who support the war and the president, and clearly the majority support the soldiers, but not the war and certainly not Bush, whom they view as hostile toward issues that affect them directly, like affirmative action.
Many see the expenditure of billions for the war as a waste of money which should be spent on education, health care, housing and crime prevention.
Outside the United States, many Africans feel the war will have "dire consequences" for Africa. Writing for the African newspaper, the Daily News (Harare), Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem said, "Africa will suffer many direct and indirect consequences of the Anglo-American war on Iraq."
As the war enters its third week, there is a widening gap between blacks and whites around the world about the real objective, meaning and purpose of the war.
When it's all over, we will be left again to answer the question so often asked over the centuries by men and women who ponder and write, seeking meaning in the violence and often-hollow victories that even a just war sometimes brings.
In the immortal words of the late Charles "Edwin Starr" Hatcher: "War, huh, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!"
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 8 2003 |