Afro-Germans, multidirectional memory and French colonial aphasia: The legacy of the First World War in Galadio by Didier Daeninckx

This article offers an analysis of mnemonic traces in Galadio, Didier Daeninckx’s 2010 novel. I demonstrate that by fictionalizing the history of the persecution of Afro-Germans under National Socialism, the novel exposes antiblackness as a neglected phenomenon of the Third Reich. Synchronously, applying Michael Rothberg’s theoretical framework, the article discusses the dialogue between Jewish and Afro-German legacies of violence in the novel, as well as the intricate relation between colony, camp and what Paul Gilroy defines as camp mentality. Furthermore, I argue that Daeninckx engages with French colonial aphasia: in my interpretation, his oblique approach to the French imperial past conveys its simultaneous presence and absence, which is key to disabled memory. Finally, I focus on the ethics of commemoration in Galadio, which claims space for black soldiers in French collective memory of the two world wars, yet at the same time challenges imperial loyalties and homogeneous approaches to French national identity.

RACE DISCRIMINATION IN TONY KUSHNER’S MOVIE SCRIPT LINCOLN

This research is concerned with the race discrimination in Tony Kushner’s movie script Lincoln. A story of four months of struggle of Lincoln and the Republican party and its supporters to pass the 13th amendment which formally abolished slavery in the United States passing the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865 and approved by President Abraham Lincoln on February 1, 1865. The analysis focuses on the types of race discrimination: the direct and the indirect of race discrimination and the negative impacts of race discrimination adopted from Liliweri. This research used descriptive qualitative research. The one adopted in the research is proposed by Khotari and Bogdan Taylor. The finding shows that the direct race discrimination is an act of limiting a job based on race. It comes from black soldiers. There is also a tendency to discriminate between groups and beliefs with human law itself. The negative impacts of race discrimination are slavery and civil war. Furthermore, race discrimination also causes heavy casualties between whites and blacks by taking over place the territories of the minority.

Black Soldiers in World War II America

The history of the African American military experience in World War II tends to revolve around two central questions: How did World War II and American racism shape the black experience in the American military? And how did black GIs reshape the parameters of their wartime experiences? From the mid-1920s through the Great Depression years of the 1930s, military planners evaluated the performance of black soldiers in World War I while trying to ascertain their presence in future wars. However, quite often their discussions about African American servicemen in the military establishment were deeply moored in the traditions, customs, and practices of American racism, racist stereotypes, and innuendo. Simultaneously, African American leaders and their allies waged a relentless battle to secure the future presence of the uniformed men and women who would serve in the nation’s military. Through their exercise of voting rights, threats of protest demonstration, litigation, and White House lobbying from 1939 through 1942, civil rights advocates and their affiliates managed to obtain some minor concessions from the military establishment. But the military’s stubborn adherence to a policy barring black and white soldiers from serving in the same units continued through the rest of the war. Between 1943 and 1945, black GIs faced white officer hostility, civilian antagonism, and military police brutality while undergoing military training throughout the country. Similarly, African American servicewomen faced systemic racism and sexism in the military during the period. Throughout various stages of the American war effort, black civil rights groups, the press, and their allies mounted the opening salvoes in the battle to protect and defend the wellbeing of black soldiers in uniform. While serving on the battlefields of World War II, fighting African American GIs became foot soldiers in the wider struggles against tyranny abroad. After returning home in 1945, black World War II-era activists such as Daisy Lampkin and Ruby Hurley, and ex-servicemen and women, laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement.

Lojalni portugalskim monarchom – militarne oddziały czarnoskórych w kolonialnej Brazylii

[Being loyal to the Portuguese monarchs – the black regiments in colonial Brazil] The present paper discusses the “racial” loyalty and “class” solidarity of black soldiers towards other fugitive black slaves during colonial Brazil. Having sworn loyalty and allegiance to the Portuguese monarchs, those soldiers joined the war against the quilombos located far from major urban centers. This study examines black soldiers’ petitions and official correspondence regarding their military careers. The documents are part of the collection of the Historical Overseas Archive in Lisbon.

Race on the Wire

This chapter addresses Nancy Cunard’s extensive journalism for the Associated Negro Press, and her transparency in claiming that she made “no attempt at all at objective reporting” as she argued against fascism and racism. With the help of gay, white artist and photographer John Banting, Cunard continued to stand up to the barrage of hostility directed at her for her on-going reporting on behalf of black and brown races, Arabs, and Africans. The chapter gives an account of her professional relationship with Charles A. Burnett, director of the Chicago-based Associated Negro Press and her interviews giving voice to black soldiers, war nurses, refugees, and prisoners.