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One of the stories my uncle Leo told me about the war…

He served in WWII, in the European theater, and while the U.S. sent segregated troops, they found that the Europeans weren’t biased in the same way that the white American soldiers generally were. He told me, the white Americans especially sought to keep European women away from the African American soldiers, so they put about the rumor that the black soldiers "had tails".

Talk about misunderstanding basic human nature. 🙄

The women, who had probably just seen the black men as men, became very curious and were subsequently watching for the black soldiers and approaching them en mass. My uncle, who was 18 and single (and very handsome) back then was asked if he "had a tail" and said his standard reply was, "only in front !" 🤭
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Captain · 61-69, M
What a bizarre story - needless to say I’ve never heard of that one before. Not the sort of thing they put on the history channel.
@Captain I suspect it’s not something American historians are very proud of.
Captain · 61-69, M
@bijouxbroussard They are getting more and more material they can be embarrased about now so it’ll keep them in a job.
@Captain Indeed, brand new stuff.
Captain · 61-69, M
@bijouxbroussard Brand new to me anyway. Thank you again Bijou, you keep enligthening me and thats one of the things life is for, being enlightened.
@Captain I mean brand new stuff to be embarrassed about.
And now we can’t blame it on the "bad old days" because we know better.
Captain · 61-69, M
@bijouxbroussard Certainly not the collective “we” because this seems to be the new time of hate anger and division and it seems to be gradually “fractulling” down the tree to total discontent though I dont get thatg feeling here in the UK because we have a government determined to try and create untiy - at least outside its own members, and leadership matters.
@Captain They know better, too. They just don’t care because they can say things with impunity right now. Recently uber conservative Ann Coulter made the comment, "We didn’t kill enough Indians", and in times past, she would’ve been done.

She would’ve never had a public voice again anywhere in our country, because that’s unequivocally hate speech. Americans are going to have to get sick of being the world’s pariah because of Trump and his minions. And it will happen. We’re not naturally isolationists, and as a country we don’t like being hated.
@Captain I just remembered there was a British documentary about the black American soldiers and how the white Americans tried to enforce segregation in English pubs.
walabby · M
@bijouxbroussard Wasn't there a huge riot because of this? I seem to remember reading an article about one such incident...
@walabby Yes, there was.