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| "Go tell the world, passerby, that here in the ruins of Detroit, does the real legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen lie." |
In his autobiography Hard Stuff, Young describes himself as an MFIC (Mother Fucker in Charge), and peppers his sentences with the descriptive mother fucker after seemingly every other word. It’s perhaps the most honest look into a Black politicians thinking that has ever been published.
Fitting that in 1972, two years before the election of the city’s first Black mayor, the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. was founded in Detroit. It would be this organization that would strive to motivate and inspire America’s young to become participants in our nation’s democratic process, while working to spread the word on the enormous contributions those brave Nubian airmen gave to the victory in Europe during World War II.
After all, the MFIC himself was a Tuskegee Airmen. One of the lesser known stories regarding the Tuskegee Airmen – save that they did lose a number of bombers they escorted – is what transpired stateside with these brave Nubian soldiers of God:
By 1945, B-25 bomber squadrons with the 447th were deployed to Freeman Army Air Field outside Seymour, Ind., where Second Lieutenant Lawrence served as a navigator/bombardier. Although officers' clubs were officially desegregated under military regulars, commanders at Freeman Field refused to serve black officers.
In April 1945, Tuskegee Airmen, led by 2nd Lt. Coleman Young, who went on to become the mayor of Detroit, decided to challenge base authorities. Young was among 19 Airmen initially arrested after refusing to leave the club. Two other civil disobedience actions followed during a two-day protest, resulting in the arrests of 161 officers, including Lawrence.
Ultimately, the military secured only one conviction, nailing Lt. Robert Terry on a charge of jostling another officer during the protest. Terry was drummed out of the Army Air Corps with a $150 fine, loss of rank and a dishonorable discharge. But in 1995, Terry received a full pardon, a refund and restoration of rank. Other participating Tuskegee Airmen had letters of reprimand removed from their files.
That MFIC… always in the forefront of change! Fitting that his name graces scores of buildings in the town that freedom failed (under his watch) in, where concepts such as Democracy, self-government and equality took a fatal nosedive from which they shall never recover. Well, at least when the pilot flying the plane is Black.
Detroit is a ruined city now (the Visible Black Hand of Economics), where no grocery chain can stay open because the once might metropolitan, now blessed with an 84 percent Black population can’t sustain one:
Ninety-two percent of food options in the city come from party and liquor stores, forcing residents into making nutrition choices in unsafe and unsanitary conditions, according to a report released Thursday.In 2008, the city's last two Farmer Jack stores closed, leaving Detroit without a major chain grocery store. Independent stores such as Mike's Fresh Market or Foodland are among the options some city residents use for groceries. Still, city residents spend nearly $200 million a year on groceries in stores outside the city, according to the report.
This is the true legacy of Tuskegee Airmen. There advancements for “freedom” destroyed Detroit. Fitting that the MFIC Coleman Young himself was elected mayor of The Motor City when its fate was sealed happened to have been a Tuskegee Airmen.
Talk about poetic justice!
Even more fitting, the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum is found in Detroit, for the former “Arsenal of Democracy” owes it dilapidated and ghostly state to the existence of these Black airmen. That Detroit is on the verge of being taking over by the state of Michigan while the movie Red Tails debuts in theaters is more proof that God has a sense of humor.
In fact, let’s allow the president of that museum a moment to explain the significance of the airmen:
The Red Tails — the nickname comes from the paint job on their planes — finally got their chance at the big time in 1944, escorting heavy bombers over German territory. With their new orders, the Tuskegee Airmen not only lodged the war's most-successful track record in protecting long-range bombers from enemy attack, a feat even Pentagon brass couldn't overlook, but they also demolished notions of inferiority.
"It used to be said that the Tuskegee Airmen never lost a bomber to the enemy," says Brian Smith, president of the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum at Detroit's Fort Wayne. "But research shows we lost about 25 bombers in 205 missions. All the same, nobody else can brag about that kind of success rate."
In that same article, we learn this, which cuts like a dagger the heart of the Tuskegee Airmen story out of its still beating chest:
Like much of the country, in World War II, the U.S. military was segregated with white and black servicemen on separate bases, and the latter mostly relegated to menial tasks far from the front lines. In particular, African-American pilots for much of the war were prevented from engaging the enemy in the air — instead doing "mop-up" operations far from the front, taking out Nazi trains and trucks.
Who were these Black fighter pilots facing in the air? Foo Fighters?
One article published recently about the fledging national museum states that 10- 20 of the original surviving Tuskegee Airmen currently call Detroit home. “Original?” Has a thriving circuit of impersonators popped up?
But let’s get back to Brian Smith, the president of the national museum. Here’s what he told the Sun-Sentinel:
"These men were superheroes," said Brian Smith, director of the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum in Detroit. "They actually did superhuman things during the war."
Smith, 54, said he was 12 when his father first told him their story. He called it inspirational and said a Tuskegee Airman taught him to fly.
More than 990 men trained at Tuskegee before it was shut down. About 400 of them flew missions over Europe and North Africa during the war, with ground fire or routine accidents killing 78 of them.
Many credit HBO's groundbreaking 1995 movie "The Tuskegee Airmen," for highlighting their historical feats. There have been several documentaries made, as well, including "Double Victory" and "Silver Wings & Civil Rights: The Fight to Fly."
“Superheroes?” Considering that the ‘groundbreaking’ 1995 film established one lie after another as fact, perhaps the day will come when we learn these Black fighter pilots used telepathy to steer the planes and some form of mutant power to deflect incoming missiles from the bombers they escorted.
In a hilariously inaccurate column by The Detroit Free Press Rochelle Riley (she claims that the Airmen never lost a bomber – a fact that is still in most American text books), Smith is quoted yet again:
Dr. Brian Smith, director of the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum at old Ft. Wayne in southwest Detroit, couldn't wait to see the film at a Saturday screening.
"The main thing we hope the movie will do is portray the Airmen as superheroes," Smith said. "I feel they are superheroes. And with superhero status, people, we hope, will research and find out who they were, what actually happened to them, what kinds of racial things they had to go through ... and in doing that, they'll search out the museum and find out about our youth programs and want to support us."
“Superheroes?” Really. It’s fitting that these ‘superheroes’ have drifted to Detroit, living out their remaining days in a city that fellow Tuskegee Airmen – the MFIC himself – Coleman Young inflicted the final fatal blow that has led to Detroit slowly bleeding out (though few dare give the real reason why).
Superheroes the Tuskegee Airmen were not. But like Coleman Young, the current craze over a bunch of pilots whose only true accomplishment revolves around their tributes in helping us understand that freedom has failed, the Red Tails are an elaborate hoax.
Life is balance. In the final days of “free” Black-run Detroit - where Coleman Young International Airport, with the Tuskegee Airmen National Museum but a stones throw away rest – you now know the true heritage of what the Red Tails represents.
Detroit died, because Black could fly.
But perhaps Smith is right, maybe these men our superheroes…
While watching the previews for Red Tails, it finally dawned on me what this movie represents: 300 for Black people. Remember Zack Snyder’s 2008 film? Based on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300 tells the tale of King Leonidas and the brave Spartans who were slaughtered fighting Xerxes massive army.
The movie was laughed at by critics, but it sparked a nerve with moviegoers earning huge box office receipts, turning Gerhard Butler (who played Leonidas) overnight into an “A” list star.
I’ve long wondered why this movie was made. It depicts white men kicking some serious ass (largely non-white ass mind you) in a time when white actors (primarily Americans) are being phased out of being projected as bad-asses. Just ask Thomas Jane or that goofy white guy from Fast and the Furious franchise.
Juxtapose this thought with the question of why Red Tails was made: outside of Black people, who really wants to see a movie about Black pilots? Though it was fraught with errors, the casting of Top Gun was nearly flawless from a racially correct standing of who actually flies the fighters in our military.
Red Tails even shows the Black fighter pilots engaging in some contemporary pre-sports competition Nubian ritual (where the team comes together to get pumped up), where they huddle together and shout in unison, “We Fight! We Fight.”
How inspiring!
The New York Times Stephen Holden wrote these words in a review of the film:
This much-decorated squadron of African-American pilots, whose P-51 Mustangs were painted with red tails, flew thousands of missions between 1943 and 1945. They discredited an outrageously racist 1925 Army War College study that asserted that blacks lacked the intelligence, ambition and courage to serve in combat. The mere existence of this movie and Mr. Lucas’s imprimatur could be seen as significant morale boosters for African-American men whose World War II service still remains woefully underrecognized.
Hate to burst your bubble Steve, but the reality is only in a segregated unit could Black pilots succeed against other Black pilots. The learning curve was only against other brothers. As we have seen since integration, few Black pilots in flight training can compete with the learning curve set by white pilots.
No matter, Red Tails is the attempt to create superheroes out of the Black fighter pilots of World War II (because no other war can provide anything but a few token Black pilots).
With this post, I’m done writing about Red Tails at SBPDL. What we are told is such an obvious lie, that someone had to write about it.
But I’m reminded of the last lines from 300, when Dilios tells the story of Leonidas death to inspire the Spartans and Greeks to wage one last war against Xerxes:
This day we rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny and usher in a future brighter than anything we can imagine.
In a nutshell, that sums up what SBPDL has become: we wage a war against the concept of Black-Run America (BRA), which has made improving Black people’s lives at the expense of the nation’s health a religion, with anyone who dares question this concept a heretic, who is immediately excommunicated.
BRA is tyranny, and it must be opposed. But BRA is the MFIC (to borrow Coleman Young’s favorite term), so we too must work to rescue a world from mysticism and tyranny, if we are to ensure that our future is not one big Detroit.
And never forget, it was a vaunted Tuskegee Airmen who steered Detroit into the ground. Soon, she'll officially be six feet under.
Detroit's status in 2012 is their true legacy.
Detroit's status in 2012 is their true legacy.
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