Suggested Answers to the Second Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

.

There follow Yours Truly’s questions provoked by Chapters 1 - 5.

It is respectfully suggested that you make a list of your own questions that are provoked –

since all of us are unique and your questions are worth discussing also!!!


Question 1

Wasn’t the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War (Chapter 1) actually a war between fascism (as Half American makes clear) and communism (which Half American does not seem to mention until briefly at the end of the chapter pp. 23-24)?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Do many of those who fought or supported the anti-Fascists in the Spanish Civil War claim that they were NOT communist with the explanation that communist countries were the only countries supporting the elected Spanish government?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Were the “International Brigades” in which many African-Americans participated per Half American, soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front Government of the Second Spanish Republic?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Does Half American also mention often the “Abraham Lincoln Brigade” without explaining that this was a group of Americans (including African Americans) who were organized by the Communist International in 1936 and that it comprised several battalions including the Lincoln Battalion and the Washington Battalion which were all part of the XV International Brigade?

Answer 4

Yes.

Question 5

Were the Republican forces proverbial “cannon fodder” because Fascist leader General Francisco Franco had the latest German and Italian airplanes and weapons?

Answer 5

Unfortunately!!!

Question 6

Does this remind you of the 1967 and 1973 Arab/Israeli wars which proved American weapons were superior to Soviet weapons, producing “peace” in the Middle East for more than 3 decades?

Answer 6

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 7

BTW, Half American claims (pp, 16-17) that the war against fascism actually started October 1935 when Mussolini’s Italian Army invaded Ethiopia and “…there were more than eight million Black Men in America alone awaiting only transportation to rush to the defense of Ethiopia” – does this seem plausible???

Answer 7

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

After all, the total U.S. population in 1935 was only 127.3 million of which only 11.9 million were Black.

So how could 8 million Black men be “awaiting only transportation to rush to the defense of Ethiopia” IF THERE WERE ONLY 6 MILLION BLACK MEN IN TOTAL???

Question 8

Does Chapter 2 (Fighting for a Chance to Fight) chronicle how the segregation of the military (which Half American does not mention began with Woodrow Wilson) reinforced prejudice as one generation of white military personnel succeeded another generation of white military personnel?

Answer 8

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

BTW, non-Octogenarians do not seem to know that military service from the Civil War through at least WW-II was a Southern White tradition according considerable social status.

Just like Brits of any officer rank, no matter how humble, were accorded considerable social (almost god-like) status during the heyday of the British Empire.

Question 9

Was there a fight over whether America’s brand-new military draft (aka Selective Service Act) would include anti-discrimination provisions? Despite their inclusion, were they largely ignored, especially because draft boards were managed at the state and local level?

Answer 9

Yes.

Question 10

Were many Blacks turned away by the Army due to its General Classification Test? BTW, did this result in Jim Crow laws denying Blacks the right to vote because they failed rigorous tests?

Answer 10

Turned away by the Army – Yes.

Re the Army's General Classification Test resulting in Jim Crow laws - ABSOLUTELY THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!

Literacy tests were used as an effective tool for disenfranchising African Americans in the Southern United States between the 1850's and 1960's. So it would appear that the Army's General Classification Test during WW-II "took its cue" from the long-standing Jim Crow laws.

Question 11

Did Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox announce that Blacks would be segregated and could serve only as mess attendants?

Answer 11

Yes.

Question 12

Is this similar to the later Navy policy when Yours Truly was a Navy Officer 1967-1970 (Ensign > Lieutenant (j.g.) > Lieutenant) that citizens of America’s former colony The Philippines could become American citizens by serving in the U.S. Navy as stewards? And any non-Filipino who served as a steward “had a screw loose”?

Answer 12

Yes and Yes.

Question 13

Was Franklin Roosevelt almost defeated in 1940 for a third term by Wendell Wilkie over racism in both the military and the defense industries, because so many Blacks had migrated to Northern cities?

Answer 13

Yes.

Question 14

A Your Truly “special” (not mentioned in Half American but building on Q-13) – was there a massive migration from the South where Black “share croppers” competed (per “Mexico” by James Michener) against Southern Plantation owners who, following the Civil War War, simply went to Mexico and resumed operations there with slave labor – to the industrial north? Did Yours Truly grow up in a Michigan General Motors city with 3-4 dozen General Motors plants, where he, born in 1942, had a “first row seat” to the racism practiced by “The Arsenal of Democracy” which manufactured not only all the jeeps, tanks, etc., BUT MOST OF THE BOMBERS AND OTHER MILITARY AIRCRAFT? And did General Motors invent the term “Equal Opportunity Employer” which, in reality, meant that if you were Black, you could work in the Satanic heat of GM’s foundries, while whites were sent to the assembly plants?

Answer 14

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 15

Does Chapter 3 (March on Washington), chronicle how A. Philip Randolph formed in January 1941 (11 months before Pearl Harbor 12/7/1941) a March on Washington Movement to force Black employment in the defense industries? By the end of May, was FDR convinced there would be 100,000 marchers? Did Randolph successfully negotiate with FDR the issuance of Executive Order 8802 which forbade discrimination in defense industries and job training programs, and set up the Fair Employment Practices Committee (FEPC) to enforce the order? Did Randolf, in exchange, call off the March?

Answer 15

Yes – Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 16

Was Executive Order 8802 silent about discrimination in the military?

Answer 16

Yes.

Question 17

Did the FEPC lack the staff and budget to investigate more than a fraction of the racial discrimination cases in the defense industries? Did the FEPC also lack the power to fine or even subpoena defense contractors who violated the Executive Order?

Answer 17

Yes – Yes.

Question 18

Is most of Chapter 4 (At War Down South) devoted to how Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP successfully defended Black engineers when the all-Black 94th Engineer Battalion was transferred from Fort Custer Michigan to Gurdon Arkansas where they were forced to flee for their lives, most of them fleeing back to Fort Custer Michigan?

Answer 18

Yes.

Question 19

Was Yours Truly struck by the fact (p. 75) that part of the NAACP defense involved a “mass meeting at the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Detroit”?

Answer 19

Please read on.

Question 20

Was this because, as often noted universally during that era – “Sunday morning is the most-segregated hour of the week in America”!!! And AME (African Methodist Episcopal) churches were the Black Methodist churches which, of course, were not permitted in the all-white United Methodist Church organization (“united” after the merger of the Northern U.S. and Canadian Methodist churches with the Southern Methodists whose famous Southern Methodist University in Dallas churned out white ministers)?

Answer 20

Yes – Yes.

Question 21

Indeed, in the first posting in this month’s Participant Comments section of our website (please see viewtopic.php?f=833&t=2576&sid=2ff052b5 ... 8650e9ca5b), wasn’t there considerable comment about Sections 4 and 5 of our website entitled “Legal Briefs, Etc. - Inner-City Holocaust and America’s Apartheid “Justice” System (In Honor of Jonathan Kozol and In Memory of John Howard Griffin)” for which our final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011 specified the “Question Presented for Review” was –

“Can state court judges order their decisions which they know are diametrically-opposed to well-settled law, not to be published or cited (a strategy labeled ‘the segregated toilet’ in correspondence with 51 inner-city clergy who represent the 10 million inner-city children who have been disclosed from the outset as the ‘real parties at interest’ in this law suit) in order to flush away the rights of the 10 million inner-city children without disturbing the rights of first-class American citizens -- without violating the ‘Equal Protection of the Law’ requirement of the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution?”

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

Was the reason for this long-winded digression (starting with Q-18) that approximately 1/3 of the 51 clergy led Methodist churches – roughly half of which were AME churches and roughly half of which were all-Black United Methodist Churches???!!!

Answer 22

Yes.

Question 23

And although the United Methodist Church STILL HAS NOT TO THIS DAY permitted the AME churches to join, the United Methodist Church by 2011 had about a dozen all-Black United Methodist Churches in California BECAUSE, AS THE NEIGHBORHOODS CHANGED AROUND THOSE DOZEN OR SO PREVIOUSLY ALL-WHITE METHODIST CHURCHES, THE COLOR OF THEIR CONGREGATIONS ALSO CHANGED???!!!

Answer 23

Yes.

Question 24

Was Yours Truly also “dumb founded” by the NAACP’s success in defending the Court Martials of the members of the all-Black 94th Engineer Battalion when they fled Arkansas in fear of their lives???

Answer 24

Please read on.

Question 25

Was the reason for being “dumb founded” that when Yours Truly was a Naval Officer 1967-1970 (Ensign > Lieutenant (j.g.) > Lieutenant) the Military “Justice” System was a farce???!!!

Answer 25

Yes!!!

Question 26

Not only because Congress was forced to quickly amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice because at the beginning of World War II (not mentioned in Half American), Courts Martial at that time could expel service personnel with either a “bad conduct” or “dishonorable” discharge without their being defended by an attorney?

Answer 26

Yes!!!

Question 27

But also because, even during 1967-1970, if anyone stepped out of line, the Navy could make the miscreant wish he had never been born by, for example, being assigned to cleaning your ship’s bilge 24/7???!!!

Answer 27

Yes!!!

Question 28

And the only reason for Court Martialling anyone is your Skipper had “given up” on a miscreant and WANTED A REPLACEMENT???!!! Which could only be achieved with a either a Special or a General Court Martial which imposed a sentence of at least 4 months confinement at hard labor and 4 months forfeiture of 2/3 pay (a Special could actually impose “6, 6 and a kick” – the “kick” being a Bad Conduct Discharge – whereas a General Court Martial could impose a death sentence)???!!!

Answer 28

Yes!!! – Yes.

Question 29

So the officers sitting on the Court Martial (i.e., the “jury”) knew that their “duty” required them to convict and impose at least “4 & 4” or there would be “hell to pay” with their Skipper???!!! YOU WOULDN’T BE THERE IF YOU WEREN’T GUILTY AND THE SKIPPER HAD GIVEN UP ON YOU???!!!

Answer 29

Yes!!! – Yes!!!

Question 30

Does the latter part of Chapter 4 deal with the 10/31/1941 sinking of the U.S. Navy Destroyer “Reuben James” by Nazi U-Boats 5 weeks before Pearl Harbor? Was the Reuben James part of the screen protecting the convoy carrying supplies to Britain under the Lend-Lease Act? Was the Reuben James the first American WW-II casualty in which 93 enlisted men and all 7 officers died (with 44 enlisted survivors)?

Answer 30

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 31

Did the dead include 3 Black enlisted men? Were they, of course, “messmen” because of the U.S. Navy policy that Blacks could only serve as “messmen”?

Answer 31

Yes – Yes.

Question 32

Does Chapter 5 (Remember Pearl Harbor, Remember Sikeston Too) contain beau coup stories about how beau coup Blacks as Navy “messmen” who were only deemed fit to serve meals to whites, were among the dead at Pearl Harbor – many after acting heroically before being killed?

Answer 32

Yes.

Question 33

Does it even tell how the first casualty in the Japanese attack on the Philippines the following day was Robert Brooks, a tank driver in the 192nd Tank Battalion, for whom Commanding General Jacob Davies – Chief of US Armored Force – held a dedication ceremony at Fort Knox (yes, the military installation in Kentucky which, inter alia, was where all of America’s gold used to be protected before Pres. Nixon took America off The Gold Standard 8/15/1971 because too many foreign countries were converting their U.S. dollars into gold) 15 days later on 12/23/1941 to honor that tank driver?

Answer 33

Yes.

Question 34

Did US Armored Force (i.e., tanks) Commanding General Davies want to re-name the main parade ground at Fort Knox as “Brooks Field” in honor of Robert Brooks?

Answer 34

Yes.

Question 35

Is it understandable in light of all the prejudice that Black servicemen/women experienced that when light-skinned Robert Brooks was erroneously recorded by his draft board as white, he didn’t correct the error?

Answer 35

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 36

So is it surprising that US Armored Force Commanding General Davies and six other generals among the attendees were themselves surprised when Robert Davies’ parents appeared at the ceremony -– Black sharecroppers from Sadieville Kentucky?

Answer 36

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 37

After memorializing other examples of sadistic discrimination against Black servicemen as they were stationed in military installations located in racist communities, does Chapter 5 culminate with the Sikeston lynching?

Answer 37

Yes.

Question 38

Would the claims of the officials who arrested the lynchee Cleo Wright be appalling if true?

Answer 38

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

[Because -- perhaps -- Cleo Wright might have been innocent of the reason why he was being arrested, but tried to defend himself against the people arresting him because he knew he would be lynched.]

Question 39

But how, particularly today with such widespread American distrust of pols and the media, can such claims be accepted without a trial?

Answer 39

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 40

Didn’t Hollywood try to make this point in a famous 1943 movie “The Ox-Bow Incident” starring Henry Fonda and set in 1885 Nevada? Does it tell how cowboy vigilantes thought they were being heroic in protecting their families by lynching the “obvious” miscreant, only to find they had summarily executed the wrong person WITHOUT A TRIAL??? And wasn’t the 1885 setting Hollywood’s way of criticizing circa WW-II racism without doing so directly???

Answer 40

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 41

BTW, isn’t it true that even legal trials are NOT “fool proof” in ascertaining guilt as proved by the many cases in which the arrival of DNA testing proved many convicts innocent?

Answer 41

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 42

So how was anyone to know even in Sikeston Mississippi in 1942, whether lynchee Cleo Wright was really guilty???

Answer 42

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!


*****
Extra Credit Questions –

Question (A)

Does the person written up in the NY Times on 7/25/2004 for having tossed more than 3,000 bouquets to operatic sopranos (and some ballerinas) routinely answer when asked, that the “true descendant” of classical opera is NOT modern opera created by someone with tenure or a grant who doesn’t have to please audiences?

Answer (A)

Yes.

Question (B)

But rather the modern Broadway Musical – at least the kind from the Rodgers and Hammerstein era – who tried to LECTURE America on its racism with “a spoonful of sugar” to “help the medicine go down”?

Answer (B)

Yes.

Question (C)

For purists, was “A spoonful of sugar” sung by Julie Andrews in the 1964 movie “Mary Poppins” featuring music by Richard and Robert Sherman?

Answer (C)

Yes.

Question (D)

But among their many race-relations LECTURES, wasn’t the most persuasive the Rodgers and Hammerstein 1958 movie “South Pacific” in which Mitzi Gaynor was permitted to find love with Rossano Brazzi, an Italian bass, even though only operatic sopranos and tenors make the Big Bucks (while mezzos and basses are lucky to earn the federal minimum wage)?

Answer (D)

Yes - only operatic sopranos and tenors make the Big Bucks (while mezzos and basses are lucky to earn the federal minimum wage).

HOWEVER, it is NOT clear that Rossano Brazzi could even sing!!!

Which is the difference between Hollywood stars who began on Broadway – all of whom can/could sing and dance!!!

And Hollywood typically has the FRAUDS simply “lip synch” while a legitimate singer’s voice is dubbed in.

When South Pacific played on Broadway for 1,925 performances, the principals were Ezio Pinza and Mary Martin.

Both were slated for the movie version but Ezio Pinza died shortly before shooting was set to begin.

[Mary Martin was dropped when Ezio Pinza died.]

Before taking Rossano Brazzi’s body BUT NOT HIS VOICE, Ezio Pinzo’s role of Emile de Becque was offered to three actors who could actually sing, such as Howard Keel who acted/sang in the 1951 Hollywood version of Showboat (though, of course, Old Man River was sung by William Warfield, the best Bass of all time whose voice is studied at every academy including the Metropolitan Opera’s own Julliard School – even by sopranos, mezzos and tenors – even though he was never permitted to sing at the Met which, though it broke the female “color line” in 1955 with Marian Anderson in a minor role, did NOT break the male “color line” until 1982 with Simon Estes because it was permissible in American society in 1955 for white males to importune Black females, but NOT vice versa!!!)

Actually, everyone’s voices were dubbed EXCEPT Mitzi Gaynor and Ray Walston who played Luther Billis.

BUT GIORGIO TOZZI, a famous Bass for decades at the Met, Covent Garden and La Scala WAS LISTED IN THE OPENING CREDITS OF THE FILM as the voice of Rossano Brazzi – and NONE of the other voices were listed in the Opening Credits.

BTW, as proof that only operatic sopranos and tenors make the BIG BUCKS and mezzos and basses are lucky to make the federal minimum wage – Giorgio Tozzi spent the rest of his career playing/singing Emile de Becque in various revivals and road shows of South Pacific, including one at Lincoln Center in the 1960’s.

Question (E)

Joking aside, wasn’t Rossano Brazzi’s “sin” that he had two children by a Polynesian wife who had long since died?

Answer (E)

Yes – and for most of the movie it seemed “unforgiveable” even though Mitzi Gaynor’s character from Little Rock Arkansas was religious and, according to Christ, the only “unforgiveable” sin is Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Question (F)

Whereas the American movie-going public demanded death for Lieutenant Joseph Cable – played by John Kerr who was no relation to Deborah Kerr despite their making a famous movie together 2 years before South Pacific titled “Tea and Sympathy” for which John Kerr won the Golden Globe for “Most Promising Newcomer - Male”?

Answer (F)

At least Hollywood thought the American movie-going public would NOT forgive Lt. Cable!!!

Question (G)

Was Lt. Cable’s UNFORGIVEABLE SIN that, unlike Rossano Brazzi whose Polynesian wife had died, Lt. Cable fell in love on the silver screen with a charming Polynesian daughter of Bloody Mary?

Answer (G)

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question (H)

Was one of Lt. Cable’s songs “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” for which the lyrics are –

You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a different shade
You've got to be carefully taught

You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be carefully taught

Answer (H)

Hauntingly yes.

Question (I)

According to Turner Classic Movies when it recently telecast once more South Pacific, did Rodgers and Hammerstein have to fight hard to keep in the movie version “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from the 1949 Broadway Musical with 1,925 performances?

Answer (I)

Yes, even though that may seem incredible today.

Question (J)

After all, wasn’t “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” the most critical song about racial prejudice in South Pacific, and isn’t the national movie-going public a “much different kettle of fish” than a NYC Broadway audience (even if it does include some tourists who can self-select to give it a miss if they are prejudiced)?

Answer (J)

Yes, Broadway audiences are considerably different than the national movie-going public.

Question (K)

Was “Bloody Mary” played by Juanita Hall who was actually an African-American?

Answer (K)

Yes.

Question (L)

Was this typical of Hollywood in those days – “turning a blind eye” to any performer who was NOT white in the belief that the American viewing public was unable to distinguish between all the others?

Answer (L)

Incredibly!!!

Question (M)

If you need help answering Extra-Credit Question (L), would a good person to consult be Rita Moreno who was, perhaps, most famous for the 1961 movie “West Side Story” in which she played the leading “Puerto Rican” female?

Answer (M)

Yes, she is still vocal on many issues.

Question (N)

Which was legitimate, whereas she was also forced by Hollywood to play zillions of other non-white non-Puerto Rican roles such as the No. 2 female behind Deborah Kerr in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s 1956 movie “The King and I” where Rita Moreno is a young Burmese slave named Tuptim?

Answer (N)

Yes.

Question (O)

But back to “West Side Story,” wasn’t the moving force behind it (despite Robert Wise being credited as the “Producer” and all of the wonderful choreography by Jerome Robbins) actually Leonard Bernstein who actually conceived the project and served as its sine qua non?

Answer (O)

Absolutely!!!

Question (P)

And wasn’t Leonard Bernstein famous for saying in beau coup interviews the rest of his life (1) that his vision was to update The Bard’s famous “Romeo and Juliet” to a then-modern setting on NYC’s upper west side where rival gangs could replicate the famous hostility between the feuding families of Verona Italy, and (2) THAT HE, LEONARD BERNSTEIN, WOULD TAKE TO THE GRAVE HIS REGRET THAT HE HAD “WHIMPED OUT” BY MAKING WEST SIDE STORY PEURTO RICAN VS, WHITE, RATHER THAN AFRICAN-AMERICAN VS.WHITE???

Answer (P)

Absolutely!!!!!


*****
AND FOR EXTRA-EXTRA CREDIT –

Question

Didn’t Yours Truly graduate from law school in 1967 when the clear-cut distinction between a “felony” and a “misdemeanor” in historical English/American Common Law was that a “felony” was any crime for which the maximum possible punishment was death, and a “misdemeanor” was one that could NOT be punished by death?

Answer

Yes.

Question

And doesn’t Yours Truly concocting such long quizzes and then having the gall to call them “short quizzes” merit the death penalty???!!!

Answer

Obviously!!!