Suggested Answers to the First Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Does the first sentence of “Half American” begin (Intro p. xi) – “Shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December, 1941…..”?

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Is this understandable in addressing an American audience which probably doesn’t know that Britain declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939 after its invasion of Poland?

Answer 2

Yes.

Question 3

Does “Half American” Chapter 1 (“Black Americans Fighting Fascism in Spain”) back track to the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939?

Answer 3

Yes.

Question 4

Who was Eric Arthur Blair who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War? [Hint – he was the author of, inter alia, “Homage to Catalonia” about his experience in that war – which, though true, is designed to lead you astray.]

Answer 4

Full marks if you knew “Eric Arthur Blair” was the real name of George Orwell!!!

And “fail” if you didn’t know who George Orwell was – more famous for fiction with “1984” featuring “Big Brother is watching you!!!” protesting lack of free speech and authoritarian rule, whether fascist or Soviet.

And yes, “Half American” records that our African-Americans encountered in the Spanish Civil War such luminaries as George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway who were also fighting the fascists.

Question 5

But is there a “real” answer to how/when World War II started and aren’t there zillions of answers???

Answer 5

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 6

And don’t the zillions of answers depend on how closely one examines all the facts and what they, in turn, depend on??? Not to mention sifting out all the propaganda from pols and the media???

Answer 6

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 7

What about the so-called “Rape of China” by Imperial Japan which ALLEGEDLY began in July 1937?

Answer 7

Aka the “Rape of Nanking,” the “Rape of China” began in July 1937.

Question 8

“Allegedly” in Q-7 because Imperial Japan had already invaded and conquered Manchuria 9/18/1931 – 2/27/1932 with American historians conveniently forgetting that the Manchus had already captured and ruled China for FOUR centuries – by calling the Manchu Dynasty the Qing Dynasty?

Answer 8

Absolutely!!!

Question 9

But shifting back to Europe, did Hitler call his regime the “Third Reich” as American propagandists insisted on doing?

Answer 9

NEVER!!!

Question 10

Didn’t Hitler always call his regime “The Thousand-Year Reich” which American propagandists thought might upset the American public who might think fighting Hitler would take 1,000 years – so they dreamed up “Third Reich” referring to the 1,000-year Roman Empire and the 1,000-year Holy Roman Empire so that they could hide the 1,000-year concept when speaking about the “Third Reich”?

Answer 10

Absolutely!!!

Question 11

And didn’t the American propagandists try to hide the fact that America during World War I was fighting the Holy Roman Empire by calling it the Habsburg Empire or the Austro-Hungarian Empire?

Answer 11

Despicably!!!

Question 12

After all, didn’t World War I actually cause World War II?

Answer 12

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 13

Wasn’t it a Serb who assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, the Archduke Ferdinand who was the “Heir Apparent” of the Holy Roman Empire? Followed immediately by Russian Czar Nicholas II deciding to support a fellow Slav by declaring war against the Holy Roman Empire? Dragging into the war Russia’s two allies – France and England?

Answer 13

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 14

With France insisting at the conclusion of World War I that it was due reparations from Germany? Which led for more than a decade to periodic French invasions of Germany’s Rhineland where railroad rolling stock and anything else of value were seized by the French army and taken back to France? Which made Hitler a German hero when he militarized the Rhineland to prevent any further French pillaging?

Answer 14

Yes – Yes – Yes.

Question 15

And couldn’t one even make the case that Pax Britannica was the ultimate cause of World War II? After all, the British policy after the fall of the “French Hitler” (i.e., Napoleon) led to a century of Britain shifting its alliances during the ensuing century until World War I to support whichever continental alliance the Brits thought was weakest to ensure peace (since the rest of Asia/Africa/The Americas largely comprised European colonies)? Which worked until Czar Nicholas II supported the assassin of Archduke Ferdinand?

Answer 15

Re first Q -- What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Re second Q -- Yes.

Re third Q -- Yes.

Question 16

From a moral viewpoint, wasn’t the U.S. supporting the WRONG SIDE in World War I by bailing out Britain’s disastrous support for Russia and France?

Answer 16

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 17

And couldn’t U.S. President Woodrow Wilson be blamed for violating international law which prohibited countries claiming to be “neutral” from shipping munitions to a “belligerent” country?

Answer 17

Absolutely!!!

Question 18

Which Woodrow Wilson did by secretly putting munitions in the bowels of passenger ships such as the Lusitania so that when Germany sank them (which Germany had every right to do under international law), Woodrow could inflame American public opinion to jump into World War I on the side of the Brits?

Answer 18

Despicably!!!

Question 19

And doesn’t this bring us back full circle to the person our author Prof. Matthew Desmond presumably would agree was the WORST AND MOST DESPICLBLE President the U.S. has ever had?

Answer 19

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 20

After all, didn’t Woodrow segregate the U.S. armed forces which had been integrated since the Civil War???!!!

Answer 20

Yes.

Question 21

And didn’t Woodrow also summarily fire all of the many African-Americans who had become U.S. Government civilian employees since the Civil War???!!!

Answer 21

Yes.

Question 22

And isn’t Woodrow’s mass firing of all African-American civilian employees the reason why America has long since been saddled with Civil Service Rules which make it virtually impossible to fire a U.S. government employee no matter what the offense???!!!

Answer 22

Yes.

Question 23

So hasn’t even Princeton University distanced itself from the “Gentleman From Georgia” whose father joined the Princeton faculty just in time for Woodrow to attend Princeton before returning to Georgia to practice law before becoming President of Princeton U and Governor of New Jersey on his way to the U.S Presidency?

Answer 23

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 24

Despite all this, hasn’t our author Prof. Desmond exhibited an infinite amount of “grace” (meaning UNDESERVED favorable treatment) by referencing Woodrow only once in Half American and, even then, vis-à-vis a matter having nothing to do with Woodrow’s sins against African-Americans or his sin of violating international law in order to “hoodwink” the American public into fighting the Holy Roman Empire?

Answer 24

The index of Half American contains only one listing for Woodrow Wilson.

On p. 48, Half American says –

[A. Philip] Randolph and [Chandler] Owen struck a very different tone that same year in an open letter to President Woodrow Wilson in the pages of The Messenger. “Lynching, Jim Crow, segregation, discrimination in the armed forces and out, disenfranchisement of millions of Black souls in the South,” they argued, “all these things make your cry of making the world safe for democracy a sham, a mockery, a rape of decency and a travesty on common justice.”

Question 25

Are any of these questions (except Q-1 through Q-4) relevant to Prof. Desmond’s microscope in Half American which focuses solely on World War II, in general, and the Black experience during World War II both at home and abroad, in particular?

Answer 25

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 26

Though wasn’t it fun nevertheless??? [And in answering, please exhibit some “undeserved grace” if you must!!!] [After all, there will be THREE more Short Quizzes before our Jan 22 Zoom meeting and they will hone in on Half American itself.]

Answer 26