Red Tails: The Tuskegee Airmen
by Mfundi Rasayon, PhD on 01/18/12
Before you see these gladiators of the sky choreograph aerial 'dogfights' seemingly impossible outside of "Snoopy's" imagination, allow me to share a perspective to offer some context. "And, to the last man, we fight - we fight - we fight," a mantra that Afrikan-American men, resound in their hearts everyday. A chant that resonates among the conscious men of color who realize that the battles for our sanity & a piece of the "American pie" are a daily campaign of war. "Red Tails" is more than a rare cinematic tapestry of Afrikan-American men showcasing their talent, as Thespians of the silver & blue screens. It is the Spirit of our Ancestor's voices echoing in the wind on the perpetual pendulum of time - a petition for parity.
A masterpiece of action, captured in a realm, where lift, drag, & gravity are equally dangerous to flying bullets and the dreaded 88mm flak cannon. This film announces to the world - the legacy of African-American's in harms way, bravery, brilliance, sensitivities, resilience, and Aviator skills, to safeguard a place that would lynch either one of them without 'due process.'
Short of being a commander of a ship, having the Wings & title of a Pilot conferred upon a person a passport to write music on the skies of heaven, and in theory/title, granted the right to give enlisted Caucasian men orders. So, in a country wedded to a pledge to malign and undermine the true history and contributions by a people upon whose backs this nation was virtually built, it was taboo and blasphemy to entrust them with such power & visibility. It was common knowledge, that in the American military, racism was at home, just like sand on the beach & fried chicken in the south.
The 'good old boys' have been dedicated to denying the world the privilege of seeing men of color rescue and escort "White men" to safety, during an era when they amplified that these people were lazy cowards and less intelligent than apes! Unless they saw an opportunity of making incredibly large net earnings at the box-office and subsequent video releases. "White men" dreaded people of color coming into the knowledge that melanin dominant humans protected those who usually abuse and deny them their human rights. Remember, the primary incentives to explore telling our stories are directly related to making money, and keeping the truth camouflaged or muted by the versions 'America' is more comfortable disseminating.
Buried in the archives of tainted records - layered to hide contributions made by Afrikan-Americans - are gigabytes, even terabytes of stories, easily penned into a script for Hollywood venues. And, when such truths are told in the great forums of cinema, melanin dominant boys will evolve into men in pursuit of goals, other than to entertain and excel in sports. At that time, our children will seek fame & fortune beyond the stereotypes, while our ‘vanilla siblings’ will jump on & off the carousel of fear. People of color, no longer have the luxury to wait until “White folk” tell our stories, even when making money assuages their fears, because they will continue to associate our sense of cultural identity, as defiance and militancy.
Marginalization, and abuse are engraved into the cultural mindset of American education, and collective beliefs as tolerable prejudices, and “bad apples,” rather than the obvious pathology, characteristic of paranoid thinking, as evidenced today in government. My misguided ‘vanilla brothers’ of the earth are intoxicated by their habits & addiction to greed, so much so, that they are petrified with fear and ignorance. Even in the 21st century, many Americans - remain in deep denial of the haunting messages buried in the memories of witnesses who observed German prisoners of war being treated in America better than the returning Tuskegee aviators who never lost a bomber they escorted.
“Turtle Island” and home to the Red and Brown men who lived in harmony with nature – before the “White man” came, was carved into many pieces to affirm the system of values imposed by colonizers. The descendants of those “White men” continue to suppress the truth, and elevate a few tokens rather than acknowledge the great contributions of men & women of darker hue. This is consistent with today’s lexicon, keeping alive - the notion of dishonesty, and one failing to keep his word as, “an Indian giver.” “The good-old boys” are unrelenting in their propaganda, and they would rather undermine a Presidency to serve all the people, rather than share the wealth with those to whom it truly belongs.
Almost 70 years ago, the
US government realized that not only did they need the help of “Russia” (aka
The Soviet Union/USSR) our later declared threat and enemy to safeguard this
nation’s security, but the infamous Tuskegee Airmen, and the ‘Navajo Code
Talkers’ of the Pacific theatre from 1942 – 1945, who saved thousands of lives,
which hastened the end of the war. Other
roles were also played by those of darker hue, the men who wore the ‘Black
Panther’ patch, as an insignia, indicating that they were either in tank
divisions of offense or young warriors charged to destroy enemy tanks.
The last group (of color, except with White Officers) deployed to engage in battle was the 679th Tank Battalion of which my father is a survivor. ~~ I remember having his patch sewn on one of my brother’s “Blues” after his discharge from the Marine Corps, as the Viet Nam war came to an end.
Red Tails, although a very special story, is just another laudable tale, which surfaced under another name as an HBO special in 1995. There are many, many more about our unsung heroes & heroines of color, which have yet to be told. The well-known Josephine Baker story, and her treatment peppered with society-sanctioned humiliation, after she served the alliance to aid the French and the US. The gifted & talented warriors, who played invisible roles in realizing the allied forces triumph over 'the Nazi war machine,' should be recognized daily. Just as the Old-Guard of Arlington National Cemetery watches over the “Tomb of The Unknown Soldier," we should serve as sentinels and voices for those who may be forgotten. Those of us, with pen, voice or real estate in cyberspace, should sound an alarm that their stories are told with accuracy and recognition in their honor.
America, a very young nation, with less than two centuries of Independence, as a declared sovereign country, was in the business of making short sighted deals & decisions derived from greed, colonialism, and American bred Institutional Racism.
Forces that punctuated her pathology have been clarified by the wisdom of one of America’s most well-read and internationally renowned Psychiatrist, Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing. Which begs the question, why? What would compel a Psychiatrist to delve into such international issues related to politics, humanity, war & the global economy? Actually, the answer is simple and succinct; the pathological fear of melanin dominant men (commonly & mistakenly referred to as Black men) impacts the collective mental health of a Nation. Accordingly, Dr. Cress-Welsing's thesis remains unchanged, "they (Caucasian men) fear their genetic annihilation," via the phenotypic dominance expressed in the chromosomes of men of color.
My position, although definitively supportive of "The Cress Theory of White Supremacy" merely adds, that executive functioning, that is planning and judgment, borne from insight are diminished, due to an insidious form of cerebral compromise, (skewed left hemispheric functioning exacerbated by pineal calcification) which impacts the biochemistry of the limbic system, with respect to subcortical nuclei that modulate one's quest for food, sex and shelter. In this group, rather than meeting the basic survival needs of a species, they are driven by aggression and greed, rather than negotiation strategies with the collective human family.
The genocide of the Native Americans, the import of Afrikans via the slave trade, burning Caucasian women in Salem Massachusetts, and the Jim Crow laws that saluted lynching men of color and raping our women were all conceived in the minds or "dysfunctional brain's" of Caucasian men connected to exclusive fraternities & clubs, including the American born terrorists - Ku Klux Klan. Their collective actions continue to serve as a barometer of the temperament of this segment of the human family, as a select group of misguided "men" married to a doctrine fueled by a global media they manipulate.
This small cohort continues to corrupt the beliefs and behavior of the masses with their viral laden archetypes borne from a lineage tied to an ice age that thwarted their ability to connect with nature. Thereby, birthing a mentality prone to hoarding behavior and barbaric acts of terrorism, all of which is associated with base chakra obsessions to control and manipulate the world or realm of physicality. In part, this is due to their inability to grasp the fact, that we are spiritual beings, inherently connected to each other and the earth.
Having shared the above, it is my sincere hope that my candor is viewed as other than offensive or abrasive. So, please pardon my choice, to steer clear of euphemisms and politically correct language? Something is profoundly wrong with these folk, a very small segment of the 'human' occupants on the planet earth empowered to orchestrate such chaos. Dr. Cress-Welsing, eloquently expands on Neely Fuller's research, "The System of White Supremacy" (SOWS) in great detail. May I suggest that you Google it, and read about it on your own to better understand their perspective on the forces that drive these pathological fears.
Conversely, very similar motives are emphasized in my research, which are addressed in my primary published works, "Reality Check . . . & The Awakening . . . " Both texts address the system of values and mechanized approach to remove Spirit from that which makes us human. References are also cited to shed some light on what fuels the paranoia & propaganda of Caucasian men. Even, beneath the banner of a military alliance to defeat Germany & Japan, propaganda fueled the ignorance and fear manufactured in America that carried strange deceitful tales. One in particular comes to mind, that the Tuskegee airmen had tails, as well as, all so called "coloreds" or Negroes. The objective was to suggest that these gifted Aviators & Warriors who were first given inferior and outdated aircraft lacked the intelligence of monkeys, thereby ensuring that they would fail in all of their missions. For the record, the P-51 Mustangs were delivered much later during the war when the US realized that they would lose, in light of the number of bombers failing to return after sorties.
More importantly, the stories about so-called 'coloreds' or Negroes having tails was a futile attempt to forestall European women from engaging in intimate relationships with the 'coloreds or negroes' in the military. This lends very strong support to the Cress Theory's foundation premise, Caucasian's fear of genetic annihilation.
In the event, you are in
search of a classic thematic commentary on the movie in a vacuum, wedded to the
storyline of the accomplishments of the Tuskegee Airmen, you may be too
conditioned as a linear thinking well trained member of the herd to fathom the
global significance of the movie. Moreover, what sound minded people would
obsess over who escorts them or their crew to safety during a military campaign? Men of color, particularly those who are 'conscious' have to balance themselves
daily in efforts to navigate life in a world prone to stereotype them, and
declare their worth. When melanin dominant men leave the sanctuary of their
homes, they have to be vigilant as they walk the gauntlet with every step,
until they have returned home because that is a day-to-day reality of war in America.