*I had actually written this post before the death of MLK's widow. But I guess the timing lines up...
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There' a small 3"X5" B&W framed photo in Obi-Wan's living room. It's a photo of him in a military dress uniform standing next to a young looking woman. The woman is his mother (guess she just looks young or she was a teen mom). Based on the appearance of the photo and doing the math with Obi-Wan's current age, I assumed this was WWII era, which turned out to be correct
Obi-Wan was drafted into the US army and served for 3 years. He was very against going to fight in a war (and still is...don't ever watch the evening news with him). But, as I imagine, being a black, undereducated man in 1942, he might not have had any say so in the matter. So out of respect and humbleness he obeyed his country's order and was trained somewhere in Wyoming.
I've always heard that black soldiers in WWII had it much worse than any other combat units due to ill racial relations. And being that I'd rather hear facts straight from the source than trust some agenda filled history book or Hollywood movie, I asked him straight up: "Obi-Wan, tell me the straight scoop. What was it like to be in WWII as a black man?"
So he told me. Obi-Wan served as a truck driver on the island of Malta and in Florence, Italy. One time in Italy, behind enemy lines, he and another black truck driver somehow got separated from their large convoy and were lost. They drove forever looking for allies when they stumbled upon another US Army base...a white one. And he said those guys wouldn't let them stay around and wouldn't give them something to eat. I can't imagine...finding your own countrymen behind enemy lines...you're fighting on the same side with them...and they won't let you hang around or even EAT.
Somewhere way back in Obi-Wan's youth his step father gave him advice on how to handle white bigots. He told Obi-Wan, "Don't pay them no mind".
Obi-Wan's seen black guys get beat up and all other horrible stuff throughout his life. And he never "hung on" to any of this. He could have let all of these events fester within and create hatred.
But instead he avoided conflict and befriended whenever possible. Like Jesus, he turned the other cheek. And he didn't pay them no mind.
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2 comments:
I wonder if he felt more acceptance by foreigners than his own countrymen. Every time you tell a story of Obi-Wan it reminds me of the book Life Is So Good a memoir of the 98 year old man in Dallas, TX who learned to read at that age. It follows his whole life story and all that he went through as a black man in the South through the years. I think you would like the story.
We are all dished a stinkin' pile from this world. We all have people trying to kick at the backs of our knees. How we take these experiences is what breaks and makes us.
I am dumbfounded by the starkly different dominant culture found in America (and American military) just 65 years ago. What will the world say about us in another 65 years?
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