THREAD

Draft evasion and insubordination against commanding officers in the military was far more common among African Americans than among whites in World Wars I and II, the Korean war, and Vietnam.

During World War I, the only black American combat division frequently ran away during battles, resulting in the removal of the entire division from the front.

During World War II, large numbers of black men feigned illness or insanity to evade the draft. In the cities it was common for black men to obtain 4-F status (“physically unfit”) by ingesting amphetamines that “made your heart sound defective.”

During the war against the Axis a young Malcolm X convinced his local draft board that he was unfit for service: “I started noising around that I was frantic to join the Japanese Army…. I would talk and act high and crazy…. The day I went down there, I costumed like an actor."

"With my wild zoot suit I wore the yellow knob-toe shoes, and I frizzled my hair up into a reddish bush of conk. I went in, skipping and tipping…. Everybody in the white coats that I saw had 4-F in his eyes.”

Malcolm told an Army psychiatrist that he wanted to be stationed in the South so he could “Organize them nigger soldiers, you dig? Steal us some guns, and kill us crackers!”

Shortly after his appearance at the induction center, “A 4-F card came to me in the mail, and I never heard from the Army anymore.” The legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie gained 4-F status by sharing his thoughts with his recruitment officer:

“Here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" Gillespie asked. "The white man’s foot has been in my asshole buried up to his knee in my asshole!... You’re telling me the German is the enemy. At this point, I can never even remember having met a German."

"So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I’m liable to create a case of ‘mistaken identity,’ of who I might shoot.”

Draft law delinquency during the Korean War was extraordinarily high in black urban neighborhoods. In the early months of the war it was estimated that 30 percent of eligible men in Harlem were delinquent in registering.

At the national level, approximately 20 percent of those arrested for violating the Selective Service Act from 1951 through 1953 were African-American.

Black resistance to patriotic obligation peaked during the Vietnam War, when African Americans made up fully one-half of the eligible men who failed to register for the draft.

Despite these entirely sensible responses to demands that they fight and die in needless wars for a racist country, black people were still considered by most whites to be the *inferior* race.

In the upcoming 4-part live webinar series co-taught by Kamasi Hill and me, we'll discuss all the ways in which black people have been "bad" Americans—a history that Harvard, Yale, and other universities are too afraid to teach.

Join us: https://renegadeuniversity.com/product/talkin-shit-history-of-african-american-culture/