Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Guide to Command of Negro Naval Personnel

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the Guide to Command of Negro Naval Personnel

Posted by Chauncey DeVega at 1:03 pm
November 19, 2010

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/11/19/dont-ask-dont-tell-and-the-guide-to-command-of-negro-naval-personnel/

In the most reductionist and overly simplistic accounts, the military exists merely to kill people and to break things. However, the armed forces are also a location where citizenship is negotiated and claims on justice and belonging are made.

Here, history is once more the greatest of teachers. In 1945 the Navy Department published a pamphlet entitled, “The Guide to Command of Negro Naval Personnel.” Some of its suggestions:

Be Skeptical About Ready Generalizations

More dangerous than careful experiment is reliance on untested theories. There are many current theories about the Negro can or cannot learn, about what work he can or cannot do, about the likelihood of conflict or cooperation between Negro and white personnel in school or on the job, and about all other questions with which an officer may be faced. All of them should be viewed with skepticism until there is evidence that they have been thoroughly tested under practical conditions as found in the Naval Establishment.

Symbols That Irritate

High or low morale has been said to result from a lot of little things. Among the little things of great importance to Negroes are words, jokes and characterizations which white people use on occasion unthinkingly. They can be such sources of irritation that leadership becomes difficult, and continued use of them has on several occasions invoked serious incidents.
Negroes prefer to be referred to in their individual capacities as Americans without racial designation. The word “nigger” is especially hated and it has no place in the Naval vocabulary. Negroes are suspicious that the pronunciation of the word Negro as though it were spelled “Nigra” may be a sort of genteel compromise between the hated word “nigger” and the preferred term “Negro.” The terms “boy,” “darkey,” “coon,” “jig,” “uncle,” “Negress” and “your people” are also resented. If it is necessary to refer to racial origin, “Negro” and “colored” are the only proper words to use…

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a similar embarrassment.

[William769]

1. K&R

ignorance can be fixed, stupidity can't!

[qazplm]

2. some can get mad at me

but as an African-American in the military, and reading that and adjusting it to the mentality of the time, it aint that bad.

It sounds pretty liberal and forward-thinking compared to society at large in the 1940s.

Now, it's still racist, don't get me wrong, but it shows what I believe that often in our society the military is on the forefront when there are changes in the social order. With integration, with women as equals, and now with hopefully very soon, with gay men and women as equals.

Not the military doesn't have a long way to go, as does society, but I think the issue isn't the military attitude towards gays nearly as much as politician's attitudes towards gays in the military.
The survey I think bears this out.

[Recursion]

3. That seems pretty impressive for 1945

Don't use racial slurs, don't make assumptions about people, don't buy untested theories about racial integration and instead base your actions on what actually happens.

Why does it embarrass you?

[Igel]

4. Poster seems to be AWOL.

As well as lack all sense of historical perspective--after all, everything and everybody is expected to be judged by current, American standards unless there's a good political reason for a state of grace to be extended.

Lacking in an understanding of history, the OP also seems to be unaware of the difference between administration and legislation, thus showing a lack of understanding very common in the 1940s in 11th grade civics classes. Proving that s/he's probably a college graduate from the late '70s or later.

I'd look up the OP's profile to resolve the "s/he" to a "he" or "she," but the poster's absence makes the idea pointless.