Bringing the Marginalized into Conversations about American Raciality - Erin Kane - Keely Gaeta - Emily Norris

Filipino Bodies, Lynching, and the Language of Empire by Nerissa Balce A Conflict of Conscience

The Philippines - American War was a conflict of conscience for African American soldiers. After the war began, the African American press rallied together to advocate for their nearly unanimous disdain for the expansion into the Philippines. Many members of the Black press viewed this imperialist move as a means of enforcing Jim Crow and racial otherness onto a people who had limited capability to fight against the ever increasing power of the U.S. -- a position the U.S. Black population was familiar with. This caused a serious internal struggle for Black soldiers - as they were walking a fine line between duty to "their" country and to marginalized groups. The Iowa State Bystander in April of 1899 went so far as to assert that "the U.S. government had no right to ask its black citizens to serve in the Philippine War if the government could not protect them from racial violence,". Nevertheless, Black soldiers were deployed and the discrimination they faced stateside was used as psychological warfare by the Philippine army. By appealing to the injustices Black soldiers were facing, the Philippine army was able to get them to desert the U.S., sometimes even rewarding them with positions. The abuse of Filipinos at the hands of white soldiers was disturbing to witness for Black soldiers because the rhetoric used against Filipinos during this period and African Americans throughout U.S. history was exceedingly similar. Both were labeled as childlike, unintelligent, and savage, which is why the Black media was so frustrated with Black soldiers joining the cause. In the eyes of an Arkansas reporter in 1900, Filipinos "belong to a darker human variety" and therefore, Black soldiers are "fighting against [themselves]". Black soldiers fought in the war and the result was another group now able to be legally discriminated against in U.S. law.

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