Pat Buchanan is Pat Buchanan, and he says...
"I think white men were 100% of the people who wrote the constitution, 100% of the people who signed the Declaration of Independence, 100% of the people who died at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, probably close 100% of the people who died at Normandy. This has been a country basically built by white folks."
That was Buchanan on Rachel Maddow defending the fact that 108 of this country's 110 Supreme Court Justices have been white men. Because clearly white men have always been the only group to bother showing up at important events.
Oh, goodness, there are some black people at Normandy. Photo is taken from an interesting photo essay about black soldiers in WWII here. The 320th Antiaircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion was an all-black unit that was indeed present on the Normany beaches. For the most part, black soldiers were generally not eligible for front-line positions due to their race. Just like they weren't eligible for universities. Or judicial positions.
Oh, and apparently the US insisted that the unit that liberated Paris be white, and de Gaulle wanted a French unit to do the honours. This caused problems because the French army in WWII was SIXTY FIVE PERCENT SENEGALESE. The 'French unit that liberated Paris' was actually made up of a signficant number of Spanish, Algerian, and Middle Eastern soldiers because they had so much trouble filling a unit with white French people. And then the Senegalese troops were sent home after the war and had their pensions stopped a decade later.
But Pat Buchanan's never had a moment of disquiet about these facts because he knows that only white people did important things, because only white people are in the books and television coverage. And he likes it that way.
That was Buchanan on Rachel Maddow defending the fact that 108 of this country's 110 Supreme Court Justices have been white men. Because clearly white men have always been the only group to bother showing up at important events.
Oh, goodness, there are some black people at Normandy. Photo is taken from an interesting photo essay about black soldiers in WWII here. The 320th Antiaircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion was an all-black unit that was indeed present on the Normany beaches. For the most part, black soldiers were generally not eligible for front-line positions due to their race. Just like they weren't eligible for universities. Or judicial positions.
Oh, and apparently the US insisted that the unit that liberated Paris be white, and de Gaulle wanted a French unit to do the honours. This caused problems because the French army in WWII was SIXTY FIVE PERCENT SENEGALESE. The 'French unit that liberated Paris' was actually made up of a signficant number of Spanish, Algerian, and Middle Eastern soldiers because they had so much trouble filling a unit with white French people. And then the Senegalese troops were sent home after the war and had their pensions stopped a decade later.
But Pat Buchanan's never had a moment of disquiet about these facts because he knows that only white people did important things, because only white people are in the books and television coverage. And he likes it that way.