Adventures of Superman - The radio show... In 1946 there were two serials: "The Hate Mongers" and "the Clan of the Fiery Cross" that dealt, in their relatively meek way, with racism and xenophobia. And for quite a few years the show was bumpered with public service messages of the same sort. My take is that as WWII ended the USA was trying to confront these elements of our culture ... The sense that we had just fought against forces of intolerance and racial hatred but that we had some serious issues of our own. I think there was a period when we might just have managed to live up to our professed ideals without having to be dragged to it. But we didn't make it. It doesn't make us the equivalent of Nazi Germany or even of the dreadful slave state of the Soviet Union at it's worst. Just another failure to achieve the state of our ideals.
President Truman ordered the armed forces integrated very soon after the end of WWII, as he'd been impressed by reports of how well Negro units had fought when they'd been allowed to. Unfortunately, the Joint Chiefs of Staff dragged their heels, and it wasn't until the Korean War started that real progress was made. (The white units took heavy casualties in the early part of the war, and it just so happened that the nearest available replacement troops were black people.)
And by Vietnam era, black soldiers outnumbered whites. Aside from the draft, it was considered a way to get some training in various fields that might lead to a good job when you got out. As the war ramped up, though, it started to look like less and less of a tempting proposition.
I kind of enjoyed those "Justice for all includes children" ads in the '70's, with Superman. The idea that I might get lectured by Superman for getting up to no good (I was a kid then) amused me to no end. "Well, I can't exactly glue this apple back on Mrs. Johnson's tree, Superman." "You better try, boy." They had a good message, though, and were pretty well done. They could have had pool safety ads with Aquaman, now that I think about it. Imagine Aquaman having Topo yank some kid out the pool. "No splashing son, those are the rules." Meanwhile, the kid's screaming and howling in mortal terror because an octopus has got him.
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My take is that as WWII ended the USA was trying to confront these elements of our culture ... The sense that we had just fought against forces of intolerance and racial hatred but that we had some serious issues of our own. I think there was a period when we might just have managed to live up to our professed ideals without having to be dragged to it. But we didn't make it.
It doesn't make us the equivalent of Nazi Germany or even of the dreadful slave state of the Soviet Union at it's worst. Just another failure to achieve the state of our ideals.
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Leading National Socialist Welfare - wait, what? - and Youth-Serving Organizatsiyi -
“Why, they're nothing but a - a bunch of COMMIES!”
http://atomic-annhilation.blogspot.com/2012/10/1973-red-nightmare-national-lampoon.html
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"You better try, boy."
They had a good message, though, and were pretty well done.
They could have had pool safety ads with Aquaman, now that I think about it. Imagine Aquaman having Topo yank some kid out the pool. "No splashing son, those are the rules." Meanwhile, the kid's screaming and howling in mortal terror because an octopus has got him.
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