World War 2 racism by the good guys

[gabeana]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7984436.stm

Papers unearthed by the BBC reveal that British and American commanders ensured that the liberation of Paris on 25 August 1944 was seen as a "whites only" victory.

In January 1944 Eisenhower's Chief of Staff, Major General Walter Bedell Smith, was to write in a memo stamped, "confidential": "It is more desirable that the division mentioned above consist of white personnel.

[GummyBearz]

1. People were racist in the 1940's?

I'm shocked. Shocked!

[CBGLuthier]

2. You mean the country that locked up thousands of its own citizens in concentration camps

because they looked similar to a country that bombed them was racist?

[1939]

3. Someone in BBC needs a few history lessons

"Given the fact that Britain did not segregate its forces and had a large and valued Indian army, one might have expected London to object to such a racist policy."

British regiments were very much segregated though they had white (British) officers. Even in the Indian Army, the regiments were segregated by ethnic or tribal groups (Ghurkas, Sikhs, Maharatha, Garwhali, Punjab, etc). Black troops were placed in regiments designated as "East African" or "West African".

[malaise]

5. Rubbish - the British army was racist to the core

Many of the West Indian regiment were forced to wash the clothes of the white soldiers.gr

My mother's brother was in that group and I have listened and read a lot about how they were treated.

[Glassunion]

4. No... The hell you say...

Racism, and segregation... Back then? Really?