Thread by @GuyEmersonMount

Uhhhhh.... I'm sorry, are we celebrating this now? #BlkTwitterstorians #Twitterstorians #INDIGENOUS #Solidarity #veteransday2019 #VeteransDay #Empire

I can't imagine anyone at @SmithsonianNMAI bragging about how diverse the U.S. army was in the 19th century or the 'contributions' of African Americans to the Trail of Tears, Seminole Wars, etc. #veteransday2019

Now, to be clear, this is not to flatten the complex motivations and impossible set of decisions facing Black people who decide(d) to work as armed, paid fighters for the U.S. state. We cannot reduce Black thought simply to "complicity with #American #empire." #veteransday2019

We also cannot stop at the whole "double victory" thesis that actually began during WWI as Adriane Lentz-Smith pointed out here. And we CERTAINLY can't roll with the nationalist flag waving "Black patriotism" explanation. hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?is… #veteransday2019

Granted, each decision, for each Black worker, during each particular war was different. The actions of the Buffalo Soldiers, for example, were FAR more problematic, than those who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigades to fight #fascism in Spain (or maybe Germany in WWII).

America has never had a 'just war' but not all of its wars were equally unjust. The extermination of indigenous peoples and the MANY wars of imperial conquest are the worst. Participation in them should be a point of shame not a point of celebration. #veteransday2019

I've been to the archives at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center in
Carlisle, PA trying to understand what motivated Black soliders who joined the Army to work in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba (some of whom were former Buffalo Soldiers). Most just needed money.

The U.S. Army remains overwhelming composed of the must vulnerable populations in the country who (beacuse they need money) are forced to fight for things that they often come to realize are against their core values. #VeteransDay

The prime example here is David Fagan who along with dozens of other Black soldiers signed up to fight an ANTI-colonial struggle in the Philippines but soon defected from the U.S. when they realized the U.S. wanted to take over Spanish #colonialism not end it. #veteransday2019

Yes, these relationships are complex with power, self-interest, solidarity, survival, and competing interests often blending into a confusing blend of colonialism and anti-colonialism. But we must always be intersectional and in solidarity with oppressed peoples. #VeteransDay

The bottom line is that just because @NMAAHC is an arm of the U.S. state does not mean it is compelled to faithfully reproduce American nationalism, triumphalism, militarism, settler colonialism, and the soldier as 'super citizen.' Holders of Black history must do better.