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January 29, 2025 • 21 mins

On today's podcast, Hosts Ramses Ja and Q Ward reflect on the recent news story involving the removal of the Tuskegee Airmen from US Air Force training videos. 

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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is the Black Information Network Daily Podcast, and I'm
your host, Rams's jaw. And sometimes the amount of stories
that make their way to us means that we simply
can't cover everything that comes our way. But from time
to time, a story just stays with me and Bill
compelled to share it with you and give you my thoughts.
And now one more thing. Okay, So if you're anything

(00:27):
like the two of us, you can't help but pay
attention to the news. And you know, we knew that
a lot of these things were coming. We talked extensively
on this show about Project twenty twenty five and Trump's
agenda and Trump's general personality and attitude toward teaching the

(00:54):
fullness of American history, and certainly discussed in what we
believe his mind has in terms of, you know, a
regard for black people in our contributions to this country specifically,
and on and on. And you know, we came across

(01:19):
and won such a news article from the Associated Press
that we're going to share with you in just a
sec that kind of provoked a conversation between the two
of us. So I won't hold you. Let's let's get
right to it. This is from the Associated press and
bear with me. It's a it's got some link to it.

(01:40):
The Air Force has removed training courses with videos of
its storied Tuskegee airmen and the Women Air Force Service
Pilots or WASPS, the female World War Two pilots who
were vital in faring warplanes for the military, to comply
with the Trump administrations cracked down on diversity, equity and
inclusion initiatives. The videos were shown to Air Force troops
as a part of DEEI courses they took during basic

(02:02):
military training. In a statement, the Air Force confirmed the
courses with those videos had been removed and said it
will fully execute and implement all directives outlined in the
executive orders issued by the President, ensuring that they are
carried out with the utmost professionalism, efficiency, and in alignment
with national security objectives. The problem may not be with

(02:23):
the historical videos themselves, but that they were used in
Air Force Basic Military Training DEI coursework. However, the lack
of clearer guidance has sent the Air Force and other
agencies scrambling to take the broadest approach to what content
is removed to make sure they are in compliance. The
Tuskegee Airmen, known as the Red Tails, were the nation's
first black military pilots who served in a segregated World

(02:46):
War II unit, and their all black three hundred and
thirty second Fighter Group had one of the lowest loss
records of all the bomber escorts in the war. They
flew P forty seven Thunderbolt, P fifty one Mustang and
other fighter aircraft to escort a mint American bombers on
dangerous missions over Germany. Before the fighter escorts began accompanying
the slow and heavy US bombers, losses were catastrophic due

(03:08):
to getting dive bombed and strafed by German aircraft. In
a statement late Saturday, Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated, the nonprofit foundation
created to preserve the legacy of those pilots, said it
was strongly opposed to the removal of the videos to
comply with Trump's order. The stories of the Tuskegee Airmen
and the wasps quote are an essential part of American
history and carried significant weight in the World War II

(03:30):
veteran community. We believe the content of these courses does
not promote one category of service member or citizen over another.
They are simply a part of American military history that
all service members should be made aware of. The group,
said President George W. Bush awarded the Tuskegee Airmen the
Congressional Gold Medal and a ceremony at the Capital Rotunda

(03:51):
in two thousand and seven. In twenty twenty, in his
State of the Union address, Trump announced he had promoted
one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, Charles McGee, to
Great Brigader General. McGee died in twenty twenty two at
the age of one hundred and two. The wasps contributed
to World War Two by learning to fly and ferry
new bombers off the assembly lines to airfields where they

(04:12):
were needed to ship off to war, freeing up male
pilots to focus on combat missions overseas. They are in
the right to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Just
in the last decade, the Air Force, like other branches
has recently tried to broaden a number of people they
reach to consider military careers like aviation that historically have
had few minority service members in their ranks. So again,

(04:43):
we expected Donald Trump to do exactly what Donald Trump
said he was going to do. So I don't want
to say that this is surprising, I I think that
for me, I was I just didn't know how far
would reach. So while it's not surprising, it certainly is

(05:04):
interesting that it goes so far, especially considering that it
would make sense for those in power currently to have
the rest of us I use that language specifically doing

(05:27):
the dirty work for them. Right, they want to concentrate
wealth in the hands of a few people that more
or less look the same. They want to diminish opportunities
for other people that they feel encroached on the opportunities
of their posterity. And I would imagine if it was

(05:53):
up to them, the black people would clean up, we
would fight their wars, we would do the menial jobs
and low paying jobs, serve them that sort of thing, Right,
It's consistent with they're larger push. But to remove something

(06:17):
based on a federal mandate, an executive order that shows
black people serving in a military capacity and doing well,
one would imagine that would inspire other black people to
join the military, to feel like they can make a

(06:37):
career out of this, to continue to protect the interests
of the rich and powerful of the United States of America.
And I think that this might be something that maybe
a person like Donald Trump hadn't considered. I know that
the job is complicated, and my estimation he is about

(06:58):
the most sinister human being that has ever crawled on
the face of this planet. But that's it feels like
this doesn't help us, but it doesn't help you either,
And that part feels a little like weird. To what
end do you want to remove black people from the military, right?

(07:21):
It's like it's like saying again, like if you didn't
want us to see ourselves in that role, then you
know this would make sense. But from what I would guess,
you know, that's probably one of the better places for
black people to actually end.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
Up diversity, equity, inclusion. I've been deliberate about saying that
now because they've intentionally made DEI a word. It was
an acronym, they've made it a word a word. When

(08:01):
you say what those things stand for, it sounds crazy
more insane that you're trying to ban diversity, equity and inclusion,
like it takes a special type of evil, right, and
evil being the blatant absence of empathy for anyone who's

(08:22):
not exactly like you, and shown us that the mission
of this president it would have been sinister enough if
his mission was let me make all of my billionaire
friends more billionaire, you know what I mean, Like, let
me make all of my rich friends rich er er.

(08:44):
That'd be enough of a problem when you're the president
of one hundred million citizens to only want to focus
on a thousand of them, or four or five hundred
of them. But again, what we noticed in all of these
executive orders is it's not just or I can't even
say it's not just. It's not that he's doing things

(09:06):
where the byproduct is displacement for us. Right, he made
this special thing that helps this one group, and by
just by virtually it hurt this other group. No, no, no, no,
specifically to hurt He's only doing things to hurt other groups.
Those are the only things that are a priority. And
with black people, the complete erasure of us from today

(09:32):
and yesterday seems to be the mission. It's so weird, right,
because he knows that there's valor in the military rights.
He's too racist and too unintelligent. People keep trying to
make me believe that because he's rich, that that means
he's smart. He's not. Because he's had some success that

(09:54):
that means he's smart. It doesn't.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, and the success is about the optics too. It's
not good.

Speaker 2 (10:01):
A truly intelligent evil person would want all black people
to enlist and fight.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
Our wars for us. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (10:09):
He's not a truly intelligent evil person. He's just an
evil person. And because there might be something respectable or
some valor, or some achievement that a black person could
achieve as a military person, i e. The Tuskegee Airman, no,
we don't want them to look good or favorable in

(10:30):
our nation's history at any point ever.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
So let me let me jump in right here now.
I want to be fair, even though nobody who nobody
deserves it. But let's let's let's let's state it clearly. Okay,
Donald Trump signed an executive order, and it was up

(10:53):
to the federal agencies UH to interpret what that order
means for their specific lane. So Donald Trump may not
have explicitly said, let's take those Tuskegee Airmen out of
the training coursework for the new recruits. So I want

(11:18):
to make sure that that's stated. But I want to
go a step further. I and this is the one
more thing part of this episode. I am not faulting
the military, not the Air Force, not the whoever's doing

(11:39):
whatever with whatever branch of the military. I'm not faulting
them because indeed, Donald Trump is the commander in chief
and their job is to execute on the orders of
the commander in chief. Right. But I think that this
article helped me reframe how I'm looking at private companies

(12:00):
because the military has to do with the commander in
chief orders, but Walmart doesn't, and Target doesn't, and Amazon doesn't.
But you know, shout out to you know, Kroger, and
shout out to Costco because they recognize that and they

(12:22):
have not abandoned their DEI program.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Shout out ironically to Apple, Apple, Yes, because Tim Cook's
sitting right up there with mister President.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
And so it helps me to understand in the ways
that I can push back, in the ways that I
can decide to spend my money, who is really going
to heed the truth of this moment? And I've stated

(12:56):
this before on the show, but I think it bears repeating.
People will be on this planet longer than Donald Trump will.
And if you want your corporation to continue to exist,
which indeed, most if not all corporations, they live and
die by the razor thin margins that they can eke

(13:17):
out quarter after quarter, year after year. And if you
lose the support of black people and our allies, I
think that affects your profit margins, those razor thin margins.
And we can outlast Trump. We've been on this planet

(13:41):
since the beginning, and we can also outlast you. And
that makes me feel like we have a little bit
more power. And this is why I'm not you know,
I wish the military didn't have to do this, but
I understand that they do. But again, it helps me

(14:03):
to understand that private companies don't have to do this. Again, Walmart,
that's that's cold to just a couple of years after saying, hey, look,
we value all different perspectives and we've been to say,
you know what, because of the new administration, we're going
to do it about face blah blah blah, and like

(14:24):
kiss the ring again, black people are going to be
on this planet longer than Donald Trump, and you're gonna
have to come back down our street if you want
them raise it thin profits. So that's real hurtful.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
But I think the specific nature of capitalism in our
country and the specific the specific nature of white supremacist, xenophobic, racist,
bigoted people. Is that white supremacist racism they placed before

(14:57):
everything else, including profit ability. So we'll see, right, like
the election results bear that out. They put it before profitability,
they put it before solidarity, They put it before their religion.
They had to pick between the followings of Jesus Christ

(15:19):
or the followings of Donald Trump. And there's no overlap.
The Venn diagram has no crossover, and they picked the
other one. Yea, Christians like the Christian Church as an organization,
like that, racism is powerful. Women chose MAGA over solidarity

(15:42):
with women. Almost half of Hispanics chose chose MAGA over
solidarity with other Hispanics and black people. Some black people
chose MAGA over being black. Yeah, you know what I mean.
So like some black men. Let me say that differently,
because black women showed up at an at an also

(16:07):
clip on the right side of this.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
If we would have won the election, it would have
been because black women were able to pull off the
saving of this country another time.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
Another time. So you know, what white supremacist racists have
shown us is that that is priority one in their lives.
It's the reason that they're able to have so much solidarity.
They all feel like the most important thing in the
world is that forget all the things that were not
on the same page about. They'll excuse it to death
like me and I years ago, And I'll never forget

(16:36):
this because we sat in the studio and watched this
video of a mother explaining to her twelve year old
daughter that grabbing them by the is okay, because she
would rather explain that to her daughter than walk back
her support for the man who said it. I was flabbergasted,
But we saw in that moment continuing to say because

(16:58):
she should, she could have pretended to not support them.
I need to say on camera that I support him
no matter what, and that is more important than my
daughter's understanding right now in real time that what he
said isn't okay. And then you had to watch her
daughters receive what mom said and then agree with it

(17:22):
because she's mom.

Speaker 1 (17:28):
Yeah, it's a It's interesting when people are kind of
in those moments, how they find a path to reconciling
all this stuff. They find a path to where somehow

(17:49):
they're not wrong, somehow what they've done is moral or just,
or they're a decent person. And watching them go through
the mental gymnastics and the intellectual dishonesty that they they
have to weave through in order to arrive there is

(18:11):
very interesting. There's something that we say on the show
quite a bit. That's a quote from Mark Twain. But
it's easier to fool somebody than it is to convince
somebody that they've been fooled. And I think that that's
kind of gives a similar insight into way to the
way the human brain works, especially if you've been properly
motivated by haar or hate. Yeah, and sometimes those are

(18:36):
two sides of the same coin. But you know what
I want to do for this episode, I want to
hear from somebody who maybe you voted for Donald Trump.
Maybe you did, you know, and maybe you also happen
to know about the Red Tails, maybe you saw the movie.
Maybe you are a proud black person and you know,

(19:01):
you're proud of our history and our contributions to this country,
and you just happen to think that, you know, a
conservative approach is better than a liberal approach in terms
of your politics, But you casted a vote for Donald
Trump and you knew all that was coming with it.

(19:22):
We certainly told you.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
So.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
If you're a longtime listener, there are no surprises here
for you either. But I'd love to hear from you.
I look to here from anyone, you know, but from
you in particular, because this is the fallout. This is
the ripple effect of this presidency. You know. And again,
anything that has to do with tax dollars, Donald Trump

(19:45):
more or less has some degree of control over. So
this doesn't stop at the Air Force. This filters all
the way down into the schools or children my son's age.
What they're going to learn in school is going to
be fundamentally shaped by an agenda that would rather his

(20:12):
the history of his people be left out. And the
way that they'll say it on the right is, oh, well,
there's no such thing as black history. It's all American history.
But you know, this person that I want to reach out,
you know that when they lump our history in with
American history, they are going to have to edit it down,

(20:32):
and the parts that get edited are our parts. They
think that American history is George Washington. They think that
American history is you know, Vietnam. They don't think that
American history is the bus boycotts in Montgomery they don't
think American history is Jim Crow. They don't think that.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
On a federal level. Trying to get rid of Black
History Month in MLK Day shows you what they really think. Again,
they're not trying to fool us in any way. They're
not trying to blindfold us and sneak something by us
in the dead of night. No, they're showing us exactly
how they feel and exactly what they intend to do,
right out in front of us.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
So, like I said, if you've got something to offer,
you reach out. I'd love to hear your take on this.
Explain it to me, make it make sense. Yeah, let's
talk about it. You can do so using the red
microphone talkback feature on the iHeartRadio app, or you can
reach me on all social media at Ramsey's Jaw.

Speaker 2 (21:31):
I am q Ward on all social media as well
and until we Talk Peace.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
This has been a production of the Black Information Network.
Today's show is produced by Chris Thompson. Have some thoughts
you'd like to share, use the red microphone talkback feature
on the iHeartRadio app. While you're there, be sure to
hit subscribing down. With all of our episodes, I am
your host Ramsey's Jah on all social media. Join us
tomorrow as we share our news with our voice from
our perspective right here on the Black Information Network Daily

(21:58):
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