HISTORY II: THE WEHRMACHT

HISTORY II: THE WEHRMACHT
REDMOND QUINN
I am proud of the colour of my skin, proud of what my ancestors sacrificed to ensure I could live my life as I do today.

There will always be exceptions to any rule, class, and there is nothing sweeter than those with outdated, bigoted views being that exception, whereas previously the roles were reversed. There have been many men, women and children of non-Caucasian descent from many cultures that have suffered. From the slave trade to the apartheid to modern day internet-anonymous hate culture mislabelled as “lefty snowflakes with their safe spaces”; those of colour have always seemed to be forced onto a back foot.

But those battles have weathered our skin and toughened our minds, strengthened our spirit and reinforced our resolve, and the beauty is that the hate that generations of people “like me” have had to endure has only made us stronger. Strong enough to know right and wrong. Strong enough to see through the lies to the truth.

Black men, women and children now sit in a position of being on the front foot instead, uprooting the whole aim of the bigoted minority. Not only do most sane people now see us as their equals, but we are now better placed to deal with hate than ever before.

We are strong, and we see the truth.

Unlike Wolfgang.

Wolfgang is neither of those things. He is weak and he has been blinded by untruths. His brain cannot comprehend the variety of life and so he boils things down to the basics. Forgive me for this pun that only testifies to my profession but he can only see in black and white.

Wolfgang leads the Fourth Reich with aplomb, believing in his own cause, deifying those that tread the same paths before him. Adolf Hitler and the proliferation of the Third Reich must have been his bread and butter. “Mein Kampf” must have been his bible.

But he is so blinded by his hate that simple facts escape him.

I presume he has heard of the Wehrmacht, but you may not have class, so let me teach you.

The Nazis were notoriously anti-Semitic and sought to empower the Aryan race by any means necessary, including mass genocide through concentration camps and gas chambers. But Wolfgang has used this basis to push against black people.

The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Germany. The Army, Navy and Air Force rolled in to one. The Wehrmacht enlisted black German men in their ranks. Black German men fought alongside white German men in the Third Reich. And if the Third Reich fell, and their leader committed suicide even with the help of the Black men that were tough and strong through their tribulations, what hope does Wolfgang have without the black community?

Just like Adolf and his evil regime were resigned to history books, so will Wolfgang and his cheap pound-shop rip-off.

I have told him many times that the time is always right to do the right thing. Maybe the right thing is to give him a helping hand into those history books.