Weird practices of WW2

[malthaussen]

Last edited Mon May 1, 2023, 06:34 PM - Edit history (1)

Reading the War Diary of USS Maury (DD-401) of WW2, and came upon the following entry: "Carter, Fred (n), 618-28-78, AS(V6), USNR, was injured in line of duty..."
For those who don't know, the " (n) " appended to Fred Carter's name was the Navy's way of indicating in official documents that the man was a "Negro." This has always puzzled me.
I mean, why? Why was it necessary to know that the man who (in this case) broke his leg was a "Negro?" Didn't he bleed the same as his mates? I've never understood why some idiot in BuPers thought it was necessary, in the segregated Navy, to mention a fellow's race in all official documents. Nobody was going to read the bloody things anyway, except weird people like me who find such documents endlessly interesting.
I'd just say that, if any evidence were needed that racial prejudice is irrational, this quaint practice does exactly that.

-- Mal

[Aristus]

1. Donated blood for the war effort was segregated by 'black donor vs white donor'.

There were even white patients and white wounded soldiers who wanted reassurance that the blood transfusion they were about to receive didn't come from a black donor.

Just in case we didn't think the days of racial segregation were already bad enough.

[Sneederbunk]

2. Have you ever filled out a census questionnaire?