Ever since a U.S. military cemetery in the southern Netherlands removed two displays recognizing Black troops who helped to liberate Europe from the Nazis, visitors have filled the guestbook with objections.

Sometime in the spring, the American Battle Monuments Commission, the U.S. government agency responsible for maintaining memorial sites outside of the United States, removed the panels from the visitors center at the American Cemetery in Margraten, the final resting place for roughly 8,300 U.S. soldiers, set in rolling hills near the border with Belgium and Germany.

  • PearOfJudes@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    21 hours ago

    People who were discriminated against in their own country and still fought and died for that same country deserve recognition and respect.

    How is this not just removing history like taking down the colonising genocidal white nationalist statues are?

  • Kirp123@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    140
    ·
    2 days ago

    Of course the locals are pissed. Those soldiers died to help free them from fascists and today’s fascists spit on them. A lot of US soldiers are buried on European soil and many of graves are cared for by locals as thanks for their sacrifice. Fucking pathetic from the Trump regime.

  • FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    57
    ·
    1 day ago

    I will never, for the life of me, ever understand why anyone would ever care about the skin color of a person willing to risk their own life for another person’s safety.

  • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    102
    ·
    2 days ago

    After months of mystery around the disappearance of the panels, two media organizations — the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and online media Dutch News — this month published emails obtained through a U.S. Freedom of Information Act request showing that Trump’s DEI policies directly prompted the commission to take down the panels

    Earlier this year, the US ambassador said the signs were “on rotation”. I’m completely unsurprised that was a lie.

    • D_C@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      47
      ·
      2 days ago

      Technicalities.
      The panels are on rotation…it’s just they have been rotated to the rubbish dump because tRUMP and anyone, that’s ANYONE, who works for or supports him are vile disgusting scum. The end.

      • asRomeBurns1979@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        28
        ·
        2 days ago

        I work at a FTSE 100 in London. My black colleagues reaction to the pushback on DEI from the right has just been so depressing. They’re not remotely surprised and seemed to have suspected that this ill will was there all along. The west really was just putting makeup on a dog all these years wasn’t it.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 day ago

          I don’t think anyone should be surprised that the all-white party in the two party system was racist to the core, I’m just surprised so many people in the nominal middle have accepted that as just an acceptable political stance to hold openly rather than as lightly concealed dog whistles. This should be a single issue deal breaker that triggers immediate and increasingly vociferous opposition, not just one issue among many that’s not important if some college student asks you for your pronouns.

        • foo@feddit.uk
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          1 day ago

          The racist scum never went away, they just felt less confident to speak their warped minds openly. Trump and his MAGA cultists have emboldened the scum to be more overt with their hate. It’s really depressing to see society slide backwards like this. We need to stay strong and weather the storm in the hope that when some kind of normality returns these folk are held to account.

          • rosco385@lemmy.wtf
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            22 hours ago

            Trump and his ilk are just a symptom, not the disease itself. The rot in American politics started long before Don was a twinkle in Fred’s eye.

          • LucidNightmare@lemmy.dbzer0.com
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 day ago

            It’s because we didn’t put them down like the rabid dogs they are. We actually gave them security if they worked for us instead, and anger and hatred are seemingly passed down the family.

        • notabot@piefed.social
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 day ago

          It will take several generations of this sort of behaviour being vigerously crushed for it to go away for good. You need to wait for everyone who was alive when it was acceptable, and those who listened to them, to die. Only then is there a chance for a better way to fully take root without being poisoned by what came before.

    • azimir@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 days ago

      The same as any other conservative policy: “fuck you, stop us if you can”

    • homes@piefed.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      24
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Cruelty. That is the one and only reason behind anything Republicans do.

      To hurt people. They cum to it.

  • Bazell@lemmy.zip
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    21
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Black troops? Is this some kind of military term or simply dark-skinned people? If the second, then it is unreasonable racism.

      • Bazell@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        1 day ago

        Amazing. I was thinking that racism in the USA is going down, but it seems like it only goes up again.

        • AA5B@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          14
          ·
          1 day ago

          There are a lot of questionable ideas and practices that were gradually going away, until this administration brought forth all the worst in humanity and turned them into pawns in a personality cult. Since it actually started in office, the calendars been turning back the years to worse eras