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Soldier Blue

Michael C. Keith

We’re all colored, or you wouldn’t be
able to see anyone.

–– Don Van Vliet

    News of the Ole Miss riot between segregationists and federal forces reached Corporal Barry Holmes at his military base in South Korea. The fact that the country he had volunteered to serve continued to treat people of color as inferior beings gnawed at him and spurred his anger.
    “Look here, Louis. We’re over here freezing our colored butts off to keep our country safe, and they won’t even let us enroll in college back home because our skin ain’t white,” decried Barry, holding up the Army Times.
    “Yeah, that’s not right. I’m sick of being treated like a second-class citizen by the country I took an oath to protect. Why should I put my life on the line when I don’t get the same rights that white folks get?”
    “When we get back to the States, we can’t even stay in the same hotels or eat in the same restaurants as whites do if we’re down South. How crazy is that, man?”
    “We must be stupid to be in the U.S. Army. If we were soldiers in other countries we wouldn’t be treated differently when we got discharged. They wouldn’t make us sit in the back of the bus or drink from separate water fountains.”
    “Well, it ain’t as bad for you as it is me, Louis.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Being black is worse, man. Let me tell you.”
    “Hey, you should try walking in my shoes, bro. Then you’d know what it’s like being blue.”

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