Jess Doll's Sahara Reflection
According to the reading "Good War, Race War," the film Sahara was deemed "radical" because of the way the African American character, Tamdul, was depicted. Not only was he "equal" to the white Americans but he was also a hero for his acts of bravery during the film. This "equality" was unusual to see because during WWII the military was segregated, thus many African Americans who wanted to help the war effort cooked meals, rarely making it to battle.
While the film Sahara shed African Americans in a better light than most WWII films, it still managed to illustrate the racism of that time period, in subtle ways. For example, once captured, the Nazi soldier refuses to be searched by the African American soldier stating, "I don't want to be searched by an inferior race." Later in the movie, Tamdul was confronted about his "multiple wives", a stereotype assumed by the other soldiers in his platoon. Later to find out he had one wife just like them.
After reading "Good War, Race War" and hearing the personal stories of each platoon (specifically Manchester's memoir), it is a shame that the military did not desegregate during WWII. I say this because Manchester's platoon was like a "melting pot" and despite all the different ethnicities of the soldiers, they bonded on such a high level that Manchester said, " [We] didn't fight for [the] flag or [the] country . . . we fought for one another." Author of "Good War, Race War" Gary Gerstle makes the suggestion that if black men and white men had the chance to fight alongside one another in battle, the bond they could have formed may have helped to break down the vicious walls of racism. "When German shells and bombs are raining about them, they do not worry as much about the race or creed of the man next to them, Walter White (NAACP chairmen-1944).