German-American farmer tarred and feathered at the height of anti-German bigotry in the USA, WW1, 1918 NSFW

59 points · 4 comments · view on lemmy.world

4 Comments

PugJesus@kbin.social · 23 pts · 2y (3 replies)

Part of the reason why WW2 didn't spark the same level of anti-German backlash is because many who were beginning their political careers during WW1 were horrified at the anti-German bigotry that arose during WW1; and thus when WW2 came around, made sure to portray the WW2 German government as tyrannizing the German people, rather than synonymous with them.

Apparently, though, that wasn't a concern for Japanese-Americans, who got to 'enjoy' the weight of US 1940s racism.

sukhmel@programming.dev · 11 pts · 2y

I sometimes feel that when we as humanity try to learn some lessons from the past we act like a jinn taking wishes too literally. Like okay, now if that's a German citizen, in the USA, we're going to treat them okay. We will not if that's not the USA (like the UK did), or not German ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pelletbucket@lemm.ee · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

they put Italians in internment camps as well

PugJesus@kbin.social · 1 pts · 2y

Far fewer, not systematically; mostly unnaturalized immigrants and those with connections to the Italian government. Many of them were released before the war's end. But yes.