5th October 2004, 3:38 PM
The circumstances of the time explain things... are they excuses? Tough question. The fact is that to the majority of Americans in the 1940s it wasn't racism. Racism was whites and blacks... look at the book of cartoons "Dr. Seuss" did during WWII -- he was strongly anti-racism but made a few cartoons that were racist towards Asians. It was ingrained and unconcious in many cases. Does this excuse it? Not really. But it explains it... and also, you have to be careful about applying today's morals and beliefs to earlier periods. They don't always fit. Obviously here people should have known better, but it didn't happen... it was wrong and bad but it's the way it was.