After World War 2, the troops returned home to a heroes’ welcome.
A grateful Congress passed the G.I. Bill bestowing benefits that enabled them to attend college and buy homes, which provided millions a path into the middle class.
If they were white.
The law itself wasn’t discriminatory. Rather, there was de facto discrimination in how the program was administered. The Hill explains (here) that “because the process to receive the benefits went through local Veteran Affairs offices, many Black soldiers, especially in the Jim Crow South, were never able to access the aid they deserved.” That helped keep big swaths of America’s black population in poverty.
Today, if a high school teacher in Texas tells his students about that in a classroom, he’s breaking a Republican-enacted law. The full wrath of the ignorant hicks who run that state (and run out black school principals) will descend upon him. White parents will scream at school boards demanding his firing. They call it “teaching critical race theory.”
It’s not like America doesn’t have a history of systemic racism.
Another story (here) by The Hill on Thursday, November 11, 2021 — Veterans Day — reported a poll showing “43 percent of survey-takers that identified as Republicans said that they are against the teaching of historical racism in public schools.” Of course they are.
They don’t want their kids to find out their great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents all were, and are, racists.