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>This was only made possible by enormous federal subsidies for returning soldiers White soldiers, both via black soldiers being excluded from the GI Bill, and

>This was only made possible by enormous federal subsidies for returning soldiers White soldiers, both via black soldiers being excluded from the GI Bill, and Levittown's own restrictive whites-only covenant. These racist limitations greatly reduced the necessary subsidies.

spennant 7y ago
You beat me to it rhizome...
freddie_mercury 7y ago
I'll one up you: white male soldiers Women soldiers were also excluded from the GI Bill.
- desdiv 7y ago
  These sources disagrees with you: >Women veterans, it turned out, were even more interested than their male counterparts in obtaining a college degree; more than 19.5% of 332,178 eligible women veterans elected to attend college after the war as compared to 15% of 15 million eligible male veterans. [0] https://www.womensmemorial.org/history-highlight https://www.womensmemorial.org/history-highlight >African Americans and women were entitled to the same benefits as white men under the GI Bill, but often faced difficulty trying to claim their benefits due to discrimination. [1] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/postwar-era/a/african-americans-women-and-the-gi-bill https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera... To summarize: 1. Women veteran had the same education benefits as their male counterparts under the law. 2. However, women veteran faced discrimination when trying claim their benefits. 3. Despite the discrimination, women veterans still managed to attend college at a higher rate than male veterans.
  - freddie_mercury 7y ago
    WAACs and WASPs wore military uniforms but were designated as civilians and didn't were counted as veterans until 1977 when Congress retroactively granted them veteran status.
googlemike 7y ago
From wikipedia: From December 1942 until VJ-day there were relatively few enlistments into the armed forces as restrictions against the direct recruiting of men in the age group acceptable for service (18-37) were in effect. There were, however, 483,605 other enlistments into the Army and Navy during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, but only 1.3 percent were African Americans. Although African Americans constitute approximately 11 percent of the population, aged 18 through 37, only 0.8 percent of Army enlistees and 1.4 percent of Navy enlistees during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, were of that race. So, sounds like the white part doesn't matter too much? Yes it was terrible that they were excluded from the GI bill, but only a very small fraction of soldiers in ww2 were black. It was very unlikely they would have made a difference in the outcome of such suburbs.
- TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
  You say it doesn’t matter, and then immediately say it was terrible. Which is it? May have had an impact on those 6,286 African Americans who were excluded.
  - AnimalMuppet 7y ago
    Of course. And it's an just just as unjust if it only excludes one. And yet, it's a smaller injustice if it's only 0.8% than if it's 11%. As unjust, but a smaller injustice.
    - rhizome 7y ago
      It's a greater injustice that a minority had even the meager crumbs offered by the system stolen by white people kicking them while they're down. You're focusing only on the raw numbers of people rather than the the effect on everybody of that community. You can bet if 10% of white people had the same discrimination visited upon them that police, lawyers, and legislation would be involved tout suite. Read up on mortgage redlining during the most prosperous period of the 20th century keeping people out of the progress enjoyed by the majority. Injustice is not zero sum, don't use arguments from proportion when there is a fraught history and politics that makes continuing the discrimination much, much worse than if it was one white person against another white person.
nyolfen 7y ago
this isn't my domain of expertise, but the wikipedia article on the subject notes discrimination in housing loans after the war but does not seem to indicate that blacks were actually excluded from the GI bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I._Bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I....
- rhizome 7y ago
  It was de facto due to redlining and restrictive covenants.
  - nyolfen 7y ago
    okay, but that is not the same as being excluded from the GI bill

spennant 7y ago

You beat me to it rhizome...

freddie_mercury 7y ago

I'll one up you: white male soldiers Women soldiers were also excluded from the GI Bill.

desdiv 7y ago
These sources disagrees with you: >Women veterans, it turned out, were even more interested than their male counterparts in obtaining a college degree; more than 19.5% of 332,178 eligible women veterans elected to attend college after the war as compared to 15% of 15 million eligible male veterans. [0] https://www.womensmemorial.org/history-highlight https://www.womensmemorial.org/history-highlight >African Americans and women were entitled to the same benefits as white men under the GI Bill, but often faced difficulty trying to claim their benefits due to discrimination. [1] https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/postwar-era/a/african-americans-women-and-the-gi-bill https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera... To summarize: 1. Women veteran had the same education benefits as their male counterparts under the law. 2. However, women veteran faced discrimination when trying claim their benefits. 3. Despite the discrimination, women veterans still managed to attend college at a higher rate than male veterans.
- freddie_mercury 7y ago
  WAACs and WASPs wore military uniforms but were designated as civilians and didn't were counted as veterans until 1977 when Congress retroactively granted them veteran status.

googlemike 7y ago

From wikipedia: From December 1942 until VJ-day there were relatively few enlistments into the armed forces as restrictions against the direct recruiting of men in the age group acceptable for service (18-37) were in effect. There were, however, 483,605 other enlistments into the Army and Navy during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, but only 1.3 percent were African Americans. Although African Americans constitute approximately 11 percent of the population, aged 18 through 37, only 0.8 percent of Army enlistees and 1.4 percent of Navy enlistees during the period July 1, 1944, to June 30, 1945, were of that race. So, sounds like the white part doesn't matter too much? Yes it was terrible that they were excluded from the GI bill, but only a very small fraction of soldiers in ww2 were black. It was very unlikely they would have made a difference in the outcome of such suburbs.

TheSpiceIsLife 7y ago
You say it doesn’t matter, and then immediately say it was terrible. Which is it? May have had an impact on those 6,286 African Americans who were excluded.
- AnimalMuppet 7y ago
  Of course. And it's an just just as unjust if it only excludes one. And yet, it's a smaller injustice if it's only 0.8% than if it's 11%. As unjust, but a smaller injustice.
  - rhizome 7y ago
    It's a greater injustice that a minority had even the meager crumbs offered by the system stolen by white people kicking them while they're down. You're focusing only on the raw numbers of people rather than the the effect on everybody of that community. You can bet if 10% of white people had the same discrimination visited upon them that police, lawyers, and legislation would be involved tout suite. Read up on mortgage redlining during the most prosperous period of the 20th century keeping people out of the progress enjoyed by the majority. Injustice is not zero sum, don't use arguments from proportion when there is a fraught history and politics that makes continuing the discrimination much, much worse than if it was one white person against another white person.

nyolfen 7y ago

this isn't my domain of expertise, but the wikipedia article on the subject notes discrimination in housing loans after the war but does not seem to indicate that blacks were actually excluded from the GI bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I._Bill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_and_the_G.I....

rhizome 7y ago
It was de facto due to redlining and restrictive covenants.
- nyolfen 7y ago
  okay, but that is not the same as being excluded from the GI bill