The Continuing Civil War for America's Soul

I turned on “The War” by Ken Burns the other night. The film is a 7-Part documentary about World War II and appears much in the style of “The Civil War,” one of Burns’ earlier documentaries. I own a copy of the latter documentary and have watched yearly for much of the past decade.

As I was watching “The War,” I turned to the Internet to do a bit of research on it. Through several articles and web sites, I found out that when the documentary was completed, a group of Hispanic Americans began protesting that Burns did not single out and interview Hispanic Americans who fought in the war, despite his focus on other minority groups.

In his defense, Burns stated, "We could not have told the story of the Second World War if we burdened ourselves with seeking every single group." Burns also stated that no Hispanic groups approached him during his six years of filming despite widespread advertising in the towns he filmed in.

After initial resistance, it appears that Burns has acquiesced to adding another half hour to the 15-hour series. The additional half-hour features two interviews from Hispanic Americans and one from a Native American. These segments were prepared by a Hispanic director.

Now that Burns has given in to the demands of those demanding he change his work to reflect the Latino American contribution, those same people are asking whether the additions will be a “meaningful” addition or whether this is just “white-washing.” Others are planning protests in various places throughout the United States.

As I watched the first installment of the series the other night, it was clear where Mr. Burns’ work ended and where the supplemental material began. The new section started with some text on the screen about how each soldier had his unique story to tell. The first man to be interviewed talked about the racial oppression he faced from Texans in the marines and how he didn’t learn to speak English until he was14, despite the fact that he grew up outside Los Angeles. He also talked about how he wanted to fight for his country and could do just as good a job “as any blue-eyed blond-haired boy.”

I turned it off.

Looking back, Ken Burns series on the Civil War was a groundbreaking and heart-wrenching piece of American History that profoundly affected my life and helped shape my conception of what it means to be an American. I’m not joking. It has had that much of an effect on my life. As I’ve watched the documentary again and again over the years (no small feat considering its 10-hour plus running time), I’ve tried to come to grips with my own racial shortcomings, and I’ve tried to better understand the questions we face in America today.

Now, I find myself stunned by the charges against Burns. As I watch his new documentary, I notice that rather than reeking of racial antipathy or ignorance, Burns’ work appears intensively sensitive and revealing of the problems that America faced with racism during the war period. It is sadly ironic that despite the already clear efforts in the first episode of his newest documentary to focus on racial tensions in the 40s, Burns himself is being charged with racism because he happened to miss one group who didn’t feel they were adequately represented by the term “American” and had to have their story exclusively told. Then this same group took their outrage further and exerted enough pressure on his finished work and eventually forced him to include the work of someone else to satisfy their racial identity.

No one is happy with today’s result. Not Burns, nor those who initially protested the documentary.

I have several questions for those who protested. How much coverage is enough? In the next documentary, will another race step up and say its voice isn’t heard? Do they have a right to change the final product? What about the other groups in this documentary? As Burns himself concedes, German-Americans and female war veterans (not to mention merchant marines and submariners) are left unrepresented, and yet the war undoubtedly had a profound impact on these groups’ lives. My grandmother was 100% full-blooded German and lived through the war years in America. Where is her story? Does she and others like her have a right to protest? According to MSNBC, Hispanics made up 1.4 percent of the population at the time of World War II. What gives them the right to demand their story is heard? Or more specifically, what gives them the right to say their story is so different from mine that they can force an artist/director to single them out as a different group and demand a different voice in this documentary? The show has only a limited running time (hard to believe perhaps, but even Ken Burns Documentaries can’t run forever). What else gets cut when an another offended group prevails? And who decides?

Please understand. I have nothing against Hispanics, nor do I wish to belittle the immense contribution they clearly made to the War effort (more than half a million fought) or their contribution to American culture in general. Living in El Paso, Texas, I am personally aware and I very much admire what we have gained as Americans from Hispanic culture. But I believe that what has happened in this particular situation is close to tragic.

I truly wonder in the future how we as Americans will survive if – instead of persistently seeking common ground – we continue to be obsessed with “celebrating our differences.”

For one protestor of the film, only complete representation of all Americans along racial lines will be enough.

“For me, what would make me really happy is a documentary that really and truly celebrates America’s diversity,” she said. “One that (doesn't) just (look) seriously at the contributions of Chinese-Americans, Japanese-Americans, African-Americans, but (at) Filipinos, women in uniform, Latinos. We’re really disturbed that this program and this book will be in schools and libraries as a definitive source of information about this period in history — and we’re missing.”

Meanwhile, Mr. Burns sees a different solution.

"We spend our entire lives consumed with that which makes me different and yet the purpose of art is to try to suggest ways we come together," Burns said.

Mr. Burns, here is one American who agrees with you.