APOLLO II ASTRONAUTS: ICONIC HEROES OR RACISTS? OR BOTH?

As I watched President Obama give a welcoming speech for and to the Apollo 11 astronauts, Neil Armstong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins, at the White House on this 40th anniversary and celebration of the historic 1969 landing on the moon, I reflected on the February 1984 article that I read as a young Air Force airmen chronlicing the racism that was experienced by one of the first black astronauts, Dwight Edward Jr and others, that permeated the Air Force Space pilot training and NASA astronaut training programs, respectively and collectively. In the Ebony February 1984, Dwight described his fall into racism: “It’s like being out into a storm without knowing that it’s coming.” He described himself as naive, and summed up his space training as a nightmare.

As the three astronauts stood in a single file along side President Obama as he gave his speech I was wondering just what was going through the four men's minds.Were the astronauts thinking to themselves" back in the sixties while undergoing training I/we did everything we could individually and collectively to prevent a "black" man from becoming an astronaut and especially from being the first man or one of the first men to walk on the moon." Now Isn't it ironic that some forty years later, we are visiting the White House to be ceremoniously honored by a "black" president. And President Obama on the other hand was probably thinking to himself: "I am the first "black" president of the USA and here I am having to honor these four racist astronauts that did everything they could to make life a "hell" on earth for the first black astronaut trainees."

I wonder if either of those "so called heroes" have ever thought about apologizing to their fellow black astronauts-those that are living- or to the families of those that are deceased. And even to the US black community as a whole? I cringed with a chilling bit of anger as I watched the three men standing besides President Obama making reminiscent speeches and receiving accolades. What "hypocrites," I thought to myself!

Probably even more shocking to the three astronaut elders was when President Obama recently announced his long-awaited nomination for NASA administrator,the former astronaut and retired Marine Corps general,Charles F. Bolden Jr., to be the first African-American to head the space agency. General Bolden was recently confirmed by the Senate on Wednesday, July 15, 2009.
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Read more at:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/05/26/obama-picks-a-former-astronaut-to-be-the-first-black-nasa-chief/