August 9, 2020

The silent enemy is often the most deadly enemy. The United States of America learned this in the Vietnam War. By all measurements, the U.S. military should have obliterated the North Vietnamese army.

The United States ultimately withdrew from the war. North Vietnamese soldiers utilized guerrilla warfare to defeat their heavily-funded enemies. The jungle was their playground. They hid, they crept and they finally attacked.

For John King, a military man himself, racism is the silent enemy. “I’d rather be in the combat zone right now, with bullets flying over my head. At least I’m trained and prepared for this and I can defend myself,” said King.

John King is comfortable on the battlefield. He knows he can lose his life at any moment, however he’s prepared for it. He has years of training. He has weapons to defend himself and he has comrades that took an oath of loyalty. But once back in America, John King has none of that.

King was born and raised in Haiti. His father moved to the states when he was just an infant. King followed suit when he was 15-years-old. He attended high school in Brentwood, New York.

A quick Google search of “Brentwood, New York” yields Wikipedia as the top hit. Wikipedia verbatim describes Brentwood “as a hamlet in Town of Islip in Suffolk County.” From that description, you’d think Brentwood was a quaint town near the Long Island South Shore. If you keep browsing, you’ll see two headlines that paint Brentwood in a different light. This is not Brentwood, California, the affluent neighborhood where O.J. Simpson killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. This is Brentwood, New York.

A New York Times headline about Brentwood reads, “‘They Keep Finding Bodies’. Gang Violence in Long Island Town Fuels Immigration Debate.” Another headline from News 12 reads, “Gangs on Long Island: Brentwood community seeks solution to gang problem.”

I mention this to illustrate the environment King was thrown into. For many people arriving, this environment would be a horror. But for King, this was what he was used to seeing. The place he was raised and the new town he was thrust into shared similarities. The poverty and the lack of white people were factors in both places. If there was any racism, King didn’t see it. There weren’t enough white people around for it to be exhibited.

King finished up school and elected to go straight into the military. “I wanted a challenge, I wanted to serve. I wanted to become a part of this country, become a citizen, so I think the best way to earn it, is to earn it,” said King.

King recalls first learning and understanding what racism was in the military. Out of 80 people in his platoon, there were only a handful of black people and they were the butt of the jokes. Despite this, King would still die for his “brothers” as he calls them. “You may say some racist jokes here and there, but at the end of the day you know, I’ll still take a bullet for you. You are my brother,” said King.

He spent six years in the Marine Corps, came home, went to St. John’s University and established himself as a hardworking career-orientated man. The sly racism he experienced in the military was nothing compared to what he experienced once he settled back in the states. He grew stronger, both physically and mentally. He was more confident and more aware of his surroundings. But with that awareness, came the realization that the “land of the free and home of the brave” was merely bullshit.

“I know I’m an immigrant of this country, but I believed I earned my citizenship. It wasn’t given to me. I literally had to put my life on the line for it, blood, sweat, and tears for it and to come home and to be treated like this. It doesn’t any sense,” said King.

The video below circulated the internet a couple months ago.

It shows D.C. National Guardsman Khaled Abdelghany whispering the words, “I’m black and I’m proud,” as BLM protestors surround him. Abdelghany’s testimonial can be found here.

Abdelghany and King share similar sentiments. When they take the uniform off they are black men. And in the United States of America black men are systematically oppressed. The grand question is whether these black men would still serve their country knowing the truths of what is really going on. For King, a Haitian immigrant, it’s different. He didn’t know what he was walking into. He was naive about the horrors of America. I can’t speak for Abdelghany, but I know the military is one of the few options for black men trying to advance themselves.

Would King still serve? His answer is somewhere in the middle. “If I would have known, what I know now, I wouldn’t say I wouldn’t do it, but I would think a lot harder about doing it. Who knows? I probably wouldn’t fucking do it to be quite honest. What’s the point of sacrificing my life for this country when this country doesn’t even want to recognize my basic rights?” said King.

There is a distinction on what it means to be proud as an American and to be proud as a Veteran. “I’ll never say that I regret it. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done for me as a person. It grew me into the man that I am today. I went to a 250k school with a five year program and I never paid a dime of it. I got so much benefit out of that, I’m not going to sit here and be a hypocrite,” said King.

His admiration for the military is profound. He speaks of his fallen brothers and the values he learned in the military with great revere. But he speaks about America with great disdain. “I’m not going to do shit for 4th of July, but my love for Veterans Day is not going to change. The day is for the people I fought with, that I have a bond with. That will never change,” said King.

John King is a Haitian immigrant who “did it the right way.” He recognizes the difference between respect for the military and respect for the United States of America. He is a proud Veteran, but will never be a proud American, unless change is enacted. And that change is needed now.