Five Reads on Race Relations & Public Diplomacy

In recent weeks, Americans have increasingly recognized the need for structural reform in order to stamp out anti-Black racism and bias in its current political and economic systems. 

CPD shares five reads that examine various facets of how race relations in the U.S. impact international relations and public diplomacy.

Rydell - All the World's a Fair

Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy
By: Mary Duziak
(Princeton University Press, 2011)
In analyzing the connection between the Civil Rights Movement and the Cold War, Mary Duziak illustrates how international perceptions of racial injustice in America ultimately prompted the United States to address the civil rights issue.

Rydell - All the World's a Fair

African Americans in U.S. Foreign Policy: From the Era of Frederick Douglass to the Age of Obama
By: Linda Heywood, Allison Blakely, Charles Stith, and Joshua C. Yesnowitz
(University of Illinois Press, 2015)
This collection of essays, speeches and other archival materials shed light on the contributions of Black contributions to U.S. foreign policy.

Bearing Witness While Black
By: Allissa V. Richardson
(Oxford University Press, 2020)
USC Annenberg faculty Allissa Richardson discusses the history of Black voices in journalism and storytelling with social change, from slave narratives in the 1700s inspiring calls for abolition to smartphone recordings that sparked the anti-police brutality movement.

What Black America Means to Europe
By: Gary Younge
(The New York Review of Books / NYR Daily, 6 June 2020)
British Journalist Gary Younge examines the relationship between Black Americans and Europeans, while taking a critical look at Europe’s perceptions and biases of its own racial inequality.

Foreign Policy By Example: Crisis at Home Makes the United States Vulnerable Abroad
By: Richard Haass
(Foreign Affairs, 5 June 2020)
With the U.S. grappling with COVID-19, a recession and antiracism protests, veteran diplomat and Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass outlines how America’s struggles emboldens rival powers and casts doubt on global prospects for democracy.

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